The first is an extra pair of up-firing drivers. While most systems max out at four, the Bar 1300X provides six; four in the bar itself, two more in the detachable surrounds to bounce sound off your ceiling and down to the listening position. It’s this potent hemispheric dome that, along with the front- and side-firing drivers, helps create the kind of realistic sonic immersion so many cheaper Dolby Atmos soundbars lack. Think of it like a solar eclipse; it’s cool to get a glimpse of it at the edge, but there’s nothing like being in the path of totality.

The second, much-less-secret weapon is the 1300X’s mini-fridge of a subwoofer, which sports a 12-inch woofer that matches or exceeds every other competitor. You’re just not going to get this kind of authoritative sound displacement with smaller drivers, and you will absolutely feel the ground-shaking, shelf-rattling difference. The sub is also fast and musical enough to keep up with rhythmic effects, matching well with its soundbar counterpart.

From the moment I inserted my Dolby Atmos demo Blu-ray, I could hear and feel the 1300X’s power. When I fired up the “Amaze” demo via Dolby TrueHD, the system blasted the cacophony of jungle buzzes throughout the room, followed by a crack of thunder that shook my floor (the system claims to reach a low of 33 Hz), and a realistic shower of rain overhead. That last effect really separates this system from the pack, as it’s very difficult to reproduce believable overhead effects without dedicated ceiling speakers.

Moving on to films and TV, the Bar 1300X further proved its mettle. The size-shifting effects in Ant-Man are always a great test, and the system once again passed with flying colors. From Scott Lang’s first test drive of the suit in the bathtub engulfed by a wall of water to the whirring thump of the ant-copter wings and the final battle with Yellow Jacket, it’s a feast for your auditory senses.

One of my favorite moments, the briefcase scene in which the two micro titans grapple in zero gravity, is also one of the toughest to pull off convincingly. The Bar 1300X fully engulfed me in the moment, with laser shots strafing past my ears and an almost eerily present globe of sound as Yellow Jacket accidentally blasts the space with The Cure’s Disintegration. These are the moments for which Atmos was created, and only a few rivals, like Samsung’s HW-Q990B (8/10, WIRED Recommends) and Klipsch’s Bar 1200, can keep up.