Sony’s newest flagship soundbar provides Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio | Engadget

At CES 2020, Sony demoed its 360 Reality Audio (360RA) expertise on a house theater setup such as you would put in your front room. The in-booth structure included a soundbar, subwoofer and two rear satellite tv for pc audio system. Today, the corporate introduced the primary gear that may help you truly create one thing related at house. The firm’s new HT-A7000 flagship soundbar provides Dolby Atmos along with 360RA and the choice to tack on sub and/or additional audio system can accommodate any house. If you are not a lot into soundbars however nonetheless need the feeling of immersive audio, Sony additionally launched the HT-A9: a set of 4 audio system and a management field geared up with new 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech. 

The HT-A7000 is a 7.1.2-channel soundbar full of Sony’s X-balanced audio system, aspect beam tweeters, up-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos and twin subwoofers. Thanks to a Virtual Surround Engine (overhead) and S-Force Pro Front Surround (horizontal), the A7000 can simulate immersive audio by itself so you may benefit from DTS:X along with Atmos. The soundbar is supplied with Sound Field Optimization that makes use of built-in microphones to calibrate the speaker to a room by detecting the peak and width of the house in addition to the place of a wi-fi subwoofer and any rear audio system. 

When it involves music, the A7000 accommodates High-Resolution Audio and 360 Reality Audio. In reality, that is the primary Sony soundbar to assist 360RA and simply the third speaker from the corporate to take action. The A7000 additionally has Sony’s DSEE Extreme expertise that Sony has leveraged for its headphones. That characteristic restores a number of the compression from streaming providers in actual time, supplying you with one thing akin to lossless audio with out the huge file sizes or the necessity for a wired setup. 

In phrases of connectivity, the A7000 has HDMI 2.1 with eARC and each 8K and 4K/120fps passthrough — plus Dolby Vision assist. The soundbar works with Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, so you might have choices in the case of streaming music out of your telephone or one other gadget. When used with appropriate Bravia TVs, the A7000 works with Sony’s Acoustic Center Sync that permits you to make use of your tv’s audio system as extra middle audio for issues like speech readability. The new soundbar may be managed by a Google Assistant gadget at launch and Sony plans so as to add Alexa compatibility in a future replace. Lastly, the corporate says non-compulsory wi-fi subwoofers and rear audio system will join mechanically to the A7000 once you energy them on. 

Unlike the HT-ST5000 that it is changing, the HT-A7000 soundbar does not include a subwoofer. Sony says it unbundled the pairing based mostly on buyer suggestions. Some folks needed the corporate’s top-of-the-line soundbar, however they weren’t essentially within the sub. It’s a beast by way of each dimension and sound, so it isn’t splendid for residences on any room the place house is proscribed. Instead, Sony is providing two subwoofer choices — the SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 — together with a pair of rear satellite speakers (SA-RS3S) as separate purchases. All of the add-ons connect with the HT-A7000 wirelessly, with the SW5 providing 300 watts of low-end tone by way of a 7-inch driver and the SW3 packing 200 watts of bass with a 6-inch speaker. 

With the A9 “home theater system,” 4 cylindrical audio system provide what Sony describes as a “flexible layout” choice that is meant to mix in together with your front room decor. Thanks to Sound Field Optimization and built-in mics, the A9 can calibrate itself to any house — similar to the tech does for the A7000. A key distinction right here is that the A9 can be geared up with Sony’s new 360 Spatial Sound Mapping Technology. This characteristic not solely permits you to place the 4 models as you see match, however it additionally provides a broad soundstage the corporate says is extra immersive than “traditional” soundbars. Sony explains that the A9 offers customers the feeling that the audio is “coming from beyond their walls” by creating as much as 12 “phantom” audio system with simply the 4 models. Of course, that is one thing we’ll need to put the check to double-check the declare. 

Each speaker homes X-balanced entrance and up-firing audio system together with a tweeter and bass duct. The 4 gadgets join wirelessly to a management field that has HDMI in/out (eARC output) with 8K and 4K/120 passthrough alongside Dolby Vision. The A9 is appropriate with immersive codecs like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, 360 Reality Audio and High-Resolution Audio. It additionally works with Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect and you’ll leverage voice management by pairing the set of audio system with a Google Assistant (at launch) or Alexa (by way of future replace) gadget. If you want a lift within the middle channel, you should use the A9 with appropriate Bravia TVs and Sony’s Acoustic Center Sync to make use of the audio system from the show. Lastly, each of Sony’s new subwoofers may be paired with the A9 audio system for fuller sound.

All of Sony’s new house theater gear is about to reach in “September/October,” in keeping with the corporate. The HT-A7000 soundbar is $1,300 whereas the HT-A9 speaker set is $1,800. The SA-SW5 and SA-SW3 subwoofers are $700 and $400 respectively, whereas the SA-RS3S satellite tv for pc audio system are $350. That means for those who’re anticipating to seize an entire setup with the A7000, a soundbar and rear audio system, you may want handy over at the least $2,050.