02-04-2025
Sony Launches New Bravia Home Theater Audio Products—Including Two New Soundbars
Not content with adding multiple new models to its Bravia TV range today, Sony has also unveiled a series of new additions to its home theater home audio range comprising two new soundbars and a revamp of its rear speaker and subwoofer 'accessory' series.
The two new soundbars are targeted at the relatively affordable end of Sony's range, below the Bravia Theater Bar 9 and Bravia Theater Bar 8 premium soundbar models Sony launched in 2024. The Bravia Theater Bar 6 is soundbar-plus-subwoofer proposition (the Bar 9 and Bar 8 models don't ship as standard with a subwoofer), while the Bravia Theatre System 6 is a full surround package including a subwoofer and wireless (kind of!) rear speakers.
Sony has launched four new additions to its home theater audio range.
The new additions to the extra speaker options Sony provides as options for adding to its core soundbars are new Bravia Theater Rear 8 speakers, and a Bravia Theater Sub 7 subwoofer. I'll go into detail on each of these new Sony audio offerings below - and as with my article on Sony's new TVs, since I've had the chance to experience multiple demos of Sony's new home theater audio products I'll also include brief first impressions of them all alongside their official specification and feature information.
The new Sony Theater Bar 6 soundbar features the main bar and an included wireless subwoofer.
Sony Theater Bar 6
The Basics
The Theater Bar 6 is a new more affordable addition to the Bravia Theater Bar range launched in 2024 with the impressive Bar 9 and Bar 8 models. We don't have confirmed pricing on the Bar 6 yet, but as well as it notably being called the Bar 6 when the Bar 7 slot is still available, Sony confirms that it's designed to replace the aggressively priced G700 soundbar, which cost $600/£450 when it launched in 2020.
During a demonstration of the Theater Bar 6 pitched against a Samsung Q600C (which features the same channel count and almost the same amount of power), the Bar 6 clearly came out on top. Dialogue, for starters, sounded much clearer during a clip of one of the in-plane training sequences in Top Gun: Maverick. Dialogue also sounded better positioned, appearing to come from the mouths of the people talking on screen rather than from the soundbar sat under the screen.
Detail of one end of the new Sony Bar 6 soundbar, complete with one of its up-firings speakers.
The roars of Maverick's plane engines enjoyed much more dynamic range on the Sony Bar 6 too, giving their sound much more impact and a sense of raw 'grunt' that helps put you much more convincingly inside the cockpit with Cruise and co.
The Bar 6's improved sound staging, meanwhile, delivered a much more convincing and potent sense of the differences in space as the Maverick sequence cuts between the cockpit and outside shots.
The Bar 6's sound didn't feel 'trapped in' or thin at any point, and the provided subwoofer fleshed out the bass end of the audio spectrum without sounding baggy, detached or prone to distortion. If this all holds up in more intensive testing conditions with a wider range of content, Sony could have a real mid-range hit on its hands.
The new Sony Theater System 6
Sony Theater System 6
The Basics
Despite comprising four separate speakers to create a true surround sound plus subwoofer experience, the Theater System 6 is actually positioned some way below the Bar 6. In fact, an overview slide of Sony's home theater audio range at a Sony unveiling event showed it slipping into a slot beneath the two-channel SF150 soundbar, which only costs around $140/£130!
Clearly, then, the System 6 is designed to cater for the lots of power and impact for not much buck soundbar crowd. But does that mean it doesn't sound very good?
Sony's Theater System 6 surround sound audio package.
During two separate demos of the system I've experienced so far, it really doesn't sound bad at all. Particularly impressive for what's looking like being essentially a budget surround package is the size of the soundstage it creates. It handles its massive amounts of power well enough to fill even quite a large room with a full surround experience without anything sounding distorted or incoherent. Dialogue is impressively clear, too, overcoming right away one of the most common issues with value-focused soundbars.
The Multi Stereo feature is an unexpected success, too, as repeating the stereo mix from the front speakers in the rear speakers really does greatly increase the extent to which music fills your room. Surprisingly, the rear speakers achieved a good tonal match for the main bar even in this 'repeat the front channel sound' mode, despite their relatively compact design.
