Philips Fidelio 'surround on demand' SoundBar headed to Australia

Philips is launching its new Fidelio range in Australia, touting its Fidelio HTL9100 SoundBar Speaker as the first wireless detachable speakers with "real surround sound".

Shown off at CES 2013, the curved HTL9100 lets users detach two smaller speakers on the left and right of the SoundBar to move to the back or sides of a room, creating a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound experience.

The idea behind this concept, as told by Philips, is "surround on demand", which transforms TV-viewing or music streaming into a better audio experience for watching movies or playing video games in just moments by simply pulling out and moving the sensors.

The two detachable speakers are small and wireless, but still managed to sound powerful to our ears when Philips demonstrated it at a media event last night. When detached, the two smaller speakers have a battery life of 10 hours, recharging in 4 hours when docked on the main bar.

The Fidelio HTL9100 SoundBar Speaker will be on sale from this month with a premium price tag of $999.

Philips will also have the cheaper non-Fidelio HTL3120 SoundBar, without the fancy detachable speakers, in stores from July for $299. It will, however, also have an orientation sensor and Bluetooth wireless music streaming like the HTL9100.

Porta-sound

Philips will be launching the S1 and S2 Fidelio in-ear headphones in Australia as well, which it had also shown off at CES earlier this year, though prices and availability haven't been confirmed yet.

What has been confirmed, however, is Philips' range of speakers and docks.

The Fidelio SoundAvia wireless speaker with AirPlay will be available from later this month for $399, while Philips also has three new iOS compatible docks also heading to store shelves at the same time.

Compatible with new iPods, the iPhone 5 and newer iPads, Philips also has two Lightning docking speakers, though they aren't part of the Fidelio range. The DS8300 is priced at $229 and the DS400 is priced at $299, the only difference being that it has a built-in rechargeable battery.

It's third smaller docking station with lightning connection has a price tag of $149 as it doesn't support iPads. All three docking stations have Bluetooth streaming, AirPlay functionality and work with the SoundStudio app.