Sony - Theater Bar 9
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Aug 14, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
13
8
"It ’s a brilliant home theatre experience, more spatial and clear than my Ambeo Plus was and it’s arguably as impressive, maybe more so, than the last 5.1.2 setup I had. The sound stage is defeinitely wider and more encompassing than the previous model too, the A7000."
"I clicked sound field off and back on, and BOOM up it came and sounded immense."
"Music from Spotify via AirPlay is really good, at least above my expectations. ... I have tested some music from movie like Interstellar (low frequencies) or from games with a choir (higher frequencies) and it was good. ... in comparison to JBL 1300 definitely better in music"
4
1
"bass generated by Sony itself was above my expectations. ... I'm not sure do I really need additional subwoofer. ... And bass is also so good (now I hold of buying subwoofer but I will see how it works with the movies)."
"punchier bass ... surprisingly had deeper bass ... Managed to test both with The Batman, Dune Part 2, and some bass heavy music tracks."
"It sounds absolutely epic, it’s an impressive standalone sound bar with really good LFE."
13
7
"It ’s a brilliant home theatre experience, more spatial and clear than my Ambeo Plus was and it’s arguably as impressive, maybe more so, than the last 5.1.2 setup I had. The sound stage is defeinitely wider and more encompassing than the previous model too, the A7000."
"As I’m writing this, I’m watching Pacific Rim on my ATV4K (purchased on iTunes). System volume at 25%, rears and sub at MAX. I can hear all of the atmos effects clearly and the experience is exceptional."
"I clicked sound field off and back on, and BOOM up it came and sounded immense."
5
2
"As I’m writing this, I’m watching Pacific Rim on my ATV4K (purchased on iTunes). System volume at 25%, rears and sub at MAX. I can hear all of the atmos effects clearly and the experience is exceptional."
"ever since adding the Bar 9, the SA-RS5’s have become more present when watching movies. ... With both soundbars I always set to rears to MAX volume, but now I can actually hear them while using the Bar 9. ... They’re powerful at MAX volume and their sound is clean. ... The other night I watched A Quiet Place Part II. Rears were set to MAX but system volume was set to 30. I could still hear the rears loud and clear. This is with the Bar 9 in the system. When using the A7000, there’s no way at 30% system volume that I’d be able to hear the rears. ... the RS5’s are amazing now."
"The main advantage of the Theatre Bar 9 is that you get louder sound out of the rear speakers. ... With the 5000 I had to turn them all the way up to get what I considered adequate sound out of them, which isn't necessary with the Bar 9."
5
1
"but this was plug and play and just works."
"and super easy - turn on tv, and everything turns on. and off. at the same time with one button."
"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."
Disliked most:
1
5
"It's very hit and miss, works well at low volumes unless the content is a low volume moment, in which case it struggles to balance the volume level. ... It also has notable adjustments to volume particularly during quiet scenes, if you go to a tv channel and there’s not a lot of sound, it spends 30 seconds waiting before it auto levels the sound to the volume you have selected. ... if there is a low level scene the AAV will be one level then adjust 10-30 seconds later to a higher level to match your volume setting. ... Watch Band of Brothers episode 1 on blu ray, the very beginning when the Veterans are talking it’s quite low level then all of a sudden it jumps up once the ai has adjusted it to your volume setting. ... Very noticeable when you pause something too, the volume level drops then rises after a while. ... If you go from a loud tv channel to a quiet one it takes 30 seconds and then adjusts the volume, it’s horrible. Also makes you think the channel is bugged until 30 seconds later when it suddenly wakes up. ... Watching Band of Brothers and it can’t cope with the intros where the Veterans are talking. It starts out at a lower volume and becomes loud all of a sudden. It’s so hit and miss."
"Problem is, it's altering the sound and levelling everything which isn't right. ... It is definitely altering the sound and not in a ‘good’ way. ... it’s significantly altering the sound, rear speakers sounds and effects are more often than not, not meant to be the same level as the front sound stage. AAV is making sure everything is the same level. ... It’s levelling every sound and you seem to lose some of the dynamic range and spatial placement of sounds. ... On Band of Brothers episodes two there’s a scene where the D-Day landings start and the shelling goes overhead, with AAV on it’s all one level, dialogue and shellfire. With it set to off, the shellfire is considerably louder than the dialogue. The dynamic range is being altered by AAV despite Sony claiming it doesn’t do that. ... You lose dynamic range and add gain to every speaker ... Having this on does some horrible processing to certain sounds."
