Sony HT-A7000 Soundbar Review

The Sony HT-A7000 is a sleek soundbar with a high-end design. It's mostly made of high-quality plastic with a metal grille on the front. However, unlike the Sony HT-ST5000, you can't remove the front grille to expose the speakers. That said, the grille is transparent enough that you can see the speakers behind it. There's also a glass top and fabric covering the up-firing drivers on top.

The Sony HT-A7000 has two subwoofers integrated into the bar. They're located to the left and the right of the center speaker. You can also purchase a dedicated subwoofer, sold separately.

You can purchase satellites from the manufacturer separately.

The Sony HT-A7000 is a very wide soundbar, meaning it won't fit between the legs of a 55" TV stand. It's a bit taller than some of the other bars we've tested, but it shouldn't block your TV screen unless your TV sits flush on the table.

The Sony HT-A7000 has an impressive build quality. It's mostly plastic, which feels solid and durable, and the metal grille in front helps protect the drivers inside. On top, there's a glass plate that gives it a more premium feel. The fabric covering the up-firing drivers on top is a bit loose, but it seems to be of good quality overall. It's large and heavy, but it feels premium.

• Manuals
• TV center speaker mode cable (6.2 ft / 1.9m)
• AC power cord (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• HDMI cable (4.9 ft / 1.5m)
• Remote
• 2x AAA batteries
• 2x screws
• 2x Wall mounting brackets

Update 10/20/2021: Added additional information about the room correction feature.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a decent stereo frequency response. Its frequency response is pretty neutral, with some extra punch in the bass range. It should be suitable for listening to most types of audio content, though it struggles to reproduce the thumpy, rumbling low-bass found in bass-heavy music and action-packed movies.

We also tested the Sony HT-A7000 using its Sound Field Optimization room correction feature, which automatically optimizes audio reproduction based on the acoustic characteristics of your room. It also comes with a room calibration feature that asks you to manually enter your room's dimensions before calibrating the bar. We found that the bar was slightly louder with its Auto Calibration feature than with the Manual Calibration feature, but the frequency response curves were identical. While these results may be unique to our testing room, we feel that the Auto Calibration will be sufficient for most users.

Note: We performed all of our sound tests with the bar set to 'Standard Surround' mode. During our subjective listening tests, we found that the 'Music' preset was better suited to listening to music, as sound seemed less diffused. If you're interested, you can see our sound test results for the 'Music' preset here and here. Its surround performance isn't as impressive as the 'Standard Surround' mode.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a subwoofer level adjustment feature that lets you choose between 'MIN', 'MID' (default), and 'MAX'. If you prefer a more neutral sound, we recommend using its default settings.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a good stereo soundstage performance. Its soundstage is perceived to be quite wide thanks to its S-Front Pro Front Surround technology, which uses front-firing speakers to reproduce the sound field. However, its focus is just average, and sound objects seem to come from a more general area rather than an accurate, pinpoint location. If you want a setup with a better soundstage, see the Sony HT-A9.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a decent stereo dynamics performance. It doesn't get very loud, so it isn't suitable for filling up large rooms or crowded parties. There's also a bit of compression present when you push it to max volume.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a good stereo THD performance. At a normal listening volume, the amount of distortion is within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction. However, there's a jump in THD when you push the bar to max volume. It may not be too noticeable with real-life content, though.

Update 11/25/2021: We conducted a subjective listening test using Acoustic Center Sync and added our results to the text.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a great center channel performance. Its discrete center channel helps to more accurately localize voices to a pinpoint location within the sound image. Its frequency response is neutral, especially in the mid-range, so voices are reproduced with clarity and detail.

