Hisense HT Saturn 720W 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theatre system (review)

The Hisense HT Saturn 720W 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theatre system is different – it is not a sound bar! Four discrete speakers and a subwoofer make this an interesting option when paired with compatible Hi-Concerto Hisense TVs.

One of the biggest problems with all-in-one soundbars is that they use psychoacoustics, bouncing sound off adjacent walls and ceilings, to try to create a Dolby Atmos spatial effects envelope. Few homes have the right layout for this to work.

The cure is to have more speakers, particularly for the rear.

Australian Review: Hisense HT Saturn 720W 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theatre system

Note: This model is unique to Australia and cannot be compared to the Hisense Google TV or Fire TV U6Q versions sold in the US or elsewhere. Price and specs as at 30/7/25.

Website	Product Page Manual
Price RRP	$1199
From	Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Bing Lee, Appliance Central, Retravision, Videopro
Warranty	1-year ACL return to base Service: 1800 447 367 between 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM Mon. to Fri. and 9 AM – 5 PM Sat and Sun except public holidays. Email [email protected]
Made in	China
Company	Hisense (founded in 1969) is a Chinese-owned, multi-national white goods and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. It owns appliance brands, including Gorenje, Hitachi, Sharp, Toshiba, and some local China-only brands.
More	CyberShack Hisense news and reviews CyberShack AV news and reviews

Ratings

We use the following ratings for many of the items below. CyberShack regards 70/100 as a pass mark. You can click on most images to enlarge them.

• Fail (below expectations), and we will let you know if this affects its use.
• Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be.
• Pass (meets expectations).
• Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good, but does not quite make it to Exceed
• Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader).

First Impression: Why?

These are set up to offer a $1199 value option to the Sony Bravia Theatre Quad at $3299. I won’t make comparisons as I have not heard the Sony product, but from my experience, it’s more quadrophonic with a subwoofer than a true Dolby Atmos home theatre system. We will go into that in more detail.

Build quality is good, the remote (not backlit) is fine, and in conjunction with a compatible Hisense TV, the Hi-Concerto effect gives a passing semblance of Dolby Atmos.

• How to buy a soundbar that meets your needs? (2025 update guide)
• Five tips for better TV sound – Dolby Atmos for beginners (2025 update guide)

Our take: It is a good TV sound replacement, but you can do a lot better for Dolby Atmos.

What is a 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theatre system?

Before we go into the specifications, the Hisense HT Saturn is a Dolby Atmos (DA) 4.1.2, which means

• Left and right front forward-firing (2.X.X)
• Left and right rear forward-firing (2.X.X)
• Left and right front up-firing (X.X.2)
• Sub-woofer (X.1.X)
• A total of 4.1.2

In our opinion, the minimum for effective Dolby Atmos is 5.1.4, which means adding a centre voice channel (1.X.X) and left and rear up-firing (X.X.2).

Still, that misses out 7.1.4 left and right front side firing (2.X.X) or 9.1.4 left and right rear side firing (2.X.X). Then you have 9 and 11 channels that add additional side surrounds.

What is a DA envelope?

Simply put, it is a roughly circular dome of sound extending from the TV to the ceiling to about 1 metre behind your seating/viewing position. DA can then phase sound objects all around you so that the Top Gun Jet flies overhead and the Jurassic Park dinosaur grows in your ear.

True discrete DA soundbars with rear speakers can create a dome about 3m high x 4-5m in diameter, matching the ideal viewing distance from a 4K TV.

<insert DA-7.1.4-1024×672.jpg>

So, this presents as a basic DA envelope with

• Two overhead channels able to phase (move sound objects) from side to side versus four overhead channels that can move objects in a 360° pattern.
• No left or right side surround
• No centre voice channel

This analysis is not meant to be harsh – it is just the facts that you need to know before you buy.

But as you will read later, Hisense HT Saturn – tuned by Devialet – has managed to provide quite an enjoyable experience, and it is even better with a Hi-Concerto Hisense TV that adds the TV speakers to reinforce the missing centre channel.

Hisense HT Saturn: What’s inside?

Hisense quotes 720W maximum audio power (equivalent to PMPO or Peak Music Power Output). It is a marketing term that bears little resemblance to reality. RMS is a better measurement, and to the best of our estimation ability, that is about 180W RMS: four satellite speakers total 120W, and a 60W subwoofer.

Regrettably, Hisense has not revealed what is inside, but we deduce that there are twelve speakers over four satellite speakers

• Forward-firing full-range (120 Hz to 20 kHz)
• Slightly angled forward-firing mid-range
• Up-firing tweeter (reinforces 10-20 kHz)

Each speaker is 122 x 196.5 x 122 mm x 1.52 kg.

The subwoofer is 240 x 390 x 240 mm x 5.35 kg and has a 6.5” down-firing speaker and an open rear port. It has a frequency range of 40 to 120 Hz, and it is rated at 280W PMPO or about 60W RMS.

Placement – Important

A label under each satellite identifies where to place it. You need two (Left/Right) at the TV and two (Left/Right) about a meter behind where you sit.

The speakers are largish and may not fit on your TV stand.

They can be desktop, ¼” tripod or wall mounted (bracket included) at approx. 1 to 1.2m from the ground. We also tested with a wall mount and felt it limited the psychoacoustic bubble effect to about 2 metres.

The subwoofer can be anywhere in the room, usually up front near the TV.

Being 4.1.2, the Dolby Atmos effect lacks surround sound, and overhead sound is strictly directional rather than all over.

