Sony BRAVIA Theater Trio vs BRAVIA Theater Trio with Sub 9 + Rear 9

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Trio with Sub 9 + Rear 9 is an expanded variant of the Sony BRAVIA Theater Trio. Though the addition of the Theater Sub 9 and Theater Rear 9 poses an added expense, these extra components help combat some of the standalone bar's shortcomings. The discrete sub adds plenty of boom and rumble in the low-end, while the rear satellites help render surround effects more vividly while boosting immersion with Atmos content. The expanded setup retains the same comprehensive passthrough capabilities and format support of the base configuration, too. That said, the stereo soundstage is quite congested with both iterations of the bar, and playback behavior changes drastically depending on whether you enable the 'Sound Field' and 'Movie theater acoustics' settings. If you have the space to accommodate a larger setup and value a more immersive sound, the expanded variant is worth the additional outlay.