Sony Bravia Theater Quad Impressive Sound from 4 Speakers!

[gene]

The Sony Bravia Theater Quad ($2,500) is the next generation of a concept introduced in 2021 with the $1,800 HT-A9 system. Four compact speakers containing four drivers and four amps apiece connect wirelessly to a small control box that sits near your TV. Together, they create immersive surround-sound audio and real stereo music that no soundbar could match.

Don Dunn attended a Sony dealer training a couple of weeks ago for a demo of this system and was mighty impressed. It appears Sony 360 Spatial Mapping works as advertises and gives users placement flexibility and ease of set up in a compact form factor.

Has Sony cracked the code to true home theater performance without the fuss?

Read: Sony Bravia Theater Quad Impressed Us with Legit Theater Sound

 

[George MacDonald]

Will it play Apple Music's Spatial Audio?

 

[Trebdp83]

I’ve always dreamed of installing four indoor antennas all around the room. Good thing I have four power outlets just where I need them. Sony reps must shakes hands with cash in their palms. Maybe that was where Bose went wrong. At least their “subwoofers” came with their sets.

This system is limited in many ways. 360 Reality Audio works only via the HDMI IN port. Like DSD it is not available over eARC. Unfortunately, SACD and DVD-AUDIO signals aren’t supported here at all.

A device outputting a 360 Reality Audio signal will need to be connected to the single HDMI IN port. All other devices will need to go directly to the connected TV and use eARC. This limits total connected devices to just four in most cases. Signals from the TV will be limited more still if the TV only supports ARC.

F#%k, if bouncers are on the table and a monster sub is not essential, one can currently pick up a Denon X3800H receiver and a Monoprice 5.1.4 kit for less money than this overpriced s#%t. The sub woofer could be upgraded and duplicated and the entire setup would still come in under the price of the quad system with optional sub.

Oh, and yes. It can play Apple’s Spatial Audio, but only over HDMI from the Apple TV 4K which is just a Dolby Atmos signal.

 

[Marzman]

The Quad is not for everyone (but most regular consumers will be impressed). There are obvious input and output limitations. No expandability beyond the sub offered by Sony. Etc...

However, these days, the average joe consumes everything directly from the Internet. So, if you are one of those folks that can live with a combination of one device (say an Apple TV, PS5, etc...) connected to the Quad and the rest connected to the two to four inputs on your TV, then most of the connectivity issues are somewhat resolved (yes with limitations).

If you haven't tested the quad in your own room, making assumptions about the sound it delivers, is just an exercise in sticking to what you know. I just finished testing the Quad with an SA-SW5 sub against two 7.1.2 receivers working with B&W speakers. The sound field was superior in the creation of a 3D sound dome. Voices were extremely natural. Objects were all very detailed and well separated. Music sounded great with a convincing natural sound stage that was not at all gimmicky. Overall, it did most things well.

If you are an experienced audiophile, this system is not for you. I was very frustrated with the lack of controls to fine tune the sound. The subwoofer is insufficient for my listening preference in a large living room even at max. Given those limitations, it is the most impressive home theater in a box that I have tested (that includes the Samsung q990c, which I also had in the room). The Quad's ability to tune itself is uncanny. Setting up your own high end system to compete with the quad, will take even an experienced audiophile a considerable amount of time. Sure, you can get fuller sound, better acoustics, etc, but man the Quad is so good that I would recommend it over a real home theater for most people (because most are not audiophiles).

So, if you know someone that wants great sound, but doesn't want to work hard for it, or if you know someone who wants the system to almost disappear in the room, then the Quad with the sa-sw5 is the way to go over a soundbar based system.

 

[Trell]

A marketing bot appears to have entered…

 

[Marzman]

LOL. I am not a bot. This specific forum is about soundbars. Soundbars and similar products are not for audiophiles, but they have a purpose and a target audience.

Comparing a home theater in a box to a full blown home theater is not a black and white process. Regardless of what is used, there is always compromise of some kind. If you spend $100,000 on a home theater, the biggest compromise was the large expenditure of money. If you buy a box system, well we know what those compromises are...

As I stated in my first post. The Quad is not for audiophiles that are looking for more of everything, it is for the average joe that is looking for good sound with simplicity and a small form factor. Not even the Nakamichi Dragon can provide the 3D sound stage that the Quads create.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

LOL. I am not a bot. This specific forum is about soundbars. Soundbars and similar products are not for audiophiles, but they have a purpose and a target audience.

Comparing a home theater in a box to a full blown home theater is not a black and white process. Regardless of what is used, there is always compromise of some kind. If you spend $100,000 on a home theater, the biggest compromise was the large expenditure of money. If you buy a box system, well we know what those compromises are...

As I stated in my first post. The Quad is not for audiophiles that are looking for more of everything, it is for the average joe that is looking for good sound with simplicity and a small form factor. Not even the Nakamichi Dragon can provide the 3D sound stage that the Quads create.

Lol. Nacamichi. Their peak fame was with tape players back in the 1980s. The Dragon brand was used for their top-of-the-line tape decks. Current Nac is nothing more than Chinese crap (Grande Holdings) with famous stickers on them.
That said, I do expect this Sony system to perform better than soundbars simply due to the quantity, physical location, and size of speakers. Can it keep up with a properly configured AVR and 5.1 system - That is the 2500-dollar question.

 

[Marzman]

Hey, I’m no Nakamichi fan, but once again, this is a soundbar forum and the fact is Nakamichi released what reviewers consider a high end Soundbar.

The soundbar landscape is very different than the true audiophile arena. If someone would have told me a decade ago that the top players in an important consumer home sound category was going to include Samsung and Sony, I would have had a hard time imagining it, but here we are.

You can spend all day criticizing soundbars and you will be right about most of it. What I don’t understand is why go to a soundbar forum to do that. I assume this specific forum is to have a productive discussion about soundbars, not to poopoo on all of it.

 

[isolar8001]

I assume this specific forum is to have a productive discussion about soundbars, not to poopoo on all of it.

8 pages on the soundbar section over 7 years kinda tells you that soundbars are not taken seriously here, or that discussing soundbars at all here is not a good use of time.
They are what they are.
Anyone wanting a more in depth discussion on soundbars would be better off looking at AVS or Reddit.

 

[Marzman]

True.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Hey, I’m no Nakamichi fan, but once again, this is a soundbar forum and the fact is Nakamichi released what reviewers consider a high end Soundbar.

As to Nac's recent models of soundbars are any good, it is irrelevant since as you said this is neither a soundbar nor Nac is the product being pre-viewed here.

You can spend all day criticizing soundbars and you will be right about most of it. What I don’t understand is why go to a soundbar forum to do that. I assume this specific forum is to have a productive discussion about soundbars, not to poopoo on all of it.

We could ask Gene if this product should be posted under the "soundbar" subforum, and while it isn't technically a soundbar, it has some soundbar-like qualities—as it is a very tightly integrated, very proprietary sound system that doesn't really integrate with other brand speakers or other A/V components.