Sony HT-A9 Better than Soundbars & It's Wireless!

all right let's do this stop the fomo it's here do you have a fear of missing out on the sony hta 9 home theater system if you can't tell i'm super excited about these four of these is all you need there is no sound bar now it doesn't come with a subwoofer subwoofer is optional however in today's review we will be reviewing it without the subwoofer how good can it be without the subwoofer most importantly msrp it is 1800 so i know you're thinking wait if i'm going to spend 1800 what am i getting so we'll tell you exactly what makes this so special let's jump into a quick unboxing to music and we'll talk about why this is going to be highly recommended but first a message from our sponsor surfshark epn your family is spending more time on the internet and surfsharkvpn is my choice for vpn privacy and protection this is not your grandfather's vpn because surfshark offers a complete suite of protections and alerts against hackers malware spyware and of course search privacy real search privacy with no tracking and no ad get started with my discount code fomo get 83 off that's 221 per month including three months free and with a 30 day money back guarantee you can explore geo locked content on youtube netflix disney plus and more so if it doesn't work out no problem the sign up link is in the description below and with over 3 200 servers you should give surf shark vpn a try it's gotta be against the ladder look just damn good cause baby i feel real good and i wish i was it's gotta be against a lot of look this damn good so you saw the unboxing literally five pieces four of these speakers all the same size and a controller black controller the only caveat i have for those of you who are a bit ocd about color decor color matching see these white gloves yes these speakers are not white imagine my surprise and disappointment when they were a bit grayer than i expected so i did pick up a pair of white speaker stands hoping that this would sit perfectly on top but it's a bit grayer than i'd hoped maybe this is like a dusty gray i don't know how to describe it but you can see my gloves is white what i would recommend is if you plan to get speaker stands actually dark gray graphite black ash anything but bright white and the reason is it makes the speaker look kind of dirty well now i have white stands and these speakers and they don't look as good so i'll just throw black velvet on top of the stance and use it that way and before we jump into the review and the sound clips keep in mind again that this review does not include the optional subs either sw5 or the sw3 now i have both of those subs and in a separate review we'll have it with the subs but for this review without the subs because they are eighteen hundred dollars and many of you have just enough to get the system without the subs and you're wondering well is it good enough to get or should i save up for the subs or is it just out of my budget it's pointless to get it without the sub we'll answer that at the end of this review so let's talk about just everything as far as the hta9 what makes it so special what makes this so special first it's wireless meaning it doesn't have any speaker cables but it does need a power cord it comes with a power cord that i think is a little short you might have to get a replacement cord that's a bit longer it's only five feet i don't have any problems because i have outlets all over this room so that's one caveat to keep in mind outside of that though that's it no other wires next what also makes it special is each of these have a microphone built in that's special and why is that important this is the first system i've seen where for under two thousand dollars all four speakers have microphones and they calibrate to themselves and to your room to create that bubble of sound that immersive movies immersive audio demands and this is a match for sony's spatial audio system as well well how effective is it we'll get into that but to get there though you do need microphones in these speakers and i think this is going to be a new trend for many sound bars moving forward or many systems but then let's talk about there's no sound bar wait what does that mean so if you look at the bottom right in my unboxing you saw that each of these speakers have a label there are four of them so you have front left front right rear right rear left and you place them where they're supposed to be once it's set up in the four corners of your room relative to yourself i place these about eight to nine feet from my main listening position different heights right i have some speakers this high for my ear some a little bit higher just to play with what i've been told is hey this is flexible it doesn't need to be exactly ear height because the microphone takes care of everything it recalibrates to the room so i did that right what else makes it special is calibration and setup is so simple it is the easiest i've seen i've had denims i've had so many different avr's and processors where you have to have the microphone in a certain place and then move it around right to make sure you have that bubble sweet spot calculated properly and well it's first it takes a long time and second you're always wondering wait a minute maybe i should do it again and move the microphone here this time right or is it too close too far not with this sony so let's jump into the calibration process it didn't take more than a minute now how easy was it the clip is coming up put on your headphones because i did record with these special spatial microphones from sonic presence to give you an idea about the sonic immersive effect of this system let me know what you think about these amazing sonic presence microphones we'll be using these at the av summit for many of our demos it is not exactly binaural but it does give you a sense of space where everything kind of falls in a three-dimensional space even though you're only listening to stereo headphones i think it's pretty effective and it gives you a sense of the spatial effects of the system it gets you