Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8 Soundbar Review

The Sony Theater Bar 8 looks like a smaller version of the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9. Both soundbars are low and wide, predominantly made of plastic, and covered in fabric. The bottom right side has two LED indicators.

The Sony HT A8000 doesn't come with a separate subwoofer. However, it houses four subwoofers within the bar. You can also purchase one of its compatible subwoofers, the Sony SA-SW3 or SA-SW5.

The Sony HTA8000 doesn't include any satellites, but you can add the Sony SA-RS5 or the SA-RS3S separately.

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8 is quite wide; even though it's smaller than the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9, it still won't fit between the legs of a 65-inch TV. That said, it's not a tall soundbar, so the bar won't block your view unless there's no space between the screen and the table.

In the box, you get brackets and screws, giving you the option to mount the soundbar to your wall. This facilitates a relatively easy installation.

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8 is well-built. The bar's plastic construction is weighty, and the top, front, and sides are covered in fabric. However, the fabric can collect dust and hair, which can be hard to clean. Its bottom and back are plastic with a physical power button on the back right-hand side. Alongside the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9, it's a departure from the manufacturer's other designs, like the metal-grilled Sony HT-A5000.

• Remote with batteries (2x AAA)
• Wall-mount brackets and screws
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5 m)
• Power cable (4.9 ft / 1. 5m)
• TV center speaker mode cable (6.2 ft / 1.9 m)
• User manual

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8's stereo frequency response is decent. We tested it with 'Sound Field' enabled, which makes instruments take up more space and come across as more accurately placed in the stereo field, though it's still a bit difficult to track them. The bar tends toward a brighter voicing due to a lack of an outboard full-size subwoofer, which works well for dialogue-heavy media, like reality TV and old Hollywood movies. However, the bass sounds fuller if you turn off 'Sound Field,' but unfortunately, disabling 'Sound Field' dulls details in the treble region.

You only get three settings to adjust the bass ('Min,' 'Mid,' and 'Max') and besides 'Sound Field,' there are only two other sound enhancement modes, 'Night' and 'Voice.' Here's a comparison of the different sound enhancement modes, including 'Sound Field' enabled and 'disabled.' You'll note the prominent bump in the mid-range with the 'Sound Field' function enabled, which can cause a somewhat artificial muddiness to your audio.

You can only adjust the bass between three settings ('Min,' 'Mid,' and 'Max'), and it's set to 'Mid' by default. If you want a better-balanced sound, you can up it to 'Max' (which is what '1' represents, if the default 'Mid' is considered '0'). There aren't any other EQ settings for mids or treble.

The soundbar's stereo soundstage is adequate. Its width reaches a bit past the ends of the bar. The soundstage shifts towards the side you're sitting on if you're not facing it dead center, which gives you the impression of an offset soundstage in other positions. The soundstage struggles a bit to accurately place moving sounds with panning that shifts from one side to the other. Its localization is a bit better with 'Sound Field' enabled, but overall, the soundstage isn't exceptionally immersive.

The soundbar can get loud enough to fill a large room. At maximum volume, the bar compresses quite a lot in the bass range, which causes a pumping effect. Its app has a dynamic range compression (DRC) function set to 'Auto' by default, which was disabled for this test. Depending on the content, the DRC setting can somewhat control pumping and artifacts caused at high volumes.

The Sony Theater Bar 8 has a dedicated discrete center channel, which is very helpful in separating speech and vocals. The sound is mostly balanced and a bit bright, but clear. At normal listening volumes, it's fairly clean without much harmonic distortion, though at max levels, it can impart a bit of distortion.

You can also use a compatible TV's built-in speakers with the soundbar via the S-Center Out port. Hooking up the TV's speakers to the bar combines the center channel of the soundbar with the TV's speakers also used as the center channel; typically, this doesn't meaningfully improve the sound and can make it duller. Using the soundbar alone tends to yield the best results.

The soundbar's 5.1 surround performance is poor. The side-firing speakers at either end of the bar are designed to simulate a surround sound, but they don't totally replace the surround effect of discrete satellites. Their frequency response is uneven, with disproportionately more mid-bass thump and mid-mid-range, which causes vocal articulation and bright sounds to come across as unclear and lacking detail. Meanwhile, action scenes and music lack a full-bodied sound. However, there is a bit of low-end thump.

The soundbar includes two up-firing speakers to give the impression of height by directing the sound toward the ceiling to bounce back down. The resulting effect seems to place the height in front of you without great depth. The speakers' unbalanced frequency response causes bright sounds to come across as shrill and not full, with finer details in dialogue sounding less clear. Subjectively, localization along the sides and across the vertical plane is okay during action scenes, but it tracks less clearly with moving sounds, and they lack depth. Action scenes with low-pitched rumble have a bit of a muddy sound, but you can hear rumble somewhat.

The Sony HT A8000 has a limited set of sound customization. It can automatically calibrate the sound to your room. Besides that, 'Sound Field' optimizes the surround sound feature, although it alters the frequency response, which you have little control over. There are also 'Night' and 'Voice' modes. You can adjust the height of the surround and three different bass strengths, as well. The app also has the brand's proprietary digital signal processor (DSP) called DSEE Ultimate, which upscales lossy formats, but it won't noticeably improve already high-quality media formats.

The soundbar has one full HDMI In port and one eARC port. Their side-by-side location is pretty tight if you have chunky cables. Otherwise, there's a S-Center Out port to connect with compatible TVs. On the underside, there's a USB-A port (shown here) for servicing the soundbar.

The soundbar supports many different audio formats using the eARC port, including Dolby Digital and DTS formats found on streaming and Blu-Rays. Object-based formats like Dolby Atmos are supported, too.

The HDMI In port supports a lot of audio formats. This ranges from Dolby Digital through Dolby Atmos and DTS formats. You can expect the soundbar to playback audio from streaming services and Blu-Rays without issue.

The soundbar's audio latency is unremarkable via the eARC port. You'll want to use the app's A/V Sync function to manually adjust the latency if you notice it's high enough that you're encountering lip-sync mismatch. However, some apps and TVs will compensate for latency, too.

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8's HDMI In port's latency is sub-par. Across all audio formats, latency is high enough that you'll want to consider using the A/V Sync function in the app if you experience lip-sync issues. Some TVs and apps can also compensate for latency, so your results may differ.

The soundbar supports 4k video passthrough @ 120Hz, which is great for video games and sports. It's also compatible with the variable refresh rate G-SYNC format.

The soundbar supports plenty of wireless connection options, including Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth. You can easily pair your phone and play music or control music via the Wi-Fi network connection.

The soundbar's interface consists of two color-coded lights on the bottom right side. A white light means it's using the eARC connection; green is for HDMI In, and blue is for Bluetooth. When you change the volume, the light blinks to show that it has registered. Otherwise, the app gives you more information and feedback about settings.

There's a single power button located on the right side of the soundbar near the back. All other functions require the remote or the app.

The accompanying remote is small and covers basic functions like power, volume, and input, alongside different listening modes. As shown here, you'll need the app to access more in-depth features.