PRICE $1399

AT A GLANCE
Plus

• 360 Degree Spatial Sound Mapping calibrates to your room and your exact listening spot
• 360 Degree Reality Audio expands music to fill the room
• Voice Zoom boosts dialogue for better clarity and Audio DRC brings up soft sound effects

Minus

• No clear status display without Sony Bravia TV or Sony Bravia Connect app
• Not as good for music as movies – compressed sound when not using 360 Reality Audio or Dolby Atmos
• Inconsistent connectivity

THE VERDICT
For those with Sony products including a Sony Bravia TV and a Sony Xperia phone, the Sony BRAVIA Theater 9 is a good choice for a fun surround sound experience that fills the room.

Introduction

The Sony BRAVIA Theater 9 is a home theater soundbar that mimics Dolby Atmos surround sound by creating “phantom speakers” through 360-degree spatial sound mapping. Home Theater is more dramatic when paired with wireless rear speakers and a subwoofer.

At $1399, the Theater 9 with its 13 speakers, is competing with the Samsung soundbar HW-Q990F, which has 15 speakers in the soundbar. Both have side and upfiring speakers to simulate a Dolby Atmos experience, where sound comes from above and around the listener. Wireless rear speakers are available for both soundbars, creating complete surround sound. And while the Sony reproduces background sound effects clearly and effectively locates the sound around the room, especially from front to back or vice versa, the Samsung has better sound separation, which is most noticeable when listening to music.

Features

Because every room is different, to hear audio from the BRAVIA Theater 9 as the creators intended, the soundbar uses Sound Field Optimization to calibrate the sound for the room, furniture, and even the spot where you typically sit. This calibration is not only key for surround sound but also maximizes the experience of Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. The result is “phantom speakers”—sound that seems to come from a place in the room where there are no physical speakers.

Sony’s 360 Reality Audio (360RA) is really the star of the show and what makes the BRAVIA Theater 9 so much fun. This proprietary format starts with the music recording. The song’s sound engineer assigns a place for each vocal, instrument, and other sound in the 360-degree virtual sphere around the room. The result is not only the feeling of being surrounded by individual instruments, but it also creates more separation in the soundbar speakers.

Currently, you can stream 360RA music from Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal, and Deezer using an Amazon Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), or Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd Gen) connected directly to the soundbar’s HDMI input.

All music can be enhanced by enabling Edge-AI, DSEE Ultimate (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine). Using Artificial Intelligence, Theater 9 upscales compressed digital music while you listen to it. The result is greater clarity and separation, leading to a more open sound.

Having a Sony Bravia TV adds more features to the system, including Acoustic Center Sync. With ACS, the TV speakers become the center speaker of the Theater 9 surround system. An attached Bravia TV also enables Voice Zoom 3, which is not only a dialog enhancer but uses AI to recognize and raise the volume and clarity of even faint human voices.

The soundbar’s settings are added to a connected Sony Bravia TV in the quick settings menu, making it the easiest way to view the mode status and toggle features on and off.

If you don’t have a compatible Sony Bravia TV, the Bravia Connect App is essential for controlling and managing the BRAVIA Theater 9. Available for all smartphones, it includes the basic buttons found on the remote, like input, night mode, sound field, voice, and volume control. But it also makes it easy to see the status of what has been toggled on. The app also provides access to additional settings, including Auto DRC, DSEE Ultimate, and more. There is no equalizer in the app, unlike those found in other soundbars and speakers.

Setup

The Bravia Connect app is required for setting up the soundbar and any other speakers, such as wireless rear speakers or a subwoofer. The app instructs you to walk closer to connect to the soundbar, choose the device, and then set it up on your home network. Luckily, it takes just a few minutes.

“Luckily,” because the soundbar often disconnects from the app once you stop using it. While I expected this issue to be unique to my setup, I found several mentions of other users experiencing the same problem, regardless of their home network setups. Occasionally, the network would reset by unplugging and replugging the soundbar, and then restarting my phone.

Plugging in surround sound, SA-RS8 rear speakers into power automatically adds them to the system on the app. Once all speakers are connected, including a subwoofer if you have one, it’s time to measure the acoustic characteristics of the room using your phone’s microphone. This is serious business, where the app suggests removing the case from your phone, pointing the microphone toward the sound bar, then holding it upside down in front of your face. Once finished, the audio is optimized for your typical listening position. If you move to another spot, you can choose to measure a different temporary viewing position, but it will reset to the one used in setup when the soundbar turns off

The Sound Settings in Bravia Connect are crucial to improving the experience of the Theater 9. Raising the Height of the sound field (even though I am on a low sofa) brought more volume to the surround effects.

The Advanced Auto Volume minimizes volume changes due to input signals. What it actually did was boost the volume overall, delivering better voice clarity. When combined with the Audio DRC, the sound was bright and separated.

Performance

Until I started experimenting with the sound settings in the Bravia Connect app, the sound was compressed and dull. Even with the sound field and voice mode turned on, I had to increase the volume to 48 or more to get any quality and clarity in dialogue and sound effects.

Enabling the Advanced auto volume made all the difference, substantially boosting the loudness and clarity. While the feature was described in the app as “minimizing volume changes due to input signals,” it appeared to improve the amplifier. After enabling the feature, the volume setting was sufficient when set at 28 or 30. And yes, the volume levels stayed consistent when changing from TV to direct HDMI input on the soundbar.

