Kudos: Tight integration with Sony TVs; full system with sub and rears delivers immersive movie surround
Concerns: Really needs the sub and surrounds; pricey compared to competition; requires BRAVIA Connect App
For years, you could count on the Consumer Electronics Show in January to be the launch site for most company’s new releases. However, for reasons known only to them, Sony has stopped unveiling new products at CES — heck, they’ve all but stopped showing products at CES! — and have instead focused on talking about how they are developing tools to help and support the creator community and working with Honda on the upcoming AFEELA smart car launch.
But this hasn’t stopped Sony from continuing to develop new home AV products. Earlier this year, I was among a group of journalists from around the world that was invited to visit Sony Pictures Entertainment Studios in Culver City, Calif., where the company revealed its 2024 TV and soundbar lineup.
The company’s new tagline is “Cinema is coming home,” reinforcing the idea that Sony most accurately delivers what the content creator intended you to see and hear. Along with that, Sony rebranded its entire TV, soundbar, and projector lineup under the BRAVIA nameplate, with the BRAVIA 9 being the flagship offering across all lines.
With this launch, Sony’s previous flagship soundbar, the HT-A7000 (review available here) has been replaced with the BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 (or HT-A9000 if you like to hang onto more traditional model numbers). We were given brief demonstrations of the new bars during the visit, so I was excited to see how this new design sounded in my home.
First Impressions
Compared with the HT-A7000, the Bar 9 has a much cleaner and simpler aesthetic. Gone are the 7000’s glossy black top flourishes and metal front grille, with the Bar 9 being entirely wrapped around the front, top, and sides with dark gray speaker fabric.
But the biggest thing you notice is that, compared with the 7000, the Bar 9 is much smaller. Sony says that due to a new driver design, the Bar 9 has a 36% smaller cabinet volume than the 7000 — and it looks it. By the numbers, the 7000 measured 51.25 x 3.25 x 5.625 inches (WxHxD), while the new Bar 9 comes in at 51.25 x 2.625 x 4.375. However, the 7000’s depth of roughly 6.25 inches when wall-mounted gives it an imposing look under a flat panel display. Combined with the Bar 9’s rounded edges and new tighter wall mount, it has a softer, smaller overall look.
They say less is more, and while the Bar 9 is physically smaller, it packs in more drivers, going up from the 7000’s 11 drivers to 13 in the Bar 9, with two newly added, full-range side-firing drivers, and redesigned beam tweeters for a clearer and broader soundstage.
These 13 new drivers include the two 46 x 54mm side drivers, two beam tweeters, two 45 x 90mm woofers, two front left/right 10mm soft-dome tweeters, and two up-firing 46 x 54mm drivers, with two 45 x 90mm speakers and one 22mm tweeter dedicated to center-channel duties. For added bass, there are also four passive radiators. Each active driver is powered by its own 45 watts of digital amplification for 585 watts of total power.
But sometimes less is just less. Not that weight is the most telling spec, but at just 12.3 pounds, it certainly doesn’t have the same luxe heft as the 19-plus pounds of the 7000. (To be fair, that weight difference does track with the 36% reduction in cabinet volume.)
Beyond shedding size, the Bar 9 is also missing many of the features of the previous flagship bar, including the on-screen and front panel displays, a built-in subwoofer, Bluetooth audio transmitter, remote IR pass-thru, and Google Cast. Beyond that, the Bar 9 limits connectivity to just two HDMI connections: one in and one eARC out. Gone are the 7000’s second HDMI input, Toslink digital audio, analog audio, mini-jack IR, RS-232, and Ethernet connections. Sony claims that 72% of soundbar consumers say that movies are their favorite content, so perhaps these connections won’t be missed by most users.
Sony continues its a la carte approach, selling its soundbars solo while offering optional subwoofers and surround speakers to complete a full surround experience. Sony’s two wireless subwoofers — the SA-SW3 and SA-SW5 — remain in the lineup, as do the SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S wireless rear speakers. For my review, I used an SA-SW5 sub and a pair of SA-RS5s for a full Dolby Atmos immersive surround system. And, spoiler, I don’t think you should consider selling the system any other way.