All speakers require power. There is a 1.3m two-pin cable.

Control unit and remote

The control unit is 118 x 27 x 118 mm x 350g, and there is a remote control.

It has HDMI Out 2.1 eARC and HDMI In 4K@60 passthrough, Optical in and USB-A (firmware update only). Power is from a USB-C 5V/2A/10W plug pack.

The control unit wirelessly communicates with the satellites over the 5155-5245 MHz and 5730-5848 MHz up to about six metres. This is not home Wi-Fi as it is not smart speaker or voice-capable. There is no app.

It uses Bluetooth 5.3 (Rx only) to stream music from a smartphone.

It has five preset sound modes—Standard, Movie, Music, Game, and Sport and sound effects to enhance faux Surround, Night, Voice, AI, and Virtual:X

It can decode Dolby Atmos and DTS:X (up to 5.1.4 and downmixed), and surround sound including Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS Digital Surround and multi-channel PCM.

It also supports 16-bit, 44100 Hz WAV, WMA, MP3, OGG, MKA, FLAC, APE, AIFF, AC3, AAC, DTS, EAC3 over Bluetooth. It is not Hi-res capable.

Hi-Concerto

When connected to a compatible Hisense TV, it has an on-screen EzPlay via the Hisense TV remote, to adjust sound effects, EQ modes, room tuning and more. Otherwise, there is a small LED window on the remote for basic information.

It seems to use the TV’s left and right speakers as a faux centre channel. To be clear, Hi-Concerto does not make this a 7.1.2 sound source.

EzPlay uses the TV remote to turn the speaker to the room.

Power

Each satellite uses 20W maximum, and the subwoofer is 40W. All support .5W standby

That is 80W at maximum volume, and we found it was about half that at normal listening levels.

How does it sound?

It materially enhances the TV sound experience by adding front-centric 2D sound and a little 3D height.

It gets pretty loud at 85dB maximum, and frankly, it’s a distorted mess with lots of mid clipping and a very messy treble. Simply put, you need to back off to about 65% to get a more realistic and listenable signature measurement.

Deep Bass 20-40 Hz	Nil, but white noise is evident.
Middle Bass 40-100 Hz	Linear build from 40 Hz to 100 Hz
High Bass 100-200 Hz	Reasonably flat to 10 kHz
Low Mid 200-400 Hz	Flat
Mid 400-1000 Hz	Flat but increasingly clipping from 1-8 kHz
High-Mid 1-2 kHz	Flat
Low Treble 2-4 kHz	Flat
Mid Treble 4-6 kHz	Flat
High Treble 6-10 kHz	Huge drop between 7 and 8 kHz, followed by recovery with very choppy and harsh treble.
Dog Whistle 10-20 kHz	Flatish but choppy
Sound Signature type	This is a white noise test and pushes the speakers to their limits. It determines the native sound signature regardless of any EQ or presets. It is predominately a neutral signature, which means the EQ can recess (but not enhance) any frequency.
Soundstage PCM stereo	It is as wide and high as the TV.
Soundstage DA/Spatial	Height channels are front to back – there is no lateral sound object movement. Surround: There are no speakers angled outwards to use psychoacoustics to bounce sound off the walls. DA envelope: As you can place the rear speakers as far back as you need, there is a reasonable envelope of sound. We tested up to 5 metres. Height placement becomes more critical at that distance.
Comment	If you are watching movies with any surround or spatial sound, you will get a nice effect, but it’s not really what true DA is capable of.
Read	How to tell if you have good music – sound signature is the key (AV guide)

CyberShack’s view: Hisense HT Saturn 720W 4.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theatre system – good but not if you want the whole DA experience.

Before you suggest that we are audiophile snobs, we are. For example, I use a Sonos Arc Ultra, Sonos sub 4 and dual Sonos Era 300 (themselves 4.1.1) rear speakers ($4596) to get what I consider the best DA I have ever heard. Read Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar – Add Sub 4 and Era 300s for Dolby Atmos on steroids (AV review).

But we understand that not everyone has thousands of dollars to get the best.

For Joe and Jane Average, this will provide a vastly improved TV sound, especially when using a Hi-Concerto compatible Hisense TV. It has limited DA effects and the sub can ‘shake the room’, so that may be enough.

Competition

We won’t comment on price, but we can comment on value and competition

• $999 JBL Bar10000 is an 800W RMS 7.1.4 DA system and is currently on runout (new models soon).
• $1499 JBL Bar1300, is 1170W, 11.1.4 channel and quite excellent.
• $1599 Samsung’s Q930F 9.1.4
• $1699 LG’s $1699 S956TR 810W 9.1.5

Like the Hisense HT Saturn, they all have dedicated rears, but as all-in-ones, they still rely on psychoacoustics to create a DA envelope.

Rating

• Features: 80. Decent 4.1.2 sound, wireless speakers and a remote.
• Value: 75. There are better DA all-in-one soundbars with dedicated rear speakers that will produce a more convincing DA spatial effect.
• Performance: 80. At the right volume, this is a neutral sound signature (best) with a little more controlled treble.
• Ease of use: 80. With a Hisense Hi-Concerto TV, the on-screen controls are excellent. The remote control LED display is small and hard to navigate. A 1-year warranty is standard, but Hisense offers a 3-year TV warranty.
• Design: 85. I like the design and finish.

Pro

Great SDR and HDR sound

Room tuning

Better with a Hisense Hi-Concerto compatible TV

Nice design

Con

Not really a true DA experience

Do not push the volume as it distorts.

Not 720W