Few of us have gone to the theater to watch a new movie in the last year and a half, instead getting our cinematic experiences from the comfort of home. More than ever, people are realizing the value of investing in a good TV and soundbar. Those two things can do a whole lot to really beef up the home viewing experience. The Sony HT-A7000 is a soundbar that looks to bring immersive cinematic audio to your home.
Designed to deliver virtual surround sound, the new flagship soundbar can create audio that comes not just from the left and right sides, but across the vertical space, too, so you can feel the action happening both around you and up above. You know, just like they do at the local theater, so get to enjoy those lifelike, immersive sounds from the comfort of your living room.
The Sony HT-A7000 has 7.1.2 channels, comprised of five front speakers, two up-firing speakers, and built-in subwoofer, all using the outfit’s X-Balance speaker unit, along with two beam tweeters. According to Sony, the soundbar uses the up-firing speakers to bounce sound off the ceiling to reproduce overhead sound, the beam tweeters to bounce sound of the side walls, and the front speakers to reproduce a horizontal sound field, creating an expansive surround sound that feels much bigger than your TV’s screen, regardless of its size. The X-Balance speakers are particularly notable because of their unique rectangular shape, which, Sony claims, maximizes the diaphragm area, resulting in a punchier bass sound, all while producing less distortion and greater vocal clarity.
Like many modern speakers, it uses built-in microphones to detect the height and width of the space it’s placed in, which it combines with the positions of any wireless subwoofers and rear speakers, to calibrate its sound. That means, it doesn’t matter whether you set it up in a wide living room, a long bedroom room, or a cramped viewing room – the soundbar’s audio will be automatically fine-tuned to make the most of the space.
When used with a Sony Bravia TV, the Sony HT-A7000 will be able to take advantage of Acoustic Center Sync technology, which treats the TV as an extension of the speaker, allowing it to match the position of sounds to their exact source onscreen. That means, dialogue will sound like it’s coming exactly from where the character is on TV, creating an even more immersive experience. For an even bigger sound, they also offer optional external speakers, namely two subwoofer options and a rear speaker set.
Of course, the soundbar can also play music, with support for High-Resolution Audio and 360 Reality Audio, along with the same DSEE Extreme technology found in Sony’s headphones, which restores some of the compression from music streaming services in real time. Other features include HDMI 2.1 connectivity with eARC, 8K and 4K/120 fps passthrough, Dolby Vision support, Chromecast support, AirPlay 2 support, built-in Spotify Connect, and voice control using Google Assistant (with Alexa support planned for later).
The Sony HT-A7000 is available now, priced at $1,299.99.