Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition review

The Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 fills a very specific audio niche. If you find even the best soundbars lacking in surround sound power, but don’t want to go all in on a traditional, receiver-and-wired-speakers home theater system, the CineHome Pro 5.1 could be the right fit. Especially if you have a healthy budget.

This high-end system is wireless, which makes it more convenient than traditional wired systems. However, as our Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 review explains, it also lacks some of the latest technologies that many high-end soundbars and receivers include — most notably Dolby Atmos, multi-room audio and voice assistant support. 

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Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 review: Price and availability

The Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 isn’t cheap. It’s currently on sale for about $1,499, down $100 from its list price. You can pick it up from Amazon or direct from Enclave.

Walmart also stocks the system, albeit at its higher MSRP. 

Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 review: Design

The Enclave CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition is a bit of a throwback to the days before soundbars, when we had “home theaters in a box.” In the pre-soundbar era, you could buy a system that came with a receiver and all the speakers and wires you needed. The Enclave CineHome Pro has a small set top box instead of a receiver and the speakers are wireless (except for power cables). 

Even the CineHome Pro’s aesthetics are reminiscent of the early 2000s, with perforated metal fronts that form a triangular prism. The system even comes with white gloves for handling the speakers so you don’t smudge the metal cases — a truly premium touch. 

The CineHome Pro 5.1 includes 6 speakers: a 5.3 x 24.1 x 3.4-inch center unit, two 5.3 x 3.4 x 24.1-inch front speakers and two 5.3 x 3.4 x 16.4-inch rear speakers.. Those front and rear speakers are quite tall compared to most speakers you see today. It also includes a huge 14.4 x 11.8 x 18.8-inch subwoofer. Each speaker connects wirelessly to the 7.0 x 5.1 x 1.6-inch CineHub, which is a little larger than a Roku streaming box.

The CineHub connects to your TV via HDMI, optical digital or 3.5mm. It also supports Bluetooth — but not AirPlay or Chromecast. 

You control the system via a remote or the free Enclave Remote app. The remote, which wasn’t very useful and didn’t come with instructions, can switch among the inputs and control volume. It has several buttons that seem to have no function, such as HDMI 2 and 3 buttons when there’s only a single HDMI port. If you connect via HDMI ARC, you can control the volume of the system through your TV remote. 

The Enclave Remote app offers much greater control of the system, and you’ll want it for setup. However, it’s not as refined as the Sonos app, and needed to be restarted a few times during testing. 

Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition review: Performance

The CineHome Pro 5.1 is a joy to listen to. It produced a very detailed sound that less expensive systems can’t match. With clear dialog, rich and precise bass and encompassing surround sound, you’ll have a hard time going back to a single soundbar. It delivered a crisper and more realistic sound than many of the best soundbars, such as the Sonos Arc. 

The CineHome Pro sounds best when you give it excellent source material. Cate Blanchett’s voiceover at the beginning of the 4K Blu-ray version of Fellowship of the Ring sounded resonant and clear. The subwoofer provided appropriate gravity when Isildur cuts the ring from Sauron’s hand — it rumbled the floor but didn’t sound muddy. 

The rear surrounds helped Thor’s axe feel as if it were moving around me in the Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War; the size of those rear speakers also helped reveal excellent details in the surround mix. The music in Hamilton filled the room even as the vocals remained prominent and easy to understand. But throughout testing I wished the system supported Dolby Atmos — I would have liked to hear how it handled object-based audio rather than relying on Dolby Digital surround sound. 

The CineHome Pro’s speakers handle music just as well. The Weeknd’s “Bright Lights” balanced vocals with the rich bass line, revealing details that other systems miss. The acoustic guitar in Fleetwood Mac’s “Never Going Back Again” was crisp and bright, too.

The CineHome Pro 5.1 gets painfully loud. It measured 105 decibels at max volume, which you probably shouldn’t try. Suffice to say, it will fill up just about any size room you put it in. 

Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition review: Setup

The CineHome Pro 5.1 is almost as easy as a soundbar to set up, except it has more speakers to plug in. The biggest challenge you may have is finding enough power plugs for the six speakers and the CineHub. I connected the CineHub to my TV via HMDI and was quickly up and listening. 

You’ll want to download the app early in the process. The speakers should automatically connect to the CineHub, but if they don’t you can push the reset button on the back of each and then tap Reset Wireless in the app’s settings. 

The app doesn’t have a lot of adjustments you can make to the sound, compared to a receiver or many premium soundbars. The system lacks an automatic way to tune the sound to your environment, like Sonos’s TruePlay, so you have to do it manually. In the app’s Room Setup tab you can enter the distance of each speaker from your primary sitting position — another very 2000s touch. You can also change the level of each speaker; I boosted the center 2.0db to better hear dialog in the mix. 

The CineHome Pro has only a couple of sound modes: Dolby Pro Logic Movie or Music, and you can have it automatically switch between the two based on the sound source. You can also adjust the Dolby Dynamic Range or go into Whole Room Stereo mode, in which the rear speakers play the same thing as the front speakers. 

Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition review: Verdict

If you’re seeking a home theater sound system with great sound and want the convenience of wireless speakers, the Enclave Audio CineHome Pro 5.1 CineHub Edition will hit the mark. With its large rear speakers, it produces surround sound that a single soundbar simply can’t compete with. Its giant subwoofer delivers precise low-end effects that few soundbar subwoofers achieve. 

But at $1,500, it’s expensive, and it lacks the support for the latest technologies, such as Dolby Atmos. The $799 Sonos Arc, by contrast, handles Atmos well and comes with voice assistants built in. The Sonos system also has a better app and multi-room support, another feature lacking from the Enclave system. You could build a wireless Sonos system similar to the CineHome Pro with an Arc, two Sonos Ones as rear speakers and a wireless sub, but that would cost even more: $1,856 in total.

The CineHome Pro 5.1 delivers a crisper and more precise sound than the Sonos Arc, though. And if that’s the most important thing to you, you may be able to live without the latest tech. But it still feels like a system built for the moment — or even the past — rather than the future. 

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