Well I’m not going to incorporate the Harmony Hub into the mix. HDMI-CEC is doing so well for switching and such I’d rather deal with multiple remotes.
Connections to the Soundbar itself are AppleTV4K, FireTV Cube, Samsung Blu-Ray player since they are the only ones that have enough content with Atmos and my TV’s ARC won’t pass Atmos.
To the TV I’ve got the Roku Ultra, Tivo and ATT TV box since none of them have any Atmos available anyway.
My sole complaint with the Nakamichi is the remotes backlighting. It is red, which is horrible for me, and the marks on the buttons are way too small for my old eyes.
Well after a bit more time with the Nakamichi Shockwafe I’ve found a bit more to like and not like about it.
Likes : Great soundfield, strong clear bass and a remote that allows for doing all sorts of adjustments relatively easy.
Dislike: Darned HDMI-CEC! In order to get ARC audio you have to have HDMI-CEC turned on in the TV and Soundbar, and in theory that sounds great. The problem is that HDMI-CEC is a very lazy spec with each mfg choosing just how they will use or implement it. Initially I thought to retire the Harmony Elite because the discrete remotes for devices are individually better, but switching inputs using the HDMI-CEC implementations isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Twitchy as hell would be the single best description off it.
So after battling with that for awhile I think I’ve got what works best in my setup. Turn on HDMI-CEC on TV and soundbar but not on any other gear. That gets the ARC audio working right. Using the Harmony Elite now works fine but because HDMI-CEC is active on the TV and soundbar it makes for some arguing between the commands the remote is giving and what HDMI-CEC wants to do. So it takes a bit of time for things to come up and get switched properly. Minor irritant IMO.
The reason I want to use ARC is that if I don’t the best audio from those devices connected to the TV directly can only provide DD5.1 even though those devices can do DD+ which is a better audio codec IMO.