Is anyone looking for some new home cinema speakers? Sony has revealed two new options to boost your TV sound.
It’s been a busy day for Sony as the company introduced two brand new speakers in the HT-A7000 and the HT-A9.
HT-A7000 7.1.2 Atmos bar
- Price: £1,200 / €1,300
- Availability: September 2021
The HT-A7000 features 7.1.2 channels of sound, with two up-firing speakers, two beam tweeters, five front speakers and a built-in dual subwoofer.
This should indicate that this is a speaker that’ll offer a good impression of virtual surround sound, and the bonus of including the subwoofer means punchier bass from the unit.
If you want even more bass, you can pay extra for a standalone subwoofer. Sony is offering the choice of the 300W SA-SW5 wireless subwoofer (£700 / €800 ) or the 200W SA-SW3 (£450 / €500). The soundbar can also be paired with SA-RS3S wireless rear speakers (£450 / €500) to complete the set.
The HT-A7000 also feature the company’s Vertical Surround Engine and S-Force PRO Front Surround technology to create a virtual surround sound experience, with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
The Beam tweeters also bounce sound off the walls, and when combined with the S-Force PRO Front Surround tech it claims to create an even wider sound and an immersive experience.
The up-firing speaker and subwoofer feature an X-Balanced Speaker Unit that’s rectangular shape to maximise the area of a speaker diaphragm. The effect this has is to increase sound pressure to deliver punchier bass and more vocal clarity, for those wanting to blast their music loud. The A7000 also supports passthrough of 8K HDR, 4K/120 and Dolby Vision signals for better image quality with film and games.
Speaking of games, the A7000 had two HDMI 2.1 inputs, so in theory, you could connect a PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X up and enjoy your games the way they were meant to be heard.
The A7000 works best when connected to a Sony TV, as the TV will form the centre speaker in your home cinema system. However, don’t fret, as you can still easily connect the A7000 to any other TV, as long as it has an HDMI port.
The soundbar is also compatible with Google Assistant enabled devices with Chromecast built-in and Amazon Alexa support, meaning you can control many of the functions of your speaker with just your voice.
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HT-A9
- Price: £1,600 / €1,800
- Availability: September 2021
With another speaker to show off, the HT-A9 is a new modular system Sony claims is for people who want a home theatre but can’t be bothered with overly complicated setups.
There’s 360 Spatial Sound support on the HT-A9 with Sound Field Optimisation helping to measure the relative height and position of your speakers to help synthesise the sound waves to create up to 12 phantom speakers from the four the system actually has.
The HT-A9 also supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X for more spacious and immersive sound. As with the HT-A7000, there are X-Balanced Speaker Units for better clarity, as well as a new Wide Directivity Woofer for bass.
With its 19mm Soft Dome Type Tweeter, the speakers aim to clear, natural sound at high frequencies, with their bevelled edges intending to reduce sound diffraction.
The A9 also feature DSEE Extreme, which uses Edge-AI to upscale compressed digital files in real-time, which helps restore the high-range sound that can be lost in compression.
And as with the HT-A7000, the HT-A9 can passthrough 8K HDR, 4K/120 and Dolby Vision signals. There’s voice-control and casting support with Google Assistant, Chromecast and Alexa all included on the spec sheet
These four little speakers are a lot smaller than the A7000 but clock in at a more expensive price of £1600. The HT-A9 system comes in a light pearl grey colour, designed to blend in with your walls and shelves. The backs of the speakers are also flat, so they can be wall-mounted them if that’s preferred.
The system will require its own power outlet for each speaker and the control box, so you’re going to need five spare outlets that aren’t near each other up for grabs in your living room.
The HT-A7000 and HT-A9 are due to be available sometime between September and October.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