The SW5 subwoofer is finished in a dark charcoal gray with a pebbled finish and rounded corners and edges that match the look of the Bar 9, with a grille cloth covering the front and back. The sub features a 7-inch woofer with a down-firing passive radiator powered by a 300-watt amplifier. With no buttons or controls for users to worry over, this is a set-it-and-forget-it device that will likely spend its days unobtrusively in a corner.
For surround channels, the RS5 is definitely the way to go, as it includes larger drivers and adds the up-firing element lacking in the RS3S. They also include a built-in rechargeable battery that offers up to 10 hours of playback should you need to use them in a location where power isn’t nearby, or if you prefer to hide the speakers away when not in use. The RS5s echo the family look, with a curved front finished in a dark graphite fabric wrap. At just 5.75 x 9.875 x 5.375 inches (WxHxD), they are small enough to discreetly sit on a shelf, table, cabinet, or stand. The RS5 has two front-firing drivers, including a wide-directivity woofer and soft-dome tweeter, along with the same up-firing speaker found in the Bar 9, all powered by three independent amplifiers as well as dual passive radiators.
Setup
The big decision with any soundbar installation is whether it will go on the wall or just sit on a tabletop. Sony includes L-brackets and a template for wall mounting, but also includes some small feet that can be used to raise the bar to sit above the tabletop feet of Sony’s 2024 TV lineup. A big benefit of the 5/8-inch height reduction is that the Bar 9 should be able to sit in front of virtually any TV without cutting into the screen.
As mentioned, connections are straightforward, with just a single HDMI in and HDMI eARC out. These are both HDMI 2.1 and support 8K and 4K/120 resolutions, along with VRR, ALLM, and Dolby Vision. Also, if connecting a PlayStation 5, the bar supports Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode.
Besides the detachable power cord — which is accessible from underneath even if the unit is wall-mounted — the Bar 9’s other connection of interest for Sony TV owners is an S-Center-Out mini-jack. Should your Sony TV have a corresponding input, this simple connection via an included cable allows you to use the TV’s included speakers as a kind of enhanced center-channel. Sony has upgraded this mode for 2024, calling it Acoustic Center Sync 2.0, which is said to provide an improved experience between bar and display.
Another benefit for new Sony display owners is the integrated onscreen user interface when the TV and bar are connected via eARC. Here, you can get quick onscreen access and control over key bar features within the TV’s GUI for things like rear and sub volume, changing sound modes, enabling voice or night mode, and so on. Because the Bar 9 has no onscreen display of its own and just limited control via the “simple” 10-button remote, this provides a simple and quick way to make adjustments without needing to open the BRAVIA Connect app.
The Bar 9 offers a simple on/off Voice Mode for raising dialog, but when connected to a 2024 Sony TV, you can take advantage of Sony’s new AI-powered Voice Zoom 3 technology, which identifies and isolates dialog that can then be adjusted in ±6 steps to raise or lower it. (One use case Sony offered for wanting to lower dialog was when watching sports and not wanting to hear the commentators.) The real benefit here is the AI’s ability to adjust voices only without affecting other sounds. While I didn’t have a 2024 Sony display to experience this during my demo, I did hear it during Sony’s product launch and it did an impressive job of isolating and adjusting just the dialog, which is certainly one of the biggest modern complaints surrounding TV watching. This adds another compelling benefit of pairing the Bar 9 with a current Sony display.
Beyond the physical connections, setting up a 2024 Sony BRAVIA bar requires using Sony’s new BRAVIA Connect mobile app. This in itself isn’t a big deal, but the fact that you have to set up an account with an email is the part I take issue with, as it adds another pain point during installation. But, love it or lump it, you’ll need to register and confirm an email account to fully set up and use the bar.
