Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9 Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer (SA-SW5) & Battery-Powered Rear Speakers (SA-RS5) - Immersive Home Theater System for Movies, Gaming & Music Streaming

This is the best "soundbar" system available today. There's a tendency for reviewers to over hype products but I have to say the Sony Bravia Theater Quad lives up to all the reviews. As an enthusiast I have three home theater systems in my house. The main theater has a 135 inch projector with a traditional, large, multi-speaker 5.2.4 Dolby Atmos system powered by a Denon X4500H receiver and speakers placed all around the room and in the ceiling and two 15" ported subwoofers. Does the Theater Quad match this system in terms of output and overall sound quality? Of course not. However, in my smaller 15'x11' office space, the Theater Quad is sufficiently loud and even the SW5 subwoofer is adequate.Sony's party trick and why I call it the future of audio and home theater is the magic of their spatial sound processing. The imaging and Dolby Atmos sound effects are as convincing as my full blown home theater system. In fact, for some movies it creates a more seamless Dolby Atmos experience. All of this is done with smallish speakers and software. It's akin to how a modern day iPhone Pro or Pixel camera can shoot pictures that can look almost as good as pictures from a full frame or APS-C camera. While the Theater Quad isn't going to completely match the real full system with large discrete speakers placed all over the room and in the ceiling, it creates a very satisfying sound that will be good enough for the vast majority of people just as a high end smart phone camera pictures with the computer generated bokeh and HDR processing, etc. are good enough for most people.Prior to the Theater Quad, I had Sony's A7000 soundbar paired with RS5 rear speakers and the SW5 subwoofer. That system was mediocre at best. The only time the Dolby Atmos sounded decent was with Sony's demo. In actual movie watching, it was similar to pretty much every soundbar on the market, you just can't get the front imaging of a wide soundstage that can only happen by actually placing the front speakers wider apart. If I had to choose between wide imaging and good L and R speakers vs. a good center channel, the L and R speakers are always the most important part. The need for a solid center channel is completely overblown IMO and most home theater systems require placement of the center channel under the display which is never ideal as it lowers the front and center imaging. The Theater Quad does not have this issue at all because there is no center channel and the phantom center it generates works perfectly - better than any center channel I've used in any system because the center sound images directly in front of you at ear level.My Theater Quad is integrated with a 77" Bravia 8 OLED display. I have tried using the Bravia 8 TV as a center channel and without. I have also tried the Theater Quad with a 77" LG C4 without a center channel. Either way works exceptionally well. You do not need a center channel or a Sony TV to have great center channel imaging with the Theater Quad because it does an excellent job creating a phantom center. If you don't have a Sony TV, that can do the acoustic center sync thing, don't worry about it. Running the Quad with acoustic center sync on my Bravia 8 TV sounds almost exactly like not having the TV as a center channel but turning on voice zoom.With that said, I have found that pairing the Theater Quad with a higher end Sony TV works really well and the acoustic center sync with my Bravia 8 sounds seamless with the Theater Quad speakers. The timbre matching is excellent. However, this is only if you have a Sony TV with good speakers. I also have a Sony X90L and that TV's speakers are atrocious. There is no way acoustic center sync would work at all on that TV with the Theater Quad.The performance of the Theater Quad for movies and music is excellent. Sony does not give you many listening modes but I pretty much use it with 360 Spatial Sound Mapping on 100% of the time. The surround effects are off the charts immersive and really nice overhead Dolby Atmos effects, particuarly with movies like Avatar Way of Water where bullets and whizz over your head and the rain sounds like it's actually coming down and hitting the leaves above and around you.For music, on my full blown HT system, I usually switch to stereo mode running only the two large main front speakers and the subwoofers. None of the surround processing sounded good to me in that system. However, with the Theater Quad, I like listening to music with 360 spatial mapping on. It does an excellent job not overwheling you with rear fill and it sounds like a wide front sound stage and excellently imaging two front channel set up. I love listening to music on the Theater Quad.In terms of set up, it's super easy and vastly simpler than trying to set up a true 5.4.2 or 7.4.2 system. You only need power to each of the four speakers and power to the controller box and that's it. The system recognized all four speakers immediately and also sync'd with the Sony SW5 subwoofer with no issue. Calibration takes several minutes and you are in business. I set this system up with my Sony Bravia 8 as well as my LG C4. It worked seamlessly with either TV so you do not need a Sony TV. The Theater Quad works pretty much with any brand of TV or display device you have. Also, while the Quad comes with a remote, you don't need it because everything is done through the Sony Bravia Connect app. Of course, if you have a newer Sony TV, you can also control the Theater Quad through the TV's Sony menu system. I have had zero issues with pairing, audio delay issues, audio drop outs or anything else. It has just worked flawlessly the entire time I've had the system.In terms of volume, I was a bit concerned as the RTings rating mentioned that they blew out the speakers in one of Theater Quad units. I think they even got a replacement and blew that one out as well. So at first, I tried not to turn the volume up too high. Over time, I started cranking it louder and louder and the speakers have never seemed like they were going to blow out at the loud volume levels I was listening to. This could be a function of my smallish 15x11 ft room with 9 ft ceilings. Not sure if I would feel that the Theater Quad would be loud enough if It was in an open 20x20 ft living room space with 10'+ ceilings. The only gripe I have with volume is the subwoofer which is just adequate. I wish Sony would allow us to pair it with two SW5 subwoofers or better yet, let us hook up our own sub.In terms of overall quality, the speakers have a surprising amount of heft. They do not feel cheap or tinny at all but feel like a solid, quality piece of equipment.One of the most recent reviews I saw on youtube basically rated the Theater Quad ahead of the latest Sonos Ultimate Immersive (Arc Ultra/Sonos Era 300/Sub 4), Nakamichi Dragon, and Bose and Samsung 900D systems and I can believe it. The key again is the wide front imaging with the Theater Quad having discrete L and R fronts. It doesn't matter how many speakers the Nakamichi Dragon soundbar has. It's still a soundbar and will have soundbar like narrow imaging. Unfortunately, the same goes for the Sonos system. If I were Sonos, I'd put together a system with four Era 300s and a Sub 4 and program it to work similar to the Sony Theater Quad. That would be a formidable system. But right now, the Sony Theater Quad is the only game in town that does this.In terms of value, I consider the SW5 subwoofer an absolute must so adding the cost of the Theater Quad and subwoofer the system costs about $3K retail or about $2500 - $2700 on sale. It is worth every penny of the $3K retail price IMO for the overall sound performance, integration, ease of use, unobtrusive looks and minimal space required, quality, and simplicity in set up. You truly get a 7.4.1 Dolby Atmos home theater experience in a super compact, easy to install package that takes literally 30 minutes to set up including time mounting the speakers to the walls.I can't wait to see how Sony evolves their sound procesisng technology. It would be good to have a similar system with even larger speakers and drivers and a better subwoofer. I hope all of the soundbar manufacturers move to having discrete wireless speakers and ditch the soundbar paradigm, which is complete trash IMO if you care about good actual imaging.***3 month update***After using the system for three months, the Sony Bravia Theater Quad continues to impress and I stand by my initial review. The only thing I was concerned about was the longevity of the speakers due to RTing's issues blowing up two units.Based on my personal experience listening to the system for hundreds of hours, half the time with the volume turned up fairy loudly for both music and movies, the speakers have all held up well without issue. Also, I noticed recently that the SW5 subwoofer is playing with louder and deeper bass after a recent software update so the system sounds even better.