Sony Bravia Theater 8 Review: Big Sound, Subdued Looks, Hefty Price

7.9/ 10
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Sony Bravia Theater 8

Pros

• Great simulated surround sound
• Extra HDMI input
• Solid upgrade path

Cons

• Not as feature-rich as competitors and costs more
• No music mode

Sony is most recognizable these days for its PlayStation and movie divisions, but the company built its reputation on audio. The Bravia Theater 8 combines several of the company’s strengths into an inobtrusive home theater soundbar.

Why the name Bravia Theater 8? Not only does it potentially remind buyers of a multiplex cinema, but it also aligns with the company’s new range of TVs. The speaker’s sound quality in movies is great, the styling is muted and it has plenty of streaming and expansion capabilities.

The only drawback to this soundbar is that music isn’t as well catered for — there’s no “music” mode, for instance — and that’s unusual for this audio company. Still, if you want a home theater speaker that is easy to set up and use, the Bravia Theater 8 is a solid buy.

The Bravia 8 is currently on sale for $250 off as part of Prime Day which makes this Sony even more competitive with its greatest competition, the Sonos Arc.

Design 

If there’s one high-profile company with a reputation for off-beat audio products, it’s Sony. The company has had the Rolly MP3 player, a lightbulb speaker and a hexagonal soundbar, to name but three. The Bravia Theater 8 is decidedly not that. It may be one of the most conservative-looking products I can remember from the company. With its gray cloth wrap, its looks will polarize, and some may feel it doesn’t look like it should cost $998. 

The Dolby Atmos-capable Bravia Theater 8 boasts 11 drivers in total, including two up-firing drivers and two side-firing ones. The soundbar is 43.4 inches wide by 2.6 inches high by 4.5 inches deep, and at that width, the soundbar should sit more or less flush with a standard 50-inch television. 

While many people choose to use their TV as an HDMI switch, the Theater 8 includes HDMI-in and HDMI eARC connections for some added flexibility. The other connections are limited, though it does include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with compatibility for Spotify Connect and AirPlay. Additionally, the soundbar has an S-Center Out connection which could enable you to use your TV’s speaker as a center, but it does require a model with a 3.5mm S-Center In. Most people won’t bother with this extra analog step, and competing models offer this capability using software without resorting to an external analog cable.

If you’re used to a bunch of different modes on a soundbar — Movie, Music, etc. — then you might be surprised these have been replaced with a single option: the enigmatic “Sound Field.” This preset is the product of a calibration routine, which you access with Sony’s Bravia Connect app and which uses the soundbar’s onboard microphone. The ‘bar’s two other movie-centric presets include Night and Voice Mode.

The soundbar isn’t bundled with a subwoofer or surround, but you do have several options, including the SA-SW3 ($400) and SA-SW5 ($700) subs or the SA-RS3S surrounds ($350).

The soundbar ships with a simple small remote akin to what comes with a TV streamer like a Roku or Fire TV Stick. It includes important functions such as the Sound Field Button and an input selector. 

How does it sound?

All of Sony’s effort appears to have gone into the internals of the soundbar: It’s one of the more impressive soundbars I’ve heard from the electronics giant, especially when it comes to playing movies and TV. Even if, like almost every other home theater product, music appears to have been a secondary consideration.

When Sonos released the original Playbar back in 2013, it forged the template for a new type of soundbar. Unquestionably, the Sony Bravia Theater 8 follows in this mold and so it makes sense to compare the Sony to the Playbar’s successor — the Sonos Arc. Both are sub-$1,000 soundbars with streaming and Dolby Atmos, and both can command your TV space. It’s worth noting that the Sonos does have better features for $100 less including an onboard voice assistant and the company’s excellent multiroom system.

If there’s one parlor trick that’s sure to impress people buying soundbars, it’s simulated surround, and Sony had the best system for years until the monster Sennheiser Ambeo stole its thunder. Even so, based on my testing, the Theater 8 is no slouch. The soundbar can literally fill a room with sound.

I began my comparisons with the opening scene of “Mad Max: Fury Road” — ethereal voices float around the listening space in what is a great test for a system’s Dolby Atmos playback. I played the scene through the Sony both with and without the calibration using its Sound Field mode, and the improvements were definitely worth five minutes of your time. The Sony calibration routine, using the onboard mic, was easy, automatic and quick.

Out of the box, the Sony lacked any deep bass, and dialogue was a little murky, even if it was still able to sound as wide and tall as the room it was in. With calibration, the Theater 8 was able to take on the Sonos Arc with improved bass and midrange detail. Both the Sony and Sonos soundbars offer plenty of bass boom once the engines start gunning and the cars get ‘splodey’ in the film’s desert chases.

When presented with the Thanator Chase scene from Avatar, both the Sonos and the Sony combined the ambiance of the Pandora jungle with sharp dialogue and plenty of bass thump. Of the two, the Arc pulled slightly ahead with surround steering that could better track objects — such as insects — which were moving around in the space.

When paired with the accessories, the Sony Bravia with SA-SW5 sub sounded more assured and relaxed than the Arc and Sub Mini combo. While Sony’s rears did add some texture, I had to reduce the volume, and I felt that their $350 was better spent on getting the larger sub of the two on offer.

Without a dedicated music mode, I found it was harder for Theater 8 to get a good sound with music. It’s worth noting here that you can turn Sound Field off, and this was a little better when listening to tunes. With the intimate Field of Flowers by Grand Salvo, the song sounded too indistinct with Sound Field on — it lacked that confessional quality — and with the mode turned off, the voice sounded as sharp as it should have. Conversely, when listening to the Arc, the song sounded stronger and more dynamic than the Sony was capable of.

Should you buy it?

At $1,000, the Sony Bravia Theater 8 is starting to breathe some rarified air, and compared to the Arc, it does miss a couple of compelling features. The Arc is still a better buy here at $899, especially if you want to listen to music on your system. Sony lays a strong foundation for home theater fans who may not only want to upgrade their system later but also want a great-sounding system now.