"the voicing sucks ... none of them required Auto-leveling or "Voice" mode to fix dialogue issues. It's a common sound bar DSP issue and was one Sony engineers avoided... until now. ... There are many reference materials that can demonstrate dialog smothering during playback, most notably key soundtrack phases & major battle scenes in Game of Thrones on both bluray & 4k. ... Keep the 7 until you stop seeing complaints about dialog smothering"
0
2
"It randomly hangs (even on standby!!!) and becomes unresponsive. ... Even factory reset won't help. ... Worst purchase ever"
"It randomly hangs (even on standby!!!) and becomes unresponsive. ... Even factory reset won't help. ... Worst purchase ever"
5
5
"the voicing sucks ... none of them required Auto-leveling or "Voice" mode to fix dialogue issues. It's a common sound bar DSP issue and was one Sony engineers avoided... until now. ... There are many reference materials that can demonstrate dialog smothering during playback, most notably key soundtrack phases & major battle scenes in Game of Thrones on both bluray & 4k. ... Keep the 7 until you stop seeing complaints about dialog smothering"
"I have some concerns about central channel of soundbar itself. ... Dialog/vocal of the music is a bit in the background of the scene in some movies/concerts. ... voice from central channel sometimes is a bit too much overwhelmed by other sounds."
"For example I was watching a sitcom last night and the dialogue sounded a bit weak. ... There is an option to switch to voice but I always feel I’m cheating myself."
2
6
"It's very hit and miss, works well at low volumes unless the content is a low volume moment, in which case it struggles to balance the volume level. ... It also has notable adjustments to volume particularly during quiet scenes, if you go to a tv channel and there’s not a lot of sound, it spends 30 seconds waiting before it auto levels the sound to the volume you have selected. ... if there is a low level scene the AAV will be one level then adjust 10-30 seconds later to a higher level to match your volume setting. ... Watch Band of Brothers episode 1 on blu ray, the very beginning when the Veterans are talking it’s quite low level then all of a sudden it jumps up once the ai has adjusted it to your volume setting. ... Very noticeable when you pause something too, the volume level drops then rises after a while. ... If you go from a loud tv channel to a quiet one it takes 30 seconds and then adjusts the volume, it’s horrible. Also makes you think the channel is bugged until 30 seconds later when it suddenly wakes up. ... Watching Band of Brothers and it can’t cope with the intros where the Veterans are talking. It starts out at a lower volume and becomes loud all of a sudden. It’s so hit and miss."
"Problem is, it's altering the sound and levelling everything which isn't right. ... It is definitely altering the sound and not in a ‘good’ way. ... it’s significantly altering the sound, rear speakers sounds and effects are more often than not, not meant to be the same level as the front sound stage. AAV is making sure everything is the same level. ... It’s levelling every sound and you seem to lose some of the dynamic range and spatial placement of sounds. ... On Band of Brothers episodes two there’s a scene where the D-Day landings start and the shelling goes overhead, with AAV on it’s all one level, dialogue and shellfire. With it set to off, the shellfire is considerably louder than the dialogue. The dynamic range is being altered by AAV despite Sony claiming it doesn’t do that. ... You lose dynamic range and add gain to every speaker ... Having this on does some horrible processing to certain sounds."
"Having this on does some horrible processing to certain sounds. ... If you go from a loud tv channel to a quiet one it takes 30 seconds and then adjusts the volume, it s horrible. ... Also makes you think the channel is bugged until 30 seconds later when it suddenly wakes up. ... Actually finding with this turned off you lose details in the tracks. With it turned on everything is back and nothing is missing. ... I d imagine if you were a first time watcher you d be a bit confused as to what he s looking at and hearing without it on. ... Watching Band of Brothers and it can t cope with the intros where the Veterans are talking. It starts out at a lower volume and becomes loud all of a sudden. It s so hit and miss."
1
4
"It randomly hangs (even on standby!!!) and becomes unresponsive. ... Even factory reset won't help. ... Worst purchase ever"
"It randomly hangs (even on standby!!!) and becomes unresponsive. ... Even factory reset won't help. ... Worst purchase ever"
"the app is a train wreck. ... The App ecosystem vs. what use to be available on-screen is also a cost cutting measure. ... The mobile based sound field calibration function is also an utter train wreck. ... Keep the 7 until you stop seeing complaints about... app problems relating to the Bar 9."
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