POWERFUL AND MUSCULAR ROOM-FILLING DOLBY ATMOS FROM A SINGLE SOUNDBAR
£1299
Sony’s flagship soundbar is a 7.1.2 slab of sound that packs two up-firing speakers, two beam tweeters, five front-facing drivers and a built-in dual subwoofer into a single chassis.
It’s an approach that appeals. After all, isn’t the point of a soundbar that it delivers cinematic audio without the need for lots of speakers? Of course, low frequencies are most faithfully reproduced by larger drivers and reflected surround sound is no match for direct audio; but often we have found multi-box systems aren’t cohesive as a whole, and rather than increase the perception of immersive and realistic sound, if they are not all top performers, the sub and surrounds become distracting. Which rather defeats the point.
The HT-A7000 doesn’t require any additional speakers to justify its hefty price point of £1299. However, you can almost double that price with a choice of two subwoofers and a pair of surround speakers. The HT-A7000 is an incredibly weighty 8.7kg and, at 8cm high, it’s taller than most, only just sneaking under the Sony A80J OLED TV that we test it with. It’s a blend of materials, textures and shades of black, from the fabric covering the upward drivers and a perforated metal front grille, to the polished-glass top surface with capacitive function buttons.
The set-up and room calibration process is a breeze, as is connecting to streaming services such as Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, and integration into a multi-room system – with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Home all supported. The A7000 is also heavily specified when it comes to physical connectivity, with two HDMI 2.1 sockets capable of 8K@60Hz, 4K@120Hz, and Dolby Vision HDR. While that sounds like full-fat HDMI 2.1, the A7000 doesn’t support ALLM or VRR. Alongside these inputs, there are sockets for eARC/HDMI out, analogue and optical audio inputs, USB type-A, power and an analogue output for Sony’s Acoustic Center Sync, which lets a compatible Bravia TV become part of the soundbar’s centre channel.
The A7000 supports Dolby Atmos (in both Digital+ and TrueHD formats), DTS:X, LPCM, wireless hi-res audio and Sony 360 Reality Audio – an object-based spatial technology with compatible content from Tidal, Amazon Music HD, Nugs and Deezer.
ENHANCED SOUNDSTAGE
Sony has opted to use a combination of driver placement and psychoacoustic techniques to enhance the width and height of the soundstage whether you are watching immersive content or n
