Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 Soundbar Review

The Sony A9000 is quite wide and, unlike the Sony HT-A7000, has most of its sides wrapped in fabric. There are LED lights on the bottom right side of the soundbar.

This bar doesn't come with a subwoofer, but there are quad woofers integrated into the bar's design. You can always add the SA-SW3 or SA-SW5 subwoofers separately, though.

There aren't any satellites part of this setup, but you can add the SA-RS5 or SA-RS3S down the line.

This bar is quite wide, so it won't fit between the legs of a 65-inch TV stand. On the upside, it's not very tall, so it won't block your TV screen unless it's flush to the table. If space is tight, the smaller Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 8 is a bit smaller with comparable features.

You can mount this bar to your wall, thanks to the included brackets. The screws are also included, so the setup is fairly straightforward.

The Sony A9000 has a good build quality. The bar itself is mostly made of hefty plastic, with a fabric covering most of its sides. It doesn't really look or feel like previous Sony soundbars, like the Sony HT-A7000, which has a glass plate on its top side and a metal grille for its front face. That said, it still feels sturdy, although the fabric is prone to collecting dust or hair.

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

This bar has a decent stereo frequency response. It can reproduce detailed and natural-sounding instruments and dialogue, which is good for cinematic cut scenes or daytime soap operas. However, the bar struggles a bit to create separation between instruments. Even though the bar has integrated woofers, it has trouble reproducing thumpy low bass, especially when compared to bars with a dedicated subwoofer like the Samsung HW-Q900D or the Sony BRAVIA Theater Quad with Bass Module. There's no EQ either, but there are sound enhancements that you can use to adjust the sound. You can see a comparison of all the sound enhancements.

If you're looking for a more balanced sound, you can try setting the bass to 'Max' (which corresponds to the '1' in our comparison). It's worth noting that treble adjustments aren't available, but there is bass and mid.

The stereo soundstage is okay. The width of the soundstage is a little bit wider than the bar itself but not much more than that. If you're not sitting in the middle of the bar, this will impact the stereo performance. The focus isn't very controlled either, so the sound at the edge of the soundstage gets pushed to the back of the soundbar.

The soundbar exhibits a subtle phase issue where audio that's hard-panned to the left or right will still come out of the other channel, albeit at a lower volume. If you're attuned to the specific mix of a track, you'll possibly notice it, especially with older stereo mixes that frequently place an instrument solely on one side of the stereo mix. However, this is less of an obvious issue with most audio since most modern stereo content typically includes sounds to a greater or lesser degree in both L/R channels anyway.

The Sony A9000 can get loud, which is nice if you want to use it in a large, open space. That said, there's a lot of compression at max volume, which affects your sound's clarity.

By default, this bar has dynamic range compression (DRC) set to 'auto,' but this feature is turned off for testing.

This bar has a center channel, which helps improve vocal reproduction. The frequency response here is quite flat and balanced, so dialogue sounds clear and easy to follow.

If you have a compatible Sony BRAVIA TV, you can take advantage of Acoustic Center Sync. This feature lets you use the TV as a center channel at the same time as using the bar. Don't get your hopes up, though—not only does its efficacy depend on your TV, but in our experience, this feature doesn't really improve your setup's performance, even with a high-end TV. Instead, it can make audio seem flatter. For a clearer and more dimensional experience, we found that using the soundbar setup alone resulted in the best sound.

The Sony A9000's surround performance is disappointing. This bar has side-firing speakers to simulate surround sound, but this doesn't sound as clear or real as a discrete setup. The frequency response of these speakers is uneven, too, resulting in a lot of bass and weakened mids, which affect sounds like voices. For 5.1, the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 with Speakers + Bass Module takes advantage of satellites and a sub to provide somewhat better surround performance.

The Sony A9000 has two up-firing speakers to bounce sound off of your ceiling and back down towards you to create the impression of height. The frequency response here isn't the most even, as there's a peak in the low to mid-mid, cluttering and pushing dialogue and instruments forward a bit. That said, it doesn't seem quite as clear or real as discrete localization created by satellites.

Subjectively, the bar can create crisp detail, but the lack of rumbly low bass is noticeable, which impacts the immersive feeling you get in scenes with a lot of action. Overall, though, the height itself was decent, depending on the scene. When objects are placed directly above you, the sense of height is good, but bassy objects like cars rushing along the extreme sides of the soundstage don't have as much height. Using the settings to increase height improved the performance a bit, but it didn't make a difference in the areas it already struggled in.

This bar has very limited sound customization features. There aren't any EQ presets available, but you can toggle the following modes on and off: 'Night Mode,' 'Sound Field' (which optimizes the surround sound to your room), and 'Voice Mode.' It's worth noting that while there are two sliders for adjusting the sound, they're only for the bass and height.

There's also Voice Zoom 3, which works with compatible BRAVIA to ensure clear dialogue. Acoustic Center Sync allows you to use your compatible BRAVIA TV as a center speaker alongside that of the bar. That said, when we tried using this feature, it didn't result in an improved audio experience compared to using only the soundbar setup. The performance of this feature can also depend on your TV.

Unlike the Sony HT-A7000, this bar only has one full HDMI port. Furthermore, the HDMI In and eArc ports are pretty close to one another, so if your connector is bulky, you may have trouble fitting both side by side. While there's a USB port, it's only for servicing the bar.

The Sony A9000 supports many different audio formats via eARC, including Dolby Digital (which you can find on streaming services as well as on Blu-rays) and object-based, lossless formats like Dolby Atmos. While not available upon release, Sony plans to add IMAX Enhanced DTS:X support, a format intended for vibrant image and clarity.

This bar also has fantastic audio format support via HDMI In. You can play formats like Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. This bar will receive IMAX Enhanced DTS:X support via a firmware update post-release. This format ensures a vibrant and clear image; it's found on 4k Blu-rays and some streaming services.

This bar has a mediocre latency performance via ARC. Latency is high across all audio formats, but some apps and TVs compensate for it. Luckily, you can use the app's A/V Sync to manually adjust for delay.

The latency performance via HDMI In is also sub-par, so you may want to use the A/V Sync feature in the app to manually compensate for delay. Latency can vary depending on the app and TV, though.

The Sony A9000 supports 4k at 120Hz, which is great if you want to use the bar as a hub between your newest-gen console and TV. It also supports variable refresh rate technologies for a tear-free gaming experience.

This bar supports a variety of wireless connectivity options. It also has built-in Spotify Connect support, so you can easily play audio from your smartphone to the bar.

The interface is quite minimal. There are two light indicators on the bottom right of the bar to let you know which connection type you're using. The lights also blink to indicate volume changes. If you want more in-depth feedback, you'll want to use the companion app instead.

The bar only has a power button, so you'll need to use either the remote or the app to control the bar. The power button is on the right side of the bar, towards the bottom back.

The remote is a bit scaled back from that of the Sony HT-A7000, but it still allows you to control all the basic features like volume and sound customization via sound modes. To know more about the bar's settings, you'll want to use the app.