Soundbar Sony HT-A3000 Black

I love Sony soundbars, I have been using them for the last couple of years. We have a rather large open living room so we setup the A7000 series soundbar in there a while back. The sound is amazing despite the open area and high ceilings. We were looking for something that would work well in a bedroom, and the A5000 series seemed like it might be just a tad too much for the smaller area. This A3000 series soundbar from Sony seems to fit that niche just right.Setup process is incredibly easy, run the power cable to the outlet near your TV, connect the HDMI cable from the eARC TV out port on the back of the soundbar to your eARC input on the back of your TV. The soundbar has one HDMI input in the back of the soundbar so we plugged in our streaming box to that. Once ... MoreI love Sony soundbars, I have been using them for the last couple of years. We have a rather large open living room so we setup the A7000 series soundbar in there a while back. The sound is amazing despite the open area and high ceilings. We were looking for something that would work well in a bedroom, and the A5000 series seemed like it might be just a tad too much for the smaller area. This A3000 series soundbar from Sony seems to fit that niche just right.Setup process is incredibly easy, run the power cable to the outlet near your TV, connect the HDMI cable from the eARC TV out port on the back of the soundbar to your eARC input on the back of your TV. The soundbar has one HDMI input in the back of the soundbar so we plugged in our streaming box to that. Once you have everything powered on, the soundbar walks you through the final setup process in configuring the sound to your room. Sony’s audio wizards can reflect sound off the walls and ceiling to really make it feel like the sound is moving around you as opposed to just coming from the soundbar. One small gripe I had when I was setting up was that the soundbar only has 1 HDMI input, not a deal breaker since I can run my other devices to the TV and the soundbar is still going to produce excellent sound. Some of Sony’s other models offer 2 HDMI inputs so it was just a bit of a bummer seeing that this one only had the one, again not a deal breaker but worth noting.So, the sound. In a word ‘Wow!’. I already knew what to expect since we use one of Sony’s higher end models in the living room, but this soundbar on its own can give you an immersive feeling. The clarity and separation are amazing. We were watching a movie and at one point in the movie it was raining, but I instinctively looked outside my bedroom windows thinking it was raining outside. I felt silly a second later when I realized it was just the soundbar making it sound like the rain was coming from behind us. With the soundbar supporting Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Vertical Surround Engine Sony really has you feeling like you are in the scene. Another amazing feature, that I feel often gets overlooked is their support of 360 Reality Audio. Paired with the right digital streaming provider and songs, this makes for a unique listening experience that has you feeling like you are there in the studio or concert where the music is being recorded. Even more so if you are using their wireless rear speakers and sub.More of a test to see if I should make the extra investment, I grabbed the sub and wireless speakers from my living room setup and linked them to the A3000. This is super easy since you just click the link buttons on each speaker and the soundbar can locate them and connect to them. The sound was improved, but if I had to choose just one of those things to make the investment in, it would be the sub. The soundbar can create good bass for explosions in action movie, but unfortunately doesn’t come close to what the sub is able to do on its own. Depending on your room you might get away without utilizing the wireless rear speakers, but if you want the most out of those action movies then the sub should be a serious consideration.This isn’t the best soundbar on the market, but for the right size room and setup this can deliver an incredible experience without emptying your bank. Again, paired with the sub this makes for a very immersive cinema experience.

