Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsIt's okay, but nothing special.
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2022
If you're going to spend the money on this, I highly recommend just throwing down $1000 for the higher end version. This is okay, but it's nothing special, and will just make you wish you'd spent more money on something higher end.
Music on this sounds totally mindblowingly spectacular, but voices don't, which is a big problem for an audio device that you're hooking up to a TV. Whenever a scene comes on that's mainly sound effects and music, then this thing really shines and impresses me, but when people start talking then it often disappoints. It's better than my TV's speakers for sure, but voices are sometimes less muddy (though lower quality overall) on my TV's speakers. A big problem is that there are only three bass settings, and the bass is what makes the voices muddy, so you either end up having a little too much bass with voices slightly muddy, or too little bass.
The controller and integration with a Sony brand TV also leave a lot to be desired. I have a Sony TV, so you'd think there would be some nice integration, but there's not. For example, when you turn the volume up or down, it doesn't show the volume on the TV, only on the sound bar. The sound bar's whole interface leaves a lot to be desired. There are like 5 LEDs that they use to display everything (including volume), which tends to be confusing. You'd think with a Sony TV at least that the TV would display the settings instead, or at least the volume, but no such luck. You're stuck with the confusing LEDs.
The fact that it comes with a remote at all is slightly annoying; the last thing I need is another remote. The controls have a lot of complex options and functionality. There are different options you can cycle through by holding a button down instead of pressing it and vice versa. It has a bunch of presets, stuff that specific to certain kinds of content, all sorts of options. You'd think that would be good, but it often just ends up being confusing and unnecessary. The default options are probably the best (which is probably why they made it the default), and you can spend hours cycling through the other options just to find stuff that isn't as good as the default. The whole interface and remote are needlessly complex and confusing. I would have actually preferred if you just plugged the sound bar in and there were no options, remote, or confusing LEDs.
The vertical surround sound and other surround sound stuff it does is pretty cool when you're listening to music, but the moment it switches to voices you're going to wish you'd spent more money for the higher end version. The surround sound does seem to surround when music is playing, but when voices are playing then it often feels like a slightly smaller sound stage than my TV's built in speakers. The surround sound stuff seems to occasionally slightly distort voices as well, but like the muddy voices it's often transient. This thing definitely shows off how cool it could be if you'd spent more money.
Overall, this might make a nice gift for a friend or family member (or a child) who isn't an audiophile or who has an old TV, but I'd highly, highly recommend just spending $1000 instead if you're going to buy a sound bar for yourself. It's just kinda not worth it at this price point. It does look beautiful though, I'll give it that, and when music is playing it's totally spectacular. It is overall better than my TV's built in speakers, but the occasional muddy or distorted voices bother me.