You can also connect this soundbar to a compatible BRAVIA TV to activate Acoustic Center Sync. This feature uses the TV's speakers as a discrete center channel. We found that this feature seems to anchor dialogue more vertically, so it seems closer to the characters on the screen. However, it also seems to decrease the overall sound quality, resulting in a less immersive sound. There also appeared to be a difference in volume between the TV and the soundbar with Acoustic Center Sync activated. As a result, some users may prefer not to use this feature.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a disappointing surround performance. It uses front-firing speakers in the bar to represent surround objects, but this doesn't sound as clear or real as a discrete setup. Its frequency response is also bass-heavy, which may be overwhelming for some users.

You can also use the 'Immersive AE' button to activate the up-firing drivers alongside the side-firing drivers when listening to surround content. However, we performed this test with this feature turned off. You can't adjust this feature when listening to Atmos content.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a disappointing Atmos performance. Like that of the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 9, the up-firing drivers in the bar bounce sound off the ceiling and back down towards you to simulate height. However, these channels don't get very loud, and their frequency response is a bit bright.

We performed our sound tests with the bar set to 'Standard Surround' mode. During our subjective listening tests, we found that the 'Cinema' mode adds more height when listening to Atmos content. That said, the bar's performance isn't as impressive as some of the other bars we've tested, as there's some detail missing in scenes. In 'Standard Surround' mode, you can't adjust the Immersive AE option when listening to Atmos content.

The Sony A7000 has an impressive set of sound enhancement features. There are some EQ presets to help you customize its sound, including 'Standard Surround', 'Music', 'Cinema', and 'Auto Sound'. Based on our subjective listening tests, we recommend adjusting the preset to match the content you're listening to.

When you connect the bar to your TV via HDMI, you get access to a separate menu that lets you turn on the Sound Field Optimization room correction feature, which you can see here. It automatically optimizes audio reproduction based on the acoustic characteristics of your room. You can also turn the up-firing drivers on and off using the 'Immersive AE' feature, and the manufacturer says that it supports Acoustic Center Sync when paired with a BRAVIA TV.

Update 12/03/2021: We previously reported that this soundbar comes with an ethernet port, but it does not. We've updated our results accordingly.

The Sony A7000 comes with lots of physical inputs. There are two Full HDMI In ports, meaning you can use the bar as a hub between different devices. You can also play files directly via USB or an older device.

The Sony A7000 soundbar has incredible audio format support via ARC. It supports standard surround sound formats like Dolby Digital and object-based and lossless formats like Dolby Atmos.

The Sony HT-A7000 also has fantastic audio format support via Full HDMI In. It supports all audio formats we test for, including object-based and lossless formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The Sony HT-A7000 supports Dolby Digital and DTS content via Optical. These common surround sound formats are often found on Blu-rays and streaming platforms.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a great latency performance. It has fairly low latency, so the audio you hear is mostly in sync with the video you see. As a result, it's suitable for watching videos and movies over these connections. However, some apps and TVs compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may vary.

You can use this soundbar as a hub between devices like a PC and a TV for video passthrough. It supports most common resolutions and refresh rates properly, which is great for gaming. Updating the bar to firmware version 1.779 adds support for ALLM and HDMI Forum VRR. With the update, the bar can passthrough 4k @ 120Hz @ 10-bit @ 4:4:4 with certain gaming consoles and PC gaming.

The Sony HT-A7000 lets you wirelessly stream audio from your mobile devices to the bar over all the wireless playback formats we test for. The manufacturer also says that it supports Spotify Connect.

The Sony HT-A7000 has a small interface that shows the inputs and settings you're on.

On top of the bar, there are touch-capacitive buttons. They let you power the bar on/off, change the input, activate Bluetooth, access music services like Spotify, and adjust the volume.

The remote is similar to the ones that come with other soundbars from the manufacturer. It's large, with lots of buttons to let you control its features. Downloading the Sony Music Center app also lets you control the bar through your smartphone.

The Sony HT-A7000 doesn't have built-in voice assistant support. Instead, you need to pair a third-party device with voice assistant capabilities to the bar to control it with your voice. The manufacturer says that it supports Alexa and Google Assistant devices.