Sony HT-ST5000 Soundbar Review

The Sony HT-ST5000 is the company's high-end, flagship soundbar. It's their first soundbar to support Dolby Atmos and provides a more premium experience than the later-released mid-range Atmos model, the HT-Z9F. Though the ST5000 was released in 2017, it's still Sony's top-of-the-line model and is up against more recent releases like the Samsung HW-Q90R or the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar.

The Sony HT-ST5000 is a stylish soundbar. It has a large metal grill that you can detach to display the speakers inside. The bar itself is rather wide and heavy but looks and feels very premium overall.

The subwoofer shares the same premium design as the soundbar. It's set on a riser, which gives it a unique look. It's quite wide, but shouldn't look out-of-place in your home theater set-up.

The Sony HT-ST5000 doesn't come with satellite speakers.

The Sony HT-ST5000 is a very large soundbar. It's not quite as wide as the Samsung HW-Q90R, but it's just as tall and is even a bit deeper. You'll need to consider where you'll be placing it since it's too big to fit between the legs of most 55" TVs. That said, you should be able to place it in front of your TV without blocking the screen, unless your TV sits directly on the table. You can also wall-mount this soundbar.

The subwoofer is wider than most we've seen but this shouldn't be much of an issue. Since it connects wirelessly to the soundbar, you can place it wherever you'd like, as long as you're within range of a power outlet.

The Sony HT-ST5000 doesn't come with satellite speakers.

The back of the Sony HT-ST5000 is where you'll find the control buttons as well as the different input options. The power cable is attached to the back of the bar. This soundbar is also wall-mountable.

Update 03/27/2020: We had incorrectly reported the sub as being ported but it uses a passive radiator instead. The review has been updated.

The back of the subwoofer has the power button as well as the wireless connection button to link it to the soundbar. The power cable is attached to the sub and there are ventilation holes that need to remain uncovered.

This soundbar setup doesn't come with satellite speakers.

The Sony HT-ST5000 is a remarkably well-built soundbar. It's made of both plastic and metal and all materials used in its build feels quite high-quality. The metal grill can detach if you want to expose the speakers beneath, which is nice. The subwoofer also has a very premium design, but the top tends to collect fingerprints and the fabric cover could be prone to tears.

• 2x AAA batteries
• HDMI cable
• Remote
• Manuals and mounting template

The Sony HT-ST5000 has a good overall stereo frequency response. It has very well-extended bass and does a great job of delivering the deep thump and rumble that's essential to a good action movie or EDM track. The rest of the range is fairly well-balanced, reproducing voices and instruments quite well. There's a pronounced dip in low-treble which can help take the edge off particularly bright tracks or harsh sounds, but at the expense of detail and clarity.

The Sony ST5000 has a good stereo soundstage. The bar is quite wide and the soundstage is just slightly wider than the bar itself, which is good. It's well-focused, too, meaning sound objects can be located to pinpoint targets instead of feeling like they're coming from a more general, diffused area.

Update 09/21/2020: We've discovered a value input bug that would cause the Dynamics box results to be slightly off. All soundbars reviewed since January 30th, 2020 have been updated.

This soundbar has decent stereo dynamics. It can get fairly loud, but not quite as loud as other high-end soundbars we've tested such as the LG SN11RG. Interestingly, it compresses less in the low-bass range, which is where most soundbars have a hard time - instead, it starts struggling in high-bass and continues to compress even at higher frequencies. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're just watching TV shows, but if you like to crank the volume during a good movie or at a party, you might hear some compression artifacts.

This soundbar has a rather high amount of total harmonic distortion, which is mediocre. At normal listening volumes, the amount of distortion is within decent limits, but you still might notice it in the bass range. It becomes even more noticeable at higher volumes, however. This happens especially in the high-mid and treble ranges, where vocals can start to sound distorted at max volume.

