Skip to main content

Sony’s new sound bars go multi-room, hi-res to upgrade your living room

Sony has been working hard lately to change course, as well as opinions about its status in the home theater space. Those efforts have led to some impressive sound bar offerings of late. This year at CES, Sony showed a continuation on the journey towards renewed prominence in home audio with two gorgeous new hi-res sound bars, as well as a new hi-res sound platform to join last year’s very capable XT1.

Sony HT-ST9

Sony’s flagship sound bar, the ST9, is a gorgeous black beam laden with nice drivers and seven discretely powered channels in an attempt to rule the micro-home audio space. The bar adds some impressive new additions to the Sony family this year, including multiple coaxial drivers for enhanced clarity up top, as well as a powerful new subwoofer.

The bar also allows HDCP 2.2-compliant 4K passthrough via HDMI, high resolution audio playback for FLAC and WAV files, as well as DSD files, a new addition to the lineup this year. The bar also takes advantage of Sony’s new LDAC codec, which the company claims allows a “larger pipe” for better resolution Bluetooth streaming.

Photo credit: Digital Trends / Ryan Waniata
Photo credit: Digital Trends / Ryan Waniata Image used with permission by copyright holder

Our first audition of the bar was impressive. Demonstrating its skills by sourcing the latest Spider Man flick (a Sony production, of course) the ST9 exhibited sparkling clarity on the topside, and the new wireless subwoofer offered some decent boom to help raise the action to the next level.

Sony HT-NT3

The little brother of the ST9, the NT3 holds its own as a viable home audio source, incorporating ST9 features like coaxial drivers, 4K passthrough, and high resolution audio playback in a reduced 2.1 configuration. Sony had the demos on lock down for the show, but we were allowed a chance to audition a few songs such as the old Sinatra standard “Bang, Bang,” as well as Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” both of which were crystal clear, with some nice punch down low.

Sony HT-XT3

Finally, Sony has added a gorgeous new sound platform which follows its sound bar siblings to add new coaxial drivers, high resolution audio playback, and 4K passthrough via HDMI. Unfortunately, we weren’t given a chance to sample the audio talents of the new XT3, but if it improves on the very impressive XT1, we could have a new winner in the sound platform space.

Photo credit: Digital Trends / Ryan Waniata
Photo credit: Digital Trends / Ryan Waniata Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony has also added multi-room wireless capability to its top tier home theater options this year, adapting the company’s SongPal app to work more like the Sonos ecosystem. This allows independent control of music sources, and shared playback of the home theater devices with Sony’s upgraded wireless speakers, such as the new SRS-X99, and SRS-X77. Sony’s first attempt at the multi-room speaker genre seemed a little clunky in the demonstration, with an interface that was fairly pedestrian, and some lag.

However, that’s to be expected in the saturated airspace of the CES showroom floor, so we’ll have to wait till we go hands on with the new gear to give a final verdict on Sony’s new bid to jump into the uber-crowded multi-room speaker space.

Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
The Samsung 55-inch S90D OLED is $800 off this week
The Samsung S90D QD-OLED TV.

Father’s Day is just around the corner, and we can’t think of a better way to show Dad his TV obsession has been accepted by the family than by buying him a new 4K OLED. And hey, why not a Samsung? Right now, there’s an insane discount on one of Samsung’s best models of 2024 that you can still buy brand-new. 

We’re talking about the Samsung 55-inch S90D 4K OLED, which you’ll be able to snag through B&H Photo-Video or Samsung for only $1,200. The retail price on this model is $2,000, so you’ll be saving you and yours a whopping $800! 

Read more
This Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar combo is 57% off at Woot today
Samsung 2024 HW-Q990D soundbar.

Nothing says “surround sound” like a full-on Dolby Atmos soundbar system. While many of these bar-speaker bundles cost upwards of $1,000, one of the best Atmos rigs has a crazy-good discount at Woot today: For a limited time, you’ll be able to score the Samsung HW-Q990D 11.1.4ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar for only $868. That’s a $1,132 markdown from its original $2,000 price! 

Why you should buy the Samsung HW-Q990D Soundbar

Read more
Please, just buy some earbuds
AI-generated image of a person on a subway doing a video call on a phone.

The first time I encountered someone listening to their phone out loud in public, it was on a city bus and I was taken aback for two reasons. First, the volume level on the phone wasn't just audible to the person sitting next to them; our entire section of the bus could hear it. Second, it was a FaceTime call, and neither the person on the bus, nor their caller seemed to be the slightest bit hesitant to carry on their conversation in public. In fact, they appeared completely oblivious.

That was a few years ago. Since then, the problem of listening out loud has gotten much worse. I've encountered it in grocery stores, airport lounges, coffee shops, and even when just walking on the sidewalk. And it's not just phone calls/FaceTime. Music, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram -- you name it. If it's got an audio track, I've heard it blaring from the speaker of someone's phone. During a recent episode of the New York Times' excellent tech podcast, Hard Fork, a listener referred to the problem as an epidemic, and I don't think that's hyperbole.

Read more