closer than what i could get with a normal stereo microphone so let me know what you think check out the clip [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] after the calibration was done i listened to a lot of different content movies ready player 1 am i fallout and this is what was most shocking to me without a dedicated center just two speakers in front and then two behind i had an amazingly loud clear well-separated phantom center channel the tv i was using was the tcl so this is not the sony a90j or any of the sony tvs that would be integrated with the system because that's the next special thing i'm going to talk about but before we get there with any tv in this case the tcl using earc enhanced arc plugged into the receiver the little black box you saw that's all i needed the best audio came from my blu-ray player plugged directly into the hta 9 receiver and then the hdmi e-arc plugged into the tcl boom it was immersive audio with a solid phantom channel but that's not all the sweet spot for that phantom channel was huge meaning i didn't have to be centered from the tv moving here moving there it was locked in the center so if i had more people watching with me wife and kids to either side it's okay you feel like you're in this giant sweet spot and it's coming from the tv all four speakers did such a phenomenal job and so let's talk about the sound quality itself remember without a subwoofer so this is where we go to the question of how does it sound without a sound a subwoofer and this is something that i think many of you need to pay attention to if you have a tv and you want to add this system but you've never had a sound bar with a subwoofer before then you don't need a subwoofer yet eventually you should add it but the upgrade and immersive audio sound quality and even the bass extension from a tv to the hta9 is just mind-blowing because no tv is going to extend as low as these four speakers these four speakers i felt like went below 50 hertz i felt it i took some measurements and it was there you can feel it now it's not subwoofer powerful but definitely more than any tv can put out so if you're going from a regular tv audio and you want to add a sound bar a premium sound bar well skip the sound bar go straight to the hta 9 and you will get that premium sound and that immersion however if you are coming from an older sound bar with a sub woofer then i recommend saving up getting the hta9 and then bringing a subwoofer with the package definitely the sw5 the larger one because in my room i'm going to need the sw5 i'll play with sw3 but i can already tell that the lower powered subwoofer is really made for the smaller rooms in my larger room about 4 300 cubic feet it's actually fairly large and you're going to need well actually multiple subwoofers that's something i wish sony would allow is hey what if i bought four of these and stacked them can i get more subwoofer power and for me the movie experience yes deep bass is great but i want the discrete sounds and that's what makes four of these so awesome each of these get pretty loud and when you have four of them that means your side and rear channels are not at loss for words there is definitely power and sound because they want to create that bubble whereas many of the sound bar systems most of that power is in the front and then the satellites are an afterthought here all four have equivalent powers so you can adjust it to taste you can bring up the levels of your side and rear or you can tone it down it's up to you having that ability allows you to kind of go you know what i want a bit more of that bubble i'm going to pump up the rear a bit or you want to focus on the front and you pump up the fronts a bit either way that flexibility i think makes it great for many uses and many preferences because ultimately your surround sound experience is very subjective do you like full surround or you want to keep all the sound in front of you with a little bit of ambient noise and it's that flexibility that allows many of you to fit it and tune it to taste how you like to wash your movies and maybe the size of your room may have an effect on that as well now for the closing thoughts and my conclusion is three things that i think many of you may use to make a decision whether or not to get this tv first setup is so easy you plug it in to the power cord it connects itself you run the calibration you saw what i did boom it's ready to go second is well the immersive effect is there especially if you have a blu-ray player that's powerful stuff i was just putting disc after disc and enjoying all of it third and this is one that many of you need to consider subwoofer it does not come with a subwoofer but if you're upgrading from a regular tv audio to this system don't worry about the subwoofer yet only if you feel you're missing something i felt that most of the content was there but yes i am used to having a subwoofer so there was no rumble but there was definitely enough information for those who are going from a tv to a sound bar this is it this is the bomb now if you're going from a sound bar with subwoofer well maybe not so keep that in mind so you're gonna spend another six hundred dollars on the sw5 right are you ready for immersive experience this gets you there sound brush before for me have been just it's louder and clearer but didn't bring me the immersion i had hoped this does and i'm just so amazed by the solid phantom channel without a dedicated sound bar the question though for my next review is with a sony a90j as my center channel does it make things better honestly it's hard for me to imagine it getting better because that sound in front was loud and clear and i did not think to myself i can't wait to have the sony a90 j serve as my center channel that's something i think is impressive good job sony until next time stop the fomo oh wait that just caused fomo until next time this system may be fomo worthy

Channel: Stop the FOMO

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Id: dqwD9ru9yjg

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 13 2021