Cinematic sound and Dolby Atmos at an affordable price
The HT-A3000 isthe smallest, cheapest and lowest-specified model in Sony’s HT-A series of Dolby Atmos soundbars, sitting below the Product of the Year-winning HT-A7000 and the not-so-Award-winning (but still good) HT-A5000.
Though it’s still a Dolby Atmos soundbar, Sony has cut a few features out in order to reach a lower price point – which means no upward-firing drivers or additional HDMI inputs.
The A3000 shares the same DNA as its larger and more expensive counterparts, and hereditary design cues are apparent. The smooth black plastic build with subtle copper accents immediately draws A5000 and A7000 comparisons, though you won’t find grilles adorning the top panel for upward-firing drivers.
What you do get on the soundbar is a selection of capacitive-touch buttons for power, input, streaming, Bluetooth and volume control, as well as a remote bundled in. There is also a small built-in display on the front panel, which indicates the input you are using as well as showing update progress status and various other settings.
The soundbar measures 6.4 x 95 x 13cm (hwd) and weighs 4.6kg, putting it on the more substantial side of mid-range soundbars. It dwarfs the Sonos Beam, which appears tiny in stature when placed side by side with the Sony. One grievance we have with the A3000 is its recessed ports, which can be slightly awkward to reach and don’t play nicely with particularly stiff HDMI cables. There are also no HDMI passthrough ports, meaning the eARC connection that you will be sacrificing on your TV won’t be replaced with one on the soundbar.
Well specified
The A3000 is relatively well specified for a soundbar, starting with its intuitive and simple on-screen set-up that is easy to navigate. There is no room-calibration system unless you decide to purchase the additional wireless surrounds, which unlocks the option to optimise sound. The absence of a mic also means you can’t use any voice assistants natively; but you can connect the soundbar to an Alexa or Google Home-enabled speaker to access those respective assistants.
This soundbar is wi-fi enabled, which allows for streaming via Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 with the LDAC codec supported. You will find optical and USB-A wired connections alongside the HDMI eARC port, but there is no ethernet connector so you will have to rely on wi-fi for the internet connection.
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