Sony - Theater Bar 9 with Speakers + Bass Module

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…

Sorry but q990d or sony theater bar 9 with surrounds and sub is the best. Ofcourse you get like nakamitchi dragon but it'll be an overkill and you won't like it 3 days later. It'll be a dead in vestment. So, q990d or q930d is the best you can actually get for the price. Don't worry about the bass it's an 8 inch sub with perfect balance. It'll shake and break your house glasses. It's still number 1 and can't go wrong with it. If you budget is in millions tho then I suggest polk of klipsch individual components and av receivers. Or those house sized stereo pair of column speakers from the likes of kharma or nautilus.

Definitely don't stay with the a7000. I have recent experience with both a7000 and bar 9. Both with sw3 sub and rs3 surround. My god the a7000 had it's socks knocked off by bar 9. Bar 9 especially after the new update created a much more surround sound stage than 7000 ever could. I returned the 7000 shortly after testing bar 9 and kept that setup.

From my experience of owning a bar 9, at that value you cannot beat it. You will want to get the sw5 subwoofer if you want good bass. By itself the bass is okay. In the future for surrounds definitely go for the rs5. While it may seem like I’m just only recommending the best they have you really lose out on a lot by not matching up the their best bar with the upgraded components.

550 for the Sony is a good price. You can upgrade it in the future with a sub and rears.

I have the theater bar 9 and tried the Sonos ultra. Both are really good but if the Sony is on sale for around the same price I think the Sony is the better buy. The arc ultra has a really nice wide soundstage (a bit wider than the theater bar 9 in my room) and very detailed, forward projection. That sound motion driver also really does make bass thump, not just marketing. At its price it’s the best all in one assuming the other competitors aren’t on sale. The theater bar 9 imo has better atmos/spatial effects and sounds more balanced/accurate to my ears. That plus the additional hdmi port and support for more audio codecs makes the Sony the winner if prices are essentially equal.

What, Sony did U have ? I mean I have compared Bar 9 and q990d ? I did and as Samsung is great for your bucj I still think Bar 9 sounds better in terms of clearness and clarity. Of course it is really expansive with rears and sub. But the whole system of Sony is better than the Samsung for me. And Sony quality is always better than Samsung. Moreover you will get updates with Sony. Samsung will just sell q990e next year...

Get the Sony Theatre Bar 9. If you want the sub and rear-speakers right now buy it. SA RS5 and SA SW5 If you can wait, hopefully this year will Sony release a new sub and rear-speakers. The new sub/rear-speakers should sound better I think. The SA SW5 sounds better than the other subs imo. Q990D just over hyped. Yes it’s sounds great but it’s really just the Samsung name. Why people want it #nohate The Sonos Arc Ultra is just really good but you need to love the typical Sonos sound. I can’t really describe it but if you hear it you will know. I strongly recommend the era 300’s and the new big Sub4.0. The other soundbars you listed did I not hear yet, so I can’t comment on them.

I personally wanted the better integration that comes with the Theater Bar. I don’t want to be traveling and needing to do tech support for my wife. It sounds great. I am sure the Sonos does too though

I’m looking for some advice on setting up a sound system for my second home’s living room and feeling a bit torn between a few options. At home, I have a full-blown 5.1 AVR system with dedicated amps for the LCR channels and high-end LR speakers—easily costing 20-30 times more than most flagship soundbars. Needless to say, I’m used to high-quality sound! For this setup, I want to keep things compact while sticking to a $3K budget (or less, if possible). However, I also need something that will genuinely satisfy me for daily use. If the sound is too dull or has overpowering frequencies, I know I’ll start looking for a replacement within days—I’d like to avoid that! What I’ve Listened to So Far: **Sonos Arc Ultra** – Tested in-store with the Sub 4, both engaged and disengaged. Unfortunately, I only got to hear music through it, and the experience was very disappointing. Without the sub, bass was almost nonexistent; with the sub, it was slow and lacked control. Compared to reviews online, I feel like I got the worst Sonos Arc Ultra demo ever. **Sony Theatre Bar 9** – Demoed with Sony’s curated Atmos tracks (bar only, no sub or rears). It was seriously impressive but leaned towards an artificial sound. I assume everything was mixed with Dolby Atmos, so it made full use of its speakers. **Bose Smart Ultra** – Listened to Bose’s demo tracks in-store. It had an incredibly wide soundstage—I even looked around to see if rear speakers were playing (they weren’t). However, it sounded even more artificial than the Sony, which made it a no-go for me. If I Had to Choose Right Now: Based on my in-store experiences, the Sony Bar 9 would be my pick. It was immersive, nothing stood out in a negative way, and overall, it sounded quite decent. My Current Options: **Sennheiser Ambeo Plus** – Read great things about it, but the lack of rear speaker options is a downside. **Klipsch Core 300** – Supposedly great, especially with Dirac Live. **Sony Bar 9** – Solid in-store impression, immersive, and well-balanced. Go AVR with compact 5.1 speakers – Something like the Focal Sib Evo Atmos, but my space limits front speakers to max 20cm in width, which makes AVR options tricky. I’d love to hear from anyone who has switched from AVR to soundbar (or vice versa) or has experience with the soundbars I’m considering. Any recommendations, experiences, or insights would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help!

