These Speakers are incredible.Currently using with my a7000 soundbar and sw5 subwoofer. These use Spatial Sound Mapping technology,which I currently don’t use as I manually changed my db levels using an spl meter,using 74db as a base.They have up firing speakers for added Dolby Atmos effects,and I’ve never heard such convincing height effects.No,they don’t work as well as dedicated ceiling speakers, but they absolutely work as intended even tho some people will never give them the credit that they deserve! When I had the soundbar and subwoofer,I would have rated it a 8/10 and with these it makes it a 9.5/10!!! Amazing sound quality and big especially for a satellite speaker! At almost 10 inches tall and just under 7lbs these are totally worth the price!! If you want one of the best soundbars available today these must be added to achieve this. Blows away 95% of all sbars! Pricey, but you get what you pay for! Enjoy.Before I purchased this bar,I demoed the Sonos arc,klipsch 1200 and Samsung 950a and this was better than the arc with a pair of Sl ones and a gen3 subwoofer and the Samsung.The arc did sound good but lacked any heightened effects, and the Samsung had weak bass and the rears were very quiet for the most part.The klipsch was decent,but i had disconnection issues with the rears.When it was working correctly,it sounded a bit bright, but overall a good bar for the $$.It has the best bass of all my demoes.So when money isn’t an issue,I would recommend,1-Sony a7000,2-Sonos arc,3-Klipsch 1200 and in last,the Samsung 950a.But for those on a budget,you can get the 950 for $1,200 on sale. Actually,Make these a 10/10 when you combine them with the a7000 and sub.Also,if you’re in a small room, you probably don’t need the a7000,and I think the a5000 would be ideal,along with the sw3 sub instead of the bigger subwoofer.I’ve heard both and the smaller one,the sw3 will save you about $250-$300 depending on the deal you get with a package purchase.The a5000 and sw3 with these sars5 rears will cost roughly$500-$600 less than the a7 with the sw5.Sony hit a grand slam with this soundbar system! Just recently heard my friends new Samsung Q990b and it was an improvement over the 950a, but he’s having disconnection problems and this is his 2nd time as he had to return his first one.Not worth $1,600-$1700 especially with the new sub still being a side firing sub which should have changed. Bass was decent and could get loud, but very boomy and not chest thumping type.Depending on your needs,for a small room-go a5000 and the a7000 for bigger rooms.I’ve found this to be the best,(expensive) available sbar available today with the exception being the ambeo seinheisser, but even that without rear speakers can only do so much.Sony 1!!! Read more
These add rear surround speakers and rear upward firing speakers to the Sony sound bars they are designed for. They have a clean sound and the design is fantastic, especially considering the battery power. In our open concept living room, properly positioned rear speakers don’t look very esthetic, so with these they live on the back kitchen counter. They look good there and sound good for daily viewing. For movies, I unplug and set them on the kitchen table behind the couch. No need for any wires, and have 10 hours of battery life that way. I’ve never tested the full battery life but they have no problem through a full movie or two, and even if it ends up being less than the advertised 10, I would believe that’s still more than enough for most people. Sound stage on the A7000 soundbar with these and sub sound significantly better in my opinion than the HT-A9 with the same sub. Much better center channel performance, and although the A9 front speakers can be spread out wider than the soundbar, the soundbar does seem to have a cleaner and fuller sound. I have heard both with the same content and definitely like the A7000 with these rears more. The sound bubble is very wide and no holes are noticeable. I kind of found this a little counterintuitive at first. With other systems I’ve used, I listened for the rears during times when they should fire and can usually hear them discretely and clearly from this speaker or that speaker. With this system, it’s harder to do that and I realized that it’s making the sound less localized to the location of the speaker itself and instead making a bubble pretty well that surrounds you such that the sound transitions more smoothly and less noticeably when it’s at one speaker vs another. You hear more points around you rather than sound just at the specific speaker. One annoyance with the soundbar system that seems to be common with many systems, though the Sonos Arc didn’t seem to have this issue: when using Airplay, if the soundbar is set up to allow HDMI control (which most people will want on so you can control using a single remote rather than separate remotes), the tv will also turn on. This is quite annoying as I’d like to be able to play music on airplay without the tv turning on. Minor annoyance, but definitely one that should be better thought out in software implementation. Read more
It’s a great addition to the hta-7000 system and the 300 watt subwoofer for a more refined rear speaker experience. I set them up with the power cord always connected, but I do have the option to use the built in battery that is supposed to last 90 minutes, the set up took a bit of time but it was well worth it. One thing I’ve experienced as a negative is that they can lose connection to the sound bar if the sound bar loses power during use, I live in an area where blackouts happen every winter, it is simple to reconnect all devices to the sound bar through the settings menu and following the instructions. If you’re looking to get an hta-7000 I would heavily recommend checking out the larger subwoofer and rear speaker options for a much fuller audio experience. Read more
