Sony - HT-A8000

My short story: I recently owned the A7000, however the optical port housing needed repair, under BB repair policy it was not worth it, hence BB gave me a gift card for the cost of the A7000, and I purchased the Bar 8 (open box). Personally I like the Bar 8, it is not in your face as much as the A7000. After that, I purchased the RS5s & SW3, to test their worth, this was for my mini-man cave (gaming and music primarily). I must say after breaking-in and some minor tweaks, this system sounds really good for a mini-theater. Initially, I wasn't going to purchase the speakers/sub, but found an open box sub, however I couldn't find an open box RS-5 near me, this after reading reviews for the RS5. The whole setup cost approximately $1.2k. Originally I had the RS3s, but they didn't have the battery/up firing Atmos speakers. I really wanted to like the RS3s, but they lacked the acoustical properties I was looking for. Hope this helps. Happy New Year Everyone. Peace and blessings, Azeke

Anyone else rocking the Sony Bravia 8???? I have the SW sub and rears too

I've recently bought the sony bar 8 with sub & rears and regret it massively(for my bedroom) I wish I bought the sonos beam gen2 along with another era100. Despite the shitshow of an app the sound quality is great

Hi, I have a 55 inch Sony A80L in a converted single car garage that I (and my kids) use primarily for PS5 and watching sports. I recently purchased (all open box) a Sony Bar 8, SA-RS5 rears and the SW3 sub. I’ve had it for 2 days and I enjoy it, but I just saw an A7000 open box (good) for $290 bucks. They sell for about 1k new! Now I’m not sure what condition it’s in as I haven’t seen it in store, but I wanted to get some thoughts on if it’s the better sound bar and if I should return the Bar 8 for it. I believe it has more customization than the bar 8 but it is a couple years older model. Would love to hear some pros and cons. Also fyi I’m not super picky, I know there are better setups out there but I’m looking strictly Sony for the ease of setup and control with the tv and ps5. Thanks!!

Thanks! Yeah I was tempted to go with the bar 9 but similarly to the 7000, the extra width would be a complicating factor for my 55 inch and where it’s sitting. I’m trying to talk myself into giving the 7000 a shot at that great price but I have read some similar things as you mentioned. Being that I’m not “hurting” for the money, I may just stick with the bar 8 although I may pick up the 7000 and compare, then return the one I don’t like. Having said that, my sound preference seems similar to yours so I think I’d prefer the 8. Do you have any knowledge of the SW3 vs SW5? I have the 3 but contemplating if it’s worth upgrading to the 5 while I’m inside my return window.

Purchased the Theater Bar 8 after being blown away at the demo. When I got it home I was a little underwhelmed but I was still waiting on the rear speakers (RS5) and still currently waiting on the Sub (SW5). The rear speakers were just ok at first but then I changed the “Sound Field Setting” from the default “360 Spatial Sound Mapping” to “Dolby Speaker Virtualizer” or “DTS Neural: X”. The default setting just wasn’t punchy enough especially with the rear speakers. After changing it, the rear speakers were much louder, although it does add some non-background sounds to the rear speakers since it is virtualizing 2 speakers into surround, it isn’t that noticeable and it does a great job of really engulfing you into whatever you’re watching. Watching Jurassic World now and I’m loving the system MUCH more already and can’t wait to get the sub in!

Also should mention that I believe the 360 spatial isn’t as loud or punch in my room because we have vaulted ceilings so the sound can’t really bounce directly back down at us from the up firing speakers.

With the q930 you get physical surrounds and a seperate subwoofer unit, this just smokes arc ultra on its own or sony bar 8 or flexus core 200. If you were planning on adding more surrounds etc on the others then you could have an actual comparison. But if you just buy a bar and compare it to the full kit of the q930D, the Q930D just smokes them

Then think about bravia quad +sw5, its a much better system than the Bravia bar 8 and the other bars. Some people will say that the sonos full packagee might be equal but since q990 is too big I imagine so is the arc ultra. The quads will look better and provide a more cinematic feeling with wide frontstage seperation

The Sony ht a5000 soundbar is excellent .. Got a new one for $200 on eBay. Not open box, new . They were $699 but have been superseded by the Bravia 8 ( also called 8000) soundbar for $699. R*tings rated the 5000 higher than the 8000

I added the Theater Bar 8 + SW3 subwoofer during Black Friday for about $850. I do not think the sub is absolutely necessary and can be added later. I liked staying in the Sony ecosystem for the integration with the TV interface. In my case, with the A95L, the center channel feature also really enhances the sound and performance. My main goal is clear dialogue and just overall enhancement to sound.