The Bar 9 is overpriced, regression at its finest. Compared to the previous Gen, the voicing sucks and the app is a train wreck.

I wouldn't have said all that if I hadn't.

Compared to the last Gen bars, that auto leveling feature isn't the solution. Tried it. Did it help - yeah - a little - sure. The Bar 9 is massively gimped for $1400 as a price of entry. 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. Sony messed up bad with this refresh. They essentially went 'Visio' mode..

We can agree to disagree. I've reviewed the full line of Sony bars, last Gen, and 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. And for the record, I own a Sony Sub and rear 'up firing' surrounds - so when I A-B compare, I can get a really good evaluation of performance - all else being equal; room configuration, demo material, etc. Auto-leveling and Voice compensation modes are intended for specific purposes but the 360 Mapping performance paired with the producers intent is something Sony lost the recipe on - this go around. It's blatantly obvious for a reasonably trained ear, especially with people grasping at solutions like Auto-leveling mode, which is just another Loudness compensation algorithm that boosts gain in a major way. So do you really want to talk about 'producers intent' vs controlled experiments? That's a rabbit hole best avoided... 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.

I think you missed my point about GoT. It's not the production in its entirety that suffers from dialogue smothering, it is particular sequences/scenes. On a sound bar system with proper Object Oriented, packet handling implemented correctly, particular scenes will present both an uplift in Immersion without losing focus on the dialogue. It's all about Balance. Samsung struggled with this 'mapping' issue up until the 90R sound bar and I'm not entirely sure LG ever overcame it. Point being, Sony had dominated in this area of sound reproduction until now. The HT-A3000, A5000 and A7000 all had high performing DSP processing that resulted in near perfect 360 Mapping, with or without the addition of up-firing rears. I'd also like to address the misnomer about what is traditionally defined as Center channel functionality. In modern sound bar systems that deploy some type of 360 mapping in conjunction with true, Object Oriented sound streams - - dialogue is no longer pinned or reliant on the center channel in the traditional sense. The whole goal of Atmos and DTS-X (as well as ALL the virtualization methods floating around...) is to generate & present the dialogue 'objects' where they naturally are supposed to fall, in relation to the screen and surrounding sound-scape or 'field'. That's the power of Object package audio vs. stuff like Dolby Digital or even Pro Logic - if you're old enough to remember that. Circling back, the Bar 9 discussed here is suppose to replace the HT-A7000 and in a setup that leaves a sub and true Atmos capable rears the same - all one has to do is A-B swap the 7000 vs. the Bar 9 to realize that Sony either completely dropped the ball or rushed the release on this Generation.

LG and Samsung both had issues with dialogue and never really rectified the issue with software updates. Far too often the mapping issue is baked into the DSP hardware. I suppose owners will have to wait and see how Sony addresses it.. All three of the last-Gen top model are still available - so anyone looking for a Bar that isn't reliant on an app and wanting 360 Mapping that actually works, should opt for one of those. They are a helluva lot less expensive and present better build-quality as well.

Keep the 7 until you stop seeing complaints about dialog smothering and app problems relating to the Bar 9.

I have this exact combo and it’s incredible. The SW5 has the best bass I’ve ever heard from a sound bar system. Then in the future you can always upgrade to the Bar 9 and keep the SW5 and RS5s. That’s my plan

For whatever it's worth, I've tried the Sonos Arc/sub/era 100, and then the Q990c before settling on the Sony HT-A7000 with RS5's and dual 3rd party subs. For my basement application, the Sony smoked the other two.

The Sony 360 spatial mapping, for one. Insanely good. I also had issues with connectivity between the Samsung and my Bravia. The Sonos sounds very musical but was really "thin" sounding. The Sony is just so...robust/enveloping/full...I think that's the best way of putting it. No matter where you sit, you'd swear there's a speaker smack in the middle of my left and right side walls. It's just an awesome sound bubble, but it's not just noise all around. It all fits together. PLUS....you can use 3rd party dual subs. That's a game changer. Sonos allows for dual subs, but not from any brand. The Samsung has a really nice sub...for a soundbar. But it doesn't compare to my Sony setup. Now...with all that being said, the Q990 series is a killer killer killer value that sounds awesome. I picked up a new Q990C for under $700 from Samsung direct for my son's new house. It's incredible for what he needs.