Over the years I've owned MANY sound bars. Many is an understatement. In my house at this moment I have at least 4 (5 now) plugged in and functioning sound bars of various makes and manufacturers. Each of them has their own pluses and minuses, however I was really looking forward to setting this one up. Unfortunately, disappointment ensued.To start, the packaging is much as you'd expect, the sound bar is nestled in a relatively nondescript long rectangular box with an image on the front of the bar and it is packed in Styrofoam. It comes with the remote, some documentation and an HDMI cable.On setup, the sound bar is seen by my Samsung TV and it switches to the input for it. There's a relatively simple setup process whereby it connects to WiFi, allows you to set ... MoreOver the years I've owned MANY sound bars. Many is an understatement. In my house at this moment I have at least 4 (5 now) plugged in and functioning sound bars of various makes and manufacturers. Each of them has their own pluses and minuses, however I was really looking forward to setting this one up. Unfortunately, disappointment ensued.To start, the packaging is much as you'd expect, the sound bar is nestled in a relatively nondescript long rectangular box with an image on the front of the bar and it is packed in Styrofoam. It comes with the remote, some documentation and an HDMI cable.On setup, the sound bar is seen by my Samsung TV and it switches to the input for it. There's a relatively simple setup process whereby it connects to WiFi, allows you to set up Alexa or Chromecast integration, and configures the 360 audio if you have the rear speakers and the sub (both of which are sold separately). The 360 audio setup is actually very cool, each of the speakers emits a series of tones which is picked up by the soundbar to allow it to adjust the audio for the room it is set up in.Then came the movie watching... For starters, I brought up Jurassic Park. Who can match the sweeping sounds of John Williams as the score for Jurassic Park is played directly after Dr Grant and Dr Sattler see the Brachiosaurus for the first time. The audio is... tinny. The conversation between the characters is flat. The review is for the soundbar, so I'll leave out too much commentary on the surround speakers and sub, but I have to say, that the surrounds are underutilized, and the subwoofer is boomy at best. But returning to the sound bar... much of the midrange is lost on the bar itself. John Williams lovely Jurassic Park score, which sounds good just because of what it is, loses a lot of its depth and fullness. As the movie continues, it just becomes more and more apparent that the mids are just way too weak in this sound bar, from the crunching branches as the T-Rex approaches, so the freight-train sound of its roar... All of it sounds too high and a little too flat.Watching TV is an even less impressive endeavor. All of the channels I watched the sound was flat and uninspired. There's not a whole lot in the way of customization for the audio for this sound bar, and cycling through the settings did not change the experience much.For the cost of the sound bar alone, it's a rather steep price for subpar sound, even once you add the wireless subwoofer, it cannot make up for the utter lack of midrange in the bar.Unfortunately I cannot recommend this, particularly at this price.

The Sony HT-A3000 is one of the few 3.1 setups on the market that supports Dolby Atmos content. This bar is a more affordable alternative to the Sony HT-A5000 and the Sony HT-A7000, It offers Sound Field mode to enhance its sound, and while watching movies recently this feature sounds outstanding and above all it performs as good if not better than my other surround sound wall speakers and subwoofer.The HT-A3000 soundbar features Sony's spatial audio solution, 360 Sound Mapping, that delivers an incredible “ultra-wide listening area". When we fist set this up in my kids Play Room to our Sony KDL55HX853, along with the PS5 the ability of the soundbar to fill the complete room with clarity, sharpness and stunning tones was beautiful. The soundbar all supports Dolby ... MoreThe Sony HT-A3000 is one of the few 3.1 setups on the market that supports Dolby Atmos content. This bar is a more affordable alternative to the Sony HT-A5000 and the Sony HT-A7000, It offers Sound Field mode to enhance its sound, and while watching movies recently this feature sounds outstanding and above all it performs as good if not better than my other surround sound wall speakers and subwoofer.The HT-A3000 soundbar features Sony's spatial audio solution, 360 Sound Mapping, that delivers an incredible “ultra-wide listening area". When we fist set this up in my kids Play Room to our Sony KDL55HX853, along with the PS5 the ability of the soundbar to fill the complete room with clarity, sharpness and stunning tones was beautiful. The soundbar all supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, however we would want to leave this in the play room but we will connect it to our Sony AV Receiver in the main TV room and connect it to the Dolby Atmos feature and test it out.While we have a separate subwoofer in our main TV room, the HT A3000 features three front speakers plus their very own dedicated center channel and dual subwoofers. The good news is and I mentioned we would try this down the line is it can be upgraded to support a surround sound system with the brilliant ability from the support of Sony's optional SA-SW5 wireless subwoofer and SA-RS5 wireless rear speakers.The brilliant ability to stream music from the HT A3000 allowed is the chance to connect to our own service and it was stunning and as good as the Sony Surround system we have in another tv room.On the topic of sound, the HT A3000 comes with Google Assistant integration and works with Amazon Alexa devices too.The HT-A3000 comes with a wide range of inputs including USB, optical and HDMI eARC.