The Sony ST5000 has excellent center channel performance. Thanks to its 7.1.2-channel setup, it has a dedicated center speaker. This helps dialogue and voices sound more natural, especially with surround content like movies or video games. The sharp dip in low treble can make things sound a bit dull, however.

The Sony HT-ST5000 has disappointing surround performance. This soundbar doesn't come with discreet surround speakers, nor does it even have side-firing speakers - it applies DSP-enabled virtual surround effects to its front-firing speakers. While it's not bad, it doesn't make objects in the surround image sound as clear and natural as the Nakamichi Shockwafe Ultra 9.2Ch does with discreet surround speakers.

The Sony ST5000 has passable height performance with Atmos content thanks to the up-firing speakers on the bar. However, the localization of objects is diffused, especially since it doesn't come with surround speakers that could up-fire as well. Discreet down-firing speakers will sound much more natural and life-like, but considering what the Sony's working with here, its Atmos performance still isn't bad.

The Sony HT-ST500 has a passable number of enhancement features. Unfortunately, it has only a few EQ presets, instead of a full parametric EQ like the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar, especially since you can't even adjust the bass/treble amounts at all. Unlike the Sony HT-A7000, it also lacks room correction. On the upside, you can specify the height of your room in the soundbar's home settings to tailor the Atmos performance to your listening environment. Note that, like most Sony soundbars, it uses the company's "S-Force PRO Front Surround" technology, which is a virtual surround effect that can't be disabled.

Thanks to the great number of input options the Sony HT-ST5000 provides, it can serve as a hub between your TV and the various multimedia devices you might have at home, like a game console, or Blu-ray player. You can also play files directly from a USB key, plug in an older MP3 player or iPod via the audio jack, or even stream music from your smartphone with a tap using NFC.

Over HDMI ARC, the Sony ST5000 supports all standard surround formats. It can play object-based surround signals and lossless formats over eARC as well, which is great if your TV also supports eARC.

All three full HDMI-In ports on this soundbar will support all audio formats, from object-based surround sound formats like DTS:X or Dolby Atmos to lossless formats like PCM 5.1, DTS-HD MA, or Dolby TrueHD.

By connecting this soundbar via optical, you can enjoy streaming or watching Blu-ray movies in either Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound.

The Sony HT-ST5000 has lots of wireless playback options for you to stream music from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. If you have an iPhone, you won't be able to seamlessly send music to play via AirPlay, unfortunately, but you can easily cast with most devices via Chromecast.

This soundbar is suitable for use with a gaming console or desktop PC since it can passthrough 4k content at 60Hz, even at chroma 4:4:4. By default, the standard settings will downscale 4k content but by activating "Enhanced Mode" in the home settings, you can allow 4k passthrough.

The sub connects wirelessly to the bar, and only requires a power cable.

This soundbar doesn't come with satellite speakers.

The Sony HT-ST5000 has a screen behind the grill that's quite a bit larger than what most soundbars have. It shows all the inputs and settings you're on and is quite easy to read, especially since you can detach the grill for better visibility.

The rear of this soundbar has physical buttons for power, Bluetooth, music services like Spotify, volume adjustment, and input selection. Even though the controls are at the back, they aren't particularly hard to reach. However, it can be difficult to know which button you're pressing.

The Sony ST5000's remote is similar to the one that comes with other soundbars from this company. It's quite large, with lots of buttons, but it's still pretty easy to use. You can't use it as a universal remote to control all your products, but it will work with certain other Sony products.

This soundbar uses the Sony Music Center app. You can cast audio files to it over your Wi-Fi network or use your mobile device as a remote. However, there are certain settings you can only access with the physical remote that aren't available with the app.

This supports HDMI CEC over ARC, so you can use your TV's remote to perform basic tasks on your soundbar, like volume and input control. While it does have a standby mode, it's not enabled by default. You can activate Bluetooth standby, where the soundbar goes into power-saving mode when a Bluetooth device is disconnected, or HDMI standby, which saves power when a connected HDMI device is powered off.