Big sound from a small soundbar
The $349 Flexus Core 100 is a small but surprisingly powerful soundbar. It can fill your living room with strong bass and crisp highs, though with 2.1 channels that feature stereo drivers located relatively close together, it can’t provide very accurate spatial audio imaging even with Dolby Atmos support. It also lacks Wi-Fi streaming capabilities like Apple AirPlay that many competitors offer, such as our Editors’ Choice winner for affordable soundbars, the $179.99 Roku Streambar Pro. Still, its audio quality is good and it can be expanded with additional speakers for true surround, and those aspects make it an appealing way to enhance your home theater experience.Design: A Small, Simple Soundbar
The Core 100 is a boxy black soundbar, and fairly small at just 3 by 28 by 5 inches (HWD). Its front and sides are completely covered in wraparound black grille cloth, and a white alphanumeric LED display can be seen behind the center of the front grille. Two metal grille panels sit on the top, flanking a wide, wood-textured surface with a strip of touch-sensitive controls (power, input, and volume up/down) on the right edge.
A recess on the back of the soundbar is loaded with ports, including power, HDMI, optical, USB-C, and subwoofer output, along with an infrared sensor, a USB-A slot for the Flexus Transport 100 wireless module that comes with Flexus subwoofers and surround satellites, and a pairing button.
The included remote is a hot dog-shaped black plastic wand with a circular pad near the top that serves as a volume rocker and mute button, and power and LED brightness buttons further up. Input buttons for TV (HDMI), Digital (optical audio), and Bluetooth sit below the pad along with a play/pause button. Mode and bass/surround adjustment buttons sit in the last row.
Besides the included remote and your TV remote’s volume controls over HDMI, you can manage the Core 100 with the Klipsch Connect Plus app for Android and iOS. It’s a simple app that offers all of the same controls as the physical remote, along with a three-band EQ that includes five presets and a custom setting. The app also lets you update the soundbar’s firmware and set up satellites and a subwoofer to work with it.
Like most modern soundbars, including all spatial audio-compatible models, the Core 100 is designed primarily to be used over eARC. You can connect your TV over optical audio, but that method doesn’t support spatial audio mixes and has a lower maximum bitrate than HDMI.