Next, I turned on the Audio DRC. While the feature was described in the app as compressing the audio dynamic range, it brought the sound effects and background music forward, bring out nuanced sounds in average TV shows as well as Dolby Atmos movies.

Finally, I adjusted the Height of Sound Field. Choosing the “higher” option balanced the sound as it moved around the room.

I chose both the SoundField and Voice Mode to boost the sound further.

Then I tested my usual UHD movies to listen for nuances in the sound. The scene in Black Panther where people gather on cliffs to challenge the new king has background people chanting and talking. Water splashes during the fighting, and there is dialogue. With the settings as described, this was a dynamic scene that filled the room. I felt like I was standing in the water with the fighters, water trickling down cliffs, splashing up to my left and right.

As I changed from the Roku TV to the Apple TV 4K, the trailer for F1 movie automatically played at the top of the screen. I was surprised by the quality of sound from the trailer. Cars drove circles around me with that high-pitched engine whine and squealing tires. Dialogue and background voices filled the room. In that moment, I understood how a soundbar can replace a home theater receiver and speakers.

Unfortunately, every time I watched videos from my Apple TV, the sound would cut out at some point. It would happen once, regardless of the streaming service, while watching every video. I would back out of the video, wait a second, then start playing again, and the sound would return. Connecting the Apple TV directly to the Sony Soundbar didn’t fix the problem. This did not happen on any other streaming player or the Roku TV.

It’s worth mentioning that when Sony reps instructed me to connect the Apple TV directly to the soundbar, I was initially confused. I could only see the one eARC HDMI connection. It was only after consulting the online help guide that I realized there was an HDMI input hidden under the lip on the back, next to the other HDMI port. It’s a good idea to download the help guide.

To test 360 degree Reality Audio, I connected a third-generation Amazon Fire Cube directly to the soundbar. Amazon Music requires an Amazon Unlimited subscription to listen to hi-res or 360RA music. There are a few playlists dedicated to 360RA, including “Best of 360 Reality Audio,” which includes Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red.” Doja Cat’s voice rang loud and clear from the front sound bar while background music and singers seemed to come from all around the room.

An extended 360RA version of “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers appeared to be an attack of the androids as robotic voices surrounded me, while clapping came from the back speakers. The sound placement of objects often seemed to come from some phantom speaker at the side of the room, playing tricks on my brain.

Because of its ability to play Dolby Atmos, 360 degree Reality Audio wasn’t the only object-based format available. Apple Music’s Spatial Audio can interpret Dolby Atmos encoded songs and deliver them in a way that also fills the room.

The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” has been remixed in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music and is an extraordinary audio experience on the Sony BRAVIA Theater 9 soundbar system. The patter of rain around me was so real and pronounced, I half-expected to be getting wet. Quiet background vocals were separated and clear coming from the soundbar while music swirled around the room.

Conclusion

The experience might have been different if all sound settings were turned on by default. Instead, initially, the speaker’s capabilities weren’t apparent. Turning on its sound setting features brings out the brightness and personality, allowing the speakers to shine. The small speakers in the soundbar are limited, despite having 13 of them. It is sound that fills the room and is suitable for both home theater and music, but it lacks the flavor, atmosphere, and presence of a high-quality system. For those who want a fun system that will fill the room, improve dialogue, and bring a home theater experience, especially users who own a Bravia TV, this is a decent choice.

Specifications

Dimensions: width: 51-1/4 inches; height 2- 5/8 inches; depth 4-1/2 inches

Weight: 12 lb, 3 oz.

Soundbar speakers

2 Side full-range speakers: 1-13/16 x 2-1/4 inches

Center Speaker: 2 Woofers 1-13/16 x 3 5/8 inches; 1 Tweeter 7/8 inch

L/R Speakers: 2 Woofers 1-13/16 x 3 5/8 inches; 2 tweeters 13/32 inch

2 Upfiring speakers: 1-13/16 x 2-1/4 inches

2 Beam Tweeters:

2 Passive Radiators

Surround

Dolby Speaker Virtual: Yes, Dolby Surround: Yes, Neural:X: Yes

Spotify connect , airplay 2

Connections:

1 HDMI 2.1 input ARC/eARC capable

1 HDMI 2.1 output eARC

Supports up to 8K @ 60 Hz and 4K @120 Hz, HDR10, Dolby Vision HLg

HDMI input

IMAX ENHANCED, LPCM: 2ch/5.1ch/7.1ch, LPCM fs: -192kHz/24bit, MPEG-H 3D Audio BL profile(Level3/Level4): 360 Reality Audio

HDMI ARC

Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital Plus/Atmos, Dolby Dual mono, DTS:, DTS 96/24, LPCM 2ch, LPCM fs: 48kHz/24bit

HDMI eARC

DTS, DTS HD High Resolution Audio, DTS HD Master Audio, DTS ES, DTS 96/24, DTS:X, IMAX ENHANCED, LPCM: 192kHz/24bit

WI-FI

Wi-Fi method: Wi-Fii 5 802.11ac

Bluetooth:

Bluetooth 5.2