I did note a slight funnelling effect when watching film clips, where the rear soundstage feels wider than the front soundstage. Also, although clean and clear, vocals occasionally felt a bit small versus the rest of an action scene mix. But if that's all I uncover during more formal, wide-ranging tests of my own, it wouldn't stop the system from still feeling like a massive home theater bargain.
Sony's new Theater Rear 8 speakers.
Bravia Theater Rear 8
The Basics
The Theater Rear 8s are designed to be direct (and physically larger) replacements for Sony's RS3S optional upgrade rear speakers. The RS3Ses were the more affordable of Sony's two optional rear speakers, sitting below the more powerful RS5s. The RS5s are to continue in Sony's range.
Sony went to the trouble of putting on demonstrations at its launch events of the Theater Rear 8s versus the RS3Ses they replace, switching between the two speakers in the middle of various movie scenes. As with all Sony's demonstrations, this one again paid off handsomely in the Rear 8s favour.
The crowd sounds around the track and pit while watching the Gran Turismo film sounded much crisper and cleaner on the Rear 8s, for instance. In fact, the Rear 8s make the RS3Ses sound a little muddy by comparison.
Detail of the top of a new Sony Theater Rear 8 optional rear speaker.
Seemingly superior sensitivity helps the Rear 8s sound more detailed – and achieve a more convincing relative level of impact between different details – than the RS3Ses do. Plus the Rear 8s produce markedly more dynamic range than the RS3Ses, delivering both a richer, deeper sense of bass and a cleaner, less harsh feel to very shrill effects. All of which makes them sound better matched tonally with the sound from whatever Sony soundbar they're partnered with.
Finally, the Rear 8s project their sound more effectively than the RS3Ses do, helping the rear soundstage to sound larger and more immersive. Not least because you feel less aware of the Rear 8s physical position and existence, making it easier to get lost in the sound they're making.
The new Sony Bravia Sub 7.
Bravia Theater Sub 7
The Basics
The Theater Sub 7 is designed to replace the more entry level model of Sony's previous two-strong subwoofer upgrade options, the SW3. The bigger and more powerful SW5 subwoofer continues in the range.
The Sub 7 appears to have been designed so that Sony can offer a more "lifestyle" subwoofer option that's easier to hide away/accommodate in a living room. It's significantly slimmer, for one thing, and its new driver design means it can be positioned either sideways next to, say, a wall near your screen, or facing forwards towards the screen from a position down the side of a chair or sofa.
Again, Sony wasn't afraid to demo the Sub 7 in action, running alongside a Theater Bar 8 soundbar to show what a difference it makes to the Bar 8's sound. Not surprisingly, it was instantly obvious that it greatly extended the low frequency response that the Bar 8 can achieve by itself, delivering deeper sounds at a pressure level that didn't sound incongruous with the sounds coming from the Bar 8.
The Sony Theater Sub 7 features a strikingly slim design.
The Sub 7's enhancements of the Bar 8 sound are at their most obvious with general deep rumbles of the sort produced by giant space ships, fleets of tanks, approaching sandworms and so on; it's not quite as impactful with sharp impact bass sounds. Though it still certainly improves with these moments on what the Bar 8 can manage by itself.
I was also impressed by how well the Sub 7's low frequencies "tie up" with the lowest frequencies being produced by the Bar 8 soundbar, leaving no glaring and distracting gap in a film mix's low frequency range.
It was striking, too, how adding the Sub 7 actually improved the performance of the Bar 8, as removing the bass burden from the soundbar freed it up to deliver a cleaner, more dynamic response with a film mix's mid frequency range sounds.
The Sony Bar 8 picture with a new Sub 7 and two Rear 8s.
I did find myself wishing during a demo of a sandworm sequence from Dune 2 that maybe the Sub 7's low frequencies could plunge a bit deeper still. That would likely be impossible, though, from such a slender subwoofer design – and it's clear that this design was a big part of Sony's motivation for replacing the SW3. The SW5 is still there – albeit at a higher price – to deliver another level of bass for people who care more about that than aesthetic concerns.
As with the new additions to Sony's Bravia TV range, all four additions to Sony's Home Theater Audio range are set to launch this spring, with pricing yet to be confirmed.
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