You can probably go without a soundbar for a while. I think watching marketplace makes sense. Maybe you will find a Sonos user that is upgrading to their new Arc Ultra that is selling their Arc or Beam. Those are both good soundbars. Vizio is supposed to be decent and only one near your budget that is new. I went with Sony's Theater Bar 8 and subwoofer with a Black Friday deal. it was a nice upgrade but honestly I was ok with the TV sound until then. In my case, I wanted to get a Sony for the integration with the TV. I know that the Sonos is probably a better soundbar though.

I have the A95L which may have even better sound. It was definitely "good enough". That said, I added the Theater Bar 8 + SW3 during Black Friday last year and it is a definite upgrade. Since the TV has excellent sound taking advantage of the center channel feature really adds to it as well. I have been very happy with it the outcome.

The theater bar 8 is a really good option it’s not a great price right now it’s $850 it has been on sale for $700 and when you buy your tv with the soundbar you get a $100 soundbar bundle so you get the bar for $600 so in the Sonos beam territory of price. You do need to use the Bravia connect app to setup the bar but you don’t need to use during day to day use you can control the sound bar directly from the tv because Sony sound bars allow you to just use your tv’s remote to control most feature directly from the TV’s interface. If you are looking for a super solid option that is not nearly as expensive that does not require an app I would still look at the hta-3000 from Sony looks like it’s $600 right now but you get it for $500 right now with your Bravia 7 purchase it’s a 3.1 has the same sound mapping tech as well as not requiring you to use the app at all. Also Sonos’s app is still broken I would not recommend it still at this time. Also I’m a member at Bestbuy too and if the price of the item goes lower within your 60 day return window they will price match both your tv and soundbar without having to bring them in. [Bravia Theater Bar 8](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6577858.p?skuId=6577858&sb_share_source=PDP) [HTA-3000](https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sku/6515725.p?skuId=6515725&sb_share_source=PDP)

I have the Sony HT-A8000/Bar 8, and it is no joke! You have to get the sa-sw5 sub and sa-rs5 rear surround speakers for full immersion. The sw3 and rs3 are too weak. I'm shocked at the sound for such a discounted price. My gain!!! Lol..

Honestly I think it will come down to how you like your system to sound. If you like a brighter sound, go with the Bravia 8, if you don't like a very bright sound go with the 7000. Personally I'd pick the Bravia 8, I had a brief demo at Best Buy and I thought it was quite good. But I can't judge fully on a demo, but I definitely thought it started to live up to what I think the Sony name should be producing. I can't speak anything about the 7000 cause I haven't heard it in person yet.

Recently got the theatre bar 8 with with Bravia 7, amazing integration and happy with the sound quality in my apartment (got it massively discounted). Will be getting a Sony subwoofer soon, just waiting on a sale. Use it for both tv streaming and PS5 gaming.

What about the Samsung 990 did you not prefer? I got a Sony Bar 8 and SW3 sub and was really let down with the 8’s boxy mid range character and the SW3’s punchy bass that really kicked in on loud sources which made it sound like there was a huge dip in the low-mids with the sub not “riding the lows” throughout the source. Then I replaced that setup with a Bar 9 and SW5 (Best Buy had a sale on all these models). Noticeably fuller sound from the 9 and the SW5 has a more graceful bass presence. The dialogue is *crisp* and there was a dramatic lack of that hollow boxy midrange, maybe due to the larger bar enclosure - my soundbar experience has been to expect it to sound like it’s a plastic rectangle no matter the brand. Ppl seem to love the Samsung 990D but that bundle is more than I paid for the Sony on sale and I don’t think it’s going to blow my mind…

I bought the Bar 8 and SW3 - the bar sounded so thin and hollow, the sub only kicked in at what seemed like a certain threshold so there was always what sounded like a huge gap in the freq response of no low mids, then a boom or rumble during louder instances. The ppl who like that sub call it “punchy” but I call it uneven. Got the Bar 9 and SW5. Much better. The sub is way more even and more natural across the lows. The actual bar is decent. Returned the 8 and SW3 and kept the higher models. $600 off on sale otherwise I wouldn’t have. I didn’t like the look of the Samsung at all, but that was important enough to me to not consider it. I thought the Sonos sounded the best, so full just on its own and then the sub added to it, while the Sony bars are so anemic and *require* a sub. I primarily game on my Bravia 8 so I opted to keep it in the Sony ecosystem and have that extra 2.1 port since all my HDMIs are used now - just couldn’t do that conveniently with the Sonos. No real customization of the settings but I’m happy with it. Hope that helps a little, at least knocking the 8 out the list.