Sony promises premium sound for home theater with its flagship soundbar – without subwoofer and rear speakers, but with DTS:X and Dolby Atmos. With so much noise, a healthy skepticism is in order Sony HT-A7000 but it is not necessary at all.
Amazon offers you a whopping 400 euro discount on the Sony HT-A7000 as part of its last-minute offers and has the premium soundbar for only 999 euros offered. However, the quota is limited.
Sony HT-A7000: Impressive, even without a subwoofer
The Sony HT-A7000 actually has that a whole sound system built-in. The narrow soundbar consists of five front speakers, two beam tweeters, two upfiring speakers and an integrated double subwoofer. Yet, given the installed technology, the soundbar is relatively space-saving and only 1.30 meters long, eight centimeters high and 14.2 centimeters deep.
In terms of sound, Sony’s soundbar impresses across the board. The upward speakers throw the sound towards the ceiling and bring out the Dolby Atmos signal excellently. For example, when the ornithopters zoom over the desert in ‘Dune’, it seems as if you were standing directly underneath it.
The interplay of the individual speakers creates a beautiful, Room-filling 3D sound, putting you right in the middle of the action. In addition to the hardware, various technologies such as the Vertical Surround Engine and S-Force-PRO Front Surround are responsible for this.
Connections with 8K signal
You also don’t have to make any compromises when it comes to connections. There are two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output. These can support 4K content with Dolby Vision and even 8K signals process. This means you are well positioned for the future.
By the way, the Sony soundbar is also very smart. This can be done via WiFi virtually all streaming services from Airplay 2 to Chromecast to Spotify Connect. The soundbar plays high-quality audio codecs such as LDAC via Bluetooth. There is just no integrated voice assistant. So you need an extra smart speaker to operate the A7000 verbally.
JBL Bar 800: Cheap alternative with an ingenious concept
A cheap alternative to the Sony HT-A7000 is the JBL Bar 800which is currently available at Cyberport for only 640 euros.
JBL’s soundbar comes with an external subwoofer and also relies on an ingenious concept: the side speakers can be removed easily and place it behind you to deliver authentic Dolby Atmos sound. This makes the JBL Bar 800 a real price-performance tip that can keep up with the Sony soundbar in terms of sound, but requires more space in the home theater.