Fidelio B97

Overview

The Fidelio B97 is a 2021 Philips soundbar. The bar is 1312 mm wide, 55.6 mm high and 120 mm deep, comes in black and can be wall-mounted. Philips lists each detachable speaker at 183 x 55.6 x 120 mm.

It is a 7.1.2 system: the two ends of the bar are detachable speakers that can be placed behind the listener as rear surrounds, and a wireless subwoofer with an 8-inch woofer is in the box. Philips lists centre, front, up-firing and side-firing drivers in the bar, and a total output of 888 W max (450 W RMS).

The TV connects over HDMI eARC or optical. The bar also has two HDMI inputs, a 3.5 mm aux input, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Over Wi-Fi it supports Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, built-in Chromecast and DTS Play-Fi multi-room, and works with Alexa and Google Assistant devices. Philips lists the sound modes Movie, Music, Voice, Sport and Custom, and the bar is controlled with its touch buttons, the remote control or the app on Android and iOS.

What the specs mean

• 7.1.2 speaker setup: seven main channels, a subwoofer channel and two height channels. The height channels come from up-firing drivers, and the two rear channels come from the detachable speakers.
• HDMI eARC: the enhanced Audio Return Channel sends the TV's sound to the soundbar over the HDMI cable, including high-bitrate formats such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
• HDMI passthrough (4K, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision): a console or streaming box connects to one of the two HDMI inputs, and the soundbar passes the picture on to the TV in 4K with these HDR formats, with HDCP 2.3 copy protection.
• Audio formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS:X, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-ES, DTS 96/24, DTS Digital Surround and LPCM. Philips states the bar switches to Dolby Surround for content that is not in Dolby Atmos.
• IMAX Enhanced: Philips lists the B97 as IMAX Enhanced certified.