Sony HT-A7000

clarkorama

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Dec 3, 2021
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I have this, got it on an RS offer that put it at 900 if bought with an XR Bravia. Then they gave me a ton gift voucher as well.

I’ve no idea why they were pushing it so hard because there were hardly any in the country and I had to wait a month for it to even arrive.

It’s pretty impressive though. At the time all I could find were sponsored reviews so I wasn’t really sure how much faith I could put in them, but when I fired it up doubts were assuaged.

For a single bar it can fire sounds to the side and above surprisingly well. The bass is nicely meaty even with only the built in subs.
The only drawback to the thing for me is that EQ takes the form of Min, Mid, Max bass settings and then a series of presets for Cinema, Music, Voice etc. along with and “Immersive AI” button on the remote. All this rather than my sort of sliders or more detailed EQ.

That said, it is pretty nicely balanced. I would hope for firmware updates to add more detail and control here later though.

It’s also worth noting that the installation guide calls for a space of 80mm between the bar and the tv to allow the up-firing speakers to work. This is pretty impractical visually and I’ve just tilted the bottom of the set in to the wall. I’m not sure how it’s possible if using a set on its legs rather than wall mounted.

I,ve paired mine with an XR65A80J OLED, and to be honest the effect is amazingly cinematic. The tv is a stunner and the bar just adds the boom. The sound from the a80 was already good because it uses “acoustic surface” which is amazing in and of itself, but because the pairing is all on brand the bar uses that AS as an extra centre speaker.

The functions for the bar just appear in the quick menus for the tv so you can control it all from one place.

I’ll add the rear speakers at some point when they go on sale, but at the moment I couldn’t really be happier with it.

Normally with something this expensive I tend to get a bit of buyers remorse, but with both the tv and soundbar I have absolutely no regrets.

I would buy it again for sure.
It’s a big outlay but very worth it.
 
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Mike Ali

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Jan 17, 2023
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I have owned both the Sony A7000 and the Samsung Q990. I was looking for something as an improvement over an old Sony STR-DN1030 and a pair of small bookshelf speakers (Q-Acoustics 2020), I didn't have the space for bigger speakers up front, or cabled speakers anywhere else.

I wanted to improve my listening experience, my existing speakers were average quality for a medium size room, but they didn't wow me. I wasn't so interested in Atmos effects as I have a very odd shaped room with one side of the soundbar close to a wall, plus a vaulted ceiling.

The A7000 (the soundbar alone without bass or rear speakers) in my opinion did not improve my music setup - irrespective of genre (jazz, rock, prog, punk, electronic). The soundstage is very narrow, it really sounds like it's coming from the soundbar, with little separation. There's quite a lot of bass, but it drowns out the mids and treble to the point where things sound flat.

My use-case may not be the best since I wasn't looking for a soundbar exclusively for TV/films, my driver was music. I tried all the sound settings, cinema, music, standard and immersive AI, but IMHO they sounded worse than my current setup, and in I felt a little too processed.

I have many Sony products, from the AV amp, 4k BluRay and turntable, and even an Xperia 1III mobile which can play high-res spacial audio via Tidal over LDAC, therefore I wanted the Sony Soundbar as I felt it would play nice with the rest of the kit. Fortunately, it did work with everything, including the AV amp with turntable and FM radio. I connected the 3.5mm audio cable from the headphone out on the AV amp to the analog input on the soundbar.

The Samsung Q990 on the other hand is another story. Obviously the Samsung has a sub-woofer and rear speakers, so it has the advantage of separating sound. I never tested just the soundbar alone. The sound really seems to surround you, very immersive, crisp, great bass (I had to turn down the sub to -2), the Adaptive sound did an amazing job of separating all around the living room and kitchen area to the point where it made me want to re-listen to some of my favourite music for the joy of it.

I have just ordered an 'analog to digital converter' so I can connect the old AV amp to the toslink optical connector on the soundbar so I can get my turntable and radio working.
I went with the Samsung also because it has 2 HDMI inputs. One for my 4k BluRay player, and the other for my 4k Firestick Plus. Note, my 2019 Samsung TV technically doesn't support Atmos audio, hence the Firestick.

If music is your interest then a pair of decent bookshelf speakers will be better than the A7000, but the Q990B may be even better (depending on your budget of course). I'm living in Italy, so the Sony costs around €1200 for just the bar, whilst the Q990 comes in at around €1000. You can pick up new Q-Acoustic bookshelfs for €400, but I'm sure there are others which can cost 2 to 3 times as much and deliver a better sound.
 
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