With the way that tech has been evolving throughout the past few years, it is no surprise that nowadays, products that would’ve cost a premium back then are now readily available at affordable prices to the masses.
PRISM+ is most notable for their affordable monitors, but they’ve since branched out to many other devices, including soundbars. We were recently offered a chance to test out the PRISM+ Ripple, one of their newer soundbars, and we jumped at the opportunity to see how good it can be.
Design and Features
The PRISM+ Ripple isn’t necessarily a small soundbar, with slim, small form factor soundbars among the options that you might chance across nowadays. However, measuring 1050mm x 110mm x 73mm, it will be able to perfectly fit on most TV consoles.
It comes in a traditional metallic black finish that looks sleek and minimalistic right out of the box, meaning that for simple setups, it fits right in. The only problem is that the finish makes it somewhat of a fingerprint magnet, so for those who are rather particular about this might want to wipe it down with a cloth more frequently.
The PRISM+ Ripple also comes with a subwoofer; not something commonly included from the get-go — usually, you have to pay extra to add it on. Unfortunately, the subwoofer that comes with the soundbar is also rather big, measuring 240mm x 240mm x 420mm, meaning that space might be a little bit of an issue, though we countered this by placing it in a snug corner right beside our TV.
Similar to all of the soundbars that PRISM+ has released, the Ripple comes with Dolby Atmos, meaning that your listening experience is sure to be top-notch with it, for the depth, clarity and detail of your audio are bound to be on a whole new level.
The subwoofer comes with a 6.5” down-firing speaker, which enhances bass and allows you to “feel every beat more deeply than ever”. Meanwhile, the soundbar itself is equipped with 8 different speakers, advertised to deliver entertainment in its purest form.
On paper, the Ripple also has 5 curated audio profiles – Movie, Music, News, Sports and Gaming, which will change the bass and treble levels accordingly to ensure that specific shows or scenes have clearer vocals, or better environment sounds. However, if that doesn’t work for you, you can manually change the bass and treble levels with the TV remote.
Performance
When using and testing out the Ripple, we found that firstly, the bass emitted from the soundbar is extremely strong, with even the slightest bit felt in many different songs and movies. Additionally, this was with the bass only manually set at +1, which was a bit of a surprise to me.
On the other hand, vocals were rather muffled and unclear, so we had to crank up the treble manually to a +3 and also change the audio profile to “News”. This made vocals clearer, with whatever actors were saying in movies being better and more audible. But, unfortunately, it meant that the bass was sacrificed, leading to scenes feeling less impactful or tense than they would’ve been.
But does that mean that the Ripple isn’t any good for watching shows? Not exactly. Its good points can also be its downsides; the bass is amazing for tense and thrilling scenes, and Dolby Atmos really immerses you in the show. Take for example, the scene in Ford Vs Ferrari where driver Ken Miles wins Le Mans – The sound quality of the soundbar really makes you feel as if you were there, right at that moment when he won.
Just note that if you want to watch shows that generally have a lot of conversations, you might have to crank the treble up, or you could try out the other audio profiles, for each and every person has their own preference. It is unfortunate, but it seems you can’t have both bass and clear dialogue for films with the PRISM+ Ripple.
Music-wise, bass-heavy songs shine on the Ripple, with more notably, “Phonk”-style music sounding extra phonk-y on it. Meanwhile, other regular songs also get somewhat enhanced on the Ripple, but if you don’t happen to be a big fan of bass in general, fret not, for you can manually change the bass and treble frequencies.
In terms of games, it is similar to watching shows in that it amplifies the overall gaming environment and makes it feel as if you are really in the game itself, though other than that, there isn’t much else to take note of.
Another thing I liked about the Ripple was how easy it was to start using the soundbar. It is essentially a plug-and-play device that doesn’t require any complicated setup process. All you have to do is connect the appropriate wires, and you’re good to go.
Verdict
Overall, the PRISM+ Ripple is a decent mid-range choice of soundbar, coming in at an affordable price of S$499. If you want a soundbar that you can instantly plug in and start using, you should consider this.
Sometimes though, the strong default bass performance muffles the overall listening experience. There are also options out there which provide much better audio performance if you are willing to spare some extra coin.
If you would like to read more in-depth about the PRISM+ Ripple, you can take a look at their product page PRISM+ Official Product Page. Similarly, if you want to purchase one, you can also head to shopping platforms, Shopee or Lazada page.
Photos by Ryan Wong of the DANAMIC Team.