If you have a Sony subwoofer or surround speakers, you should connect them and power them on at this point as it will save you some steps later. The surround speakers are identified by an R or L on the bottom, and they can be wall-mounted using either a keyhook or threaded screw mount. The power connection is on the bottom of the speakers, with a nice way of dressing the wiring that doesn’t affect them sitting on a table or stand. For my install, I had them mounted at ear height to the left and right of my listening position.
Since the RS5 speakers can be moved around (and run on battery power) they have an “Optimize” button on top that utilizes the dual microphones in each speaker to perform a quick calibration for their location. I don’t believe this has any impact on the Bar 9’s performance, but I always ran the sound optimization from within the BRAVIA Connect app.
Once that’s done, the app walks you through pairing the bar to Wi-Fi, confirming the connection between the bar and display, and connecting any additional wireless speakers. Once that’s completed, the app prompts you to run the Sound Field Optimization, which is the other big feature of the new Bar 8 and 9 and is required to use Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology.
With this, you’re prompted to move to the location where you primarily sit, and the bar (and any connected speakers) will emit a series of tones to measure distance and levels using your phone’s microphone. When that’s completed, the bar will take additional measurements to calculate the room’s acoustic environment. Interestingly — read: “surprising and disappointingly” — it doesn’t measure the connected subwoofer during this process, the one component that generally benefits most from any room correction. After you’ve run the demo, you’re treated to a demo snippet of forest sounds that shows off Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound technology.
Besides not measuring the sub, there is no way to see what it did or to A/B it with the calibration on/off after the calibration is complete. Also, adjustments are limited to just rear and bass levels in a ±10-step range. You can’t individually adjust the levels of any speakers within the Bar 9, such as the side or width drivers, or adjust the overall height channel volume. I’m thrilled that Sony has made a step toward including room correction, and that they are actually measuring at the listening position as opposed to using microphones inside the soundbar, but I’d like them to expand this a bit. And it’s certainly possible they will expand on and improve this with future firmware updates.
Performance
I started my review by first listening to the Bar 9 by itself for some time before adding the RS5 rear speakers and then ultimately adding the SW5 subwoofer for the full experience.
Out of the gate, I have to say I wasn’t super-impressed with the Bar 9 just playing on its own. At a $1399 retail price, I really expected this to be a banger, and, well, it was good but not great. I definitely noticed the lack of the on-board subwoofers from the HT-A7000, as bass was much less present. However, by raising the bar’s bass output to “Max” in the app, it delivered much deeper output, though this occasionally produced some distortion when listening at loud volumes with content that had a lot of low end.
Solo, the Bar 9 does a nice job of providing a fairly wide front soundstage and giving some height effects, though it seemed like the front soundstage was higher rather than the sounds actually coming from up overhead. Ultimately, I never felt like I was experiencing “surround sound.” At best, sounds would feel like they were coming outside and above the bar, but never really beside, behind, or above me.
There is a “Sound field” button in the app that, in typical Sony-speak, the manual describes as “Outputs sound with the surround sound effect. This setting can be used to experience surround sound with a sense of presence.” But when turned off, it appears to play things in their native incoming format (i.e., 2-channel signals are played back in stereo), so I’m glad there is a nod to letting music listeners enjoy stereo if they desire.
With music listening, which can be streamed to the bar via Bluetooth, Spotify Connect, or Apple AirPlay 2, I felt the bar did a decent job of delivering some left/right separation, giving you a sense of how musicians are arranged.
So, while the Bar 9 on its own is a massive step up over TV-only sound in volume, presence, and dialog intelligibility, it is unlikely to wow someone expecting a theater-like experience, especially at its price.
Without question, adding the RS5 rear speakers upped the experience immensely and delivered a true sense of surround sound. In fact, I kept thinking of the phrase “force multiplier” regarding adding these speakers, as they just dramatically increased the overall experience of the system. Everything about the entire system sounded better with the RS5s connected. Now, not only did I have sounds that were actually coming from beside/behind me, but with Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound there was much better cohesion between the Bar 9 in front and the RS5s in the rear, as well as a much greater sense of both width and height.
