The Sony HT-A7000 is a new flagship soundbar. It’s a premium product with all the bells and whistles that you would expect from Sony. Depending on the space available, the size of the room, and of course your budget, you can buy the soundbar as a standalone or you can add a subwoofer and rear speakers. The overall design of the soundbar is rather large at 1300 mm (51 inches or just over 4 feet). It certainly does look long. Of course, it would still fit quite snuggly under a 55 inch or larger TV.
The design of the HT-A7000 is rather interesting. A combination of glass, metal, plastic and fabric make for a simple and elegant looking speaker. The chassis is filled to the brim with speakers, two upward-firing speakers, two beam tweeters and five front speakers. Additionally, there are two built-in subwoofers. This is classified as a 7.1.2 channel speaker set. The glass on top has some of the controls though one would most likely use only the remote. It is a bit of a fingerprint magnet and sometimes reflects the content from the TV. The front grill is not removable as some people prefer so don’t try and peel it off!
Easy setup: Setting up the HT-A7000 is a total breeze. If you have just the soundbar, all you need to do is connect it to your TV, preferably with the supplied HDMI 2.1 cable connected to the eARC HDMI port on your TV and that’s it. When you power on the soundbar, you will get the option for an easy setup as well as an advanced setup. The easy setup has options for the initial setup, audio setup and network setup. The process is simple and finishes in just a few minutes. The speaker also has a sound field optimisation option which measures the distance from the walls and the ceiling and sets the sound levels accordingly. If you also have the subwoofer and rear speakers, these will also be taken into account for the sound field optimisation. At any stage, if you are unhappy with the sound or make changes to the placement of the speakers, you can always run the optimisation routine again. The process sends out some fairly loud tones in all directions and once done the soundbar does sound very good.
Sound all around: Apart from the TV output, the soundbar has tonnes of options for playing music. Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Amazon Music, Tidal and more. Sony’s format of 360 Reality Audio is also supported and the demo of that is very impressive, truly shows off the speakers.
Sony’s Vertical Surround Engine and S-Force Pro front surround provide a truly immersive experience. Watching movies like Gravity, you can truly feel the sound spinning around in the room with you. Ready Player One shows off the vertical sound engine quite well; you do feel the sound going up and down from the floor to the ceiling and back.
Connect a PS4 or a PS5 and even the gaming experience is enhanced. Playing Last of Us Part II had us looking over our shoulders every few minutes for attackers. While the soundbar does not as yet support low-latency mode and variable refresh rate the game experience did not suffer at all.
Overall, the HT-A7000 is a great sounding soundbar and for someone who is looking for a simple setup for an enhanced immersive experience, it is a great option. There are a few things that are surprisingly missing. Despite all the setup options, there was no equaliser, while this is usually not required for TV content, it is critical for music listeners. As a standalone soundbar, it is great, but for that truly cinematic and immersive experience the addition of a subwoofer and rear speakers is absolutely essential. Adding all that up does make it a bit of a pricey option. However, there is no doubt that it sounds great and in the end, that is what matters most.
The soundbar costs ₹1,49,990/- | Deals available – ₹1,77,990/- Bar + SW5 | RearS ₹30,990/-
Published on
February 28, 2022
