Sony’s latest mid-range soundbar can fill a room, but lacks a cinematic slam dunk
Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8: One-minute review
When Sony announced its 2024 AV lineup, it wasn’t just its TVs that received a more straightforward naming system, but its soundbars too. This year, the potentially tricky-to-remember model numbers have been replaced with a much simpler Bravia branding. The Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 replaces the HT-A5000 as the company’s mid-range model – sitting below the Theater Bar 9 and the Bravia Theater Quad four-speaker audio system – and arrives with the aim to be one of best soundbars.
As with the HT-A5000, this latest model is a standalone Dolby Atmos soundbar. There are no wireless rear speakers included, nor is there a wireless subwoofer, but these can be added as optional extras if you wish to create an even more immersive surround sound experience. Despite the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 cramming 11 speakers into its slimline body to create a “bubble of sound” in Sony’s words, we would recommend true movie buffs consider adding at least a subwoofer to handle the low-end.
The Bar 8 is smaller than its predecessor – by some 30% – and is low in height, meaning it slots effortlessly in front of a TV. Connectivity is good rather than great with just two HDMI ports, one of which is eARC to connect to your TV. Thankfully, however, the other HDMI input is the 2.1 standard and it supports 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz passthrough, meaning you can confidently connect external devices including games consoles and 4K Blu-ray players. Elsewhere there is Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth for streaming music.
While some may expect more from a soundbar that costs $999 / £999 / AU$1,499, where connections or additional rear speakers are concerned there’s no denying the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 does an excellent job of boosting the sound of your TV. Although as for true Dolby Atmos it does fall a little short of the competition. The company’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech does work in creating phantom speakers, but we found during our testing that the soundfield was more of a half-dome as opposed to a full-dome covering an entire room.
We also found that the Bravia Bar 8 performed at its best in small to medium-sized rooms, as it seemed to lack the power to fill a larger open space. Adding the optional rear speakers and/or a subwoofer will undoubtedly help (we didn’t have them for this review), but the total cost of such a package adds up to far more than tried and tested complete Dolby Atmos soundbar packages, despite the Bravia Bar 8 receiving what seem to be permanent price cuts globally (as of September 2024, it’s typical street price is generally around $849.99 / £799 / AU$1,249).
So while it might not be the outright best option for your main TV viewing room, the Sony Bravia Bar 8 can certainly find a spot in a bedroom or smaller TV room. The only question you’ll need to ask yourself is if you’d rather opt for the Sonos Arc. It doesn’t cost that much more than the Sony, handles music better and has the added potential benefit multiroom functionality.Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Price and release date
Launched in July 2024
List price of $999 / £999 / AU$1,499
Has received price cuts since launch
The Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 was announced in April 2024 and went on sale in July 2024 in the US, UK and Australia for $999 / £999 / AU$1,499. That puts it right in the firing line of the Sonos Arc, which also goes without a wireless subwoofer or rear speakers included.
It’s less than the MSRP of the Samsung HW-Q990D – our current favorite Dolby Atmos soundbar on our list of the best soundbars – although recent price drops against Samsung’s soundbar make it approximately the same price as the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 in most regions.
Samsung’s flagship bar comes with a wireless subwoofer and rear speakers included, although the rears do require constant power. Sony’s selection of optional rear speakers run off rechargeable batteries and so could prove to be a more appealing option for anyone short on power outlets in their room.Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: SpecsSony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Features
5.0.2 speaker channels
Phantom speakers for extra ‘virtual’ channels
HDMI 2.1 with 4K 120Hz support
As you’ll find with soundbars from the likes of LG and Samsung, the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 can connect to a Sony TV from 2021 or newer and use it as a center channel via Bravia Acoustic Center Sync. It would have been nice for this to have worked via HDMI – whereby the soundbar should be able to detect it’s connected to a Sony TV – but you have to connect them together using the included cable. If you don’t own a Sony TV, but your TV has an S-Center speaker input, you can take advantage of this feature via the same 3.5mm cable wired connection (the 3.5mm port on the rear of the Bravia Bar 8 can only be used for this feature and can’t be used as an input from external devices).
There are only two HDMI ports on the Bravia Bar 8, and with one needed to connect to a TV via eARC, there is just one spare for external devices. Fortunately, this input does support 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz passthrough and gamers will appreciate that it supports auto low latency mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR). Having just one spare HDMI input shouldn’t alienate too many users, but the previous HT-A5000 had two spare, so it’s peculiar as to why Sony has dropped one this time around.
Setting up the Bravia Bar 8 is incredibly easy. Simply connect it to your TV via the aforementioned HDMI port, open up the Bravia Connect app on your iOS or Android device and connect it to your network. Once done, you’ll want to run a calibration to ensure the soundbar is optimized for your specific room. It’s a process that only takes around 20 seconds and sees the soundbar emitting various tones to determine the acoustics of your room to optimize the sound output based on your usual seating position.
There’s no option to manually adjust speaker channel settings as you can with other soundbars such as the Samsung HW-Q990D, but you can choose from three height modes – lower, default and higher – and three different sound field settings. The default option here is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, but you also have the option of DTS Neural:X or Dolby Speaker Visualizer.