With the RS5s connected, watching the opening of Kong: Skull Island, I could hear the planes crisscrossing up overhead; I could hear the buzzes and rattles and engine noises all around from Unbroken; and I could clearly hear the wrecking ball smashing left-to-right and Kong jumping around overhead in Ready Player One. Sounds were now coming from “phantom” speakers well off to my sides and around the room. Even when watching sports, the RS5s placed you way more in the experience, such as delivering crowd noise and PA echo during the World Series or NFL games.
Finally, I added the SW5 subwoofer, and to paraphrase Darth Vader, the circle was now complete. With the sub filling in the low end that the Bar 9 simply couldn’t produce, the full 9.1.4 system working together finally produced the kind of audio I’ve come to expect from high-end bars, able to deliver cinematic volume levels.
Watching the Space Station clip from an IMAX Enhanced demo disc delivered deep, tactile bass from the shuttle’s massive engines that I could feel. A DTS:X clip from Battleship, delivered the heavy weight of the massive anchor chains being lowered across the deck and the large ship plunging into the water, followed by the bass pummeling from the ship’s massive guns delivering a broadside and the heavy explosions. Working as a team, the system delivered the immersive, room-filling, sensory experience people equate with home theater.
I’ll be honest; I missed the front-panel display. The single multi-colored LED at least showed me whether the bar was on and what input was selected, with a second LED that illuminated on receiving a volume command. With eARC, I rarely needed to use anything besides my TV remote to adjust the volume, but when I needed to check or tweak a setting, I’d jump into the BRAVIA Connect app. I do like how the incoming signal format — be it Dolby Audio, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, or IMAX DTS:X — was clearly displayed. People want to see they are getting what they paid for, and this is presented front and center. It’s also really easy to adjust rear and bass levels, engage Voice or Night modes, or select the Sound Fields between 360 Spatial Sound, Dolby Speaker Virtualizer, and DTS Neural:X, and see the battery levels of the connected RS5 speakers.
For the most part, the app worked fine, but there were multiple instances where I would open it and get a message like, “Registration for BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 has been removed from your account. To operate BRAVIA Theater Bar 9, register again.” Or “Disconnected from BRAVIA Theater Bar 9.” These were relatively easy to resolve, but it just goes to show why making someone link an app to an account to use a product is a potentially bad idea.
As a solo experience, I don’t think the Bar 9 delivers for its $1399 retail. Especially when you consider the Sonos Arc Ultra is $999 and the complete, 9.1.5-channel LG S95TR package sells for $1399. While Sony frequently offers discounts and bundle pricing, the total package retail price for the Bar 9, SA-RS5 surrounds, and SA-SW5 subwoofer is a hefty $2597, putting it in a very premium price category. In comparison, the better-sounding (in my opinion) Samsung 11.1.4-channel HW-Q990D retails for $1699. For someone who wants to “keep it all Sony,” the Bar 9 does offer some great integration with Sony displays, but that comes at a hefty price.
877-865-7669; sony.com
Product Specs:
- 10.2-channel soundbar
- 13 built-in speakers, including three tweeters, four woofers, two up-firing, two side-firing, and two beam tweeters, powered by 585 total watts and quad passive radiators
- Decodes all major surround formats, including Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and IMAX Enhanced, as well as hi-res audio up to 96/24 and 360 Reality Audio
- Supports Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay2, and Bluetooth 5.2
- 11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
- Setup and Sound Field Optimization require the BRAVIA Connect mobile app (iOS, Android)
- Inputs: HDMI 2.1/HDCP 2.2 inputs (both 8K and 4K/120 capable); Outputs: HDMI 2.1/HDCP 2.2 (8K and 4K/120, VRR, ALLM) with eARC, mini-jack S-Center Out; detachable power cord
Dimensions: 51.25 x 2.625 x 4.375 inches (WxHxD); 12.3 pounds
