5.0 out of 5 stars Great soundbar, great performance

D.i.P. · October 11, 2024

Very happy with this soundbar -- I'm not an audiophile but I do appreciate the performance in our room. It helps to hear the dialog in movies (sometimes a challenge), and it enhances the sports experience when watching an event. This Sony sound bar is connected to a Sony Bravia 3 TV.Setup was especially easy -- we used the HDMI cable provided in the speaker box, and supplemented it with a fiber optic cable as well. I'm not sure whether that's a bit redundant, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I had this mounted (directly beneath the TV on an articulating wall mount) and connected and performing within an hour working alone. Using the attachment to the TV means if we move the TV based upon my viewing position in the room, the speaker moves with it and delivers the sound to our seating position. No need to pay for installation.I would definitely buy again.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sound

A.C. · September 4, 2024

I have a Sony Bravia TV and the built-in speakers are pretty poor. This sound bar makes a huge difference. Conversations are clearer and sound in general is enhanced nicely.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but pretty close

H. · June 2, 2020

As a preface to this review, I'll say that I've been working with surround home audio equipment since the earliest days of the first Dolby units for VHS started appearing on the market.Like many people, I'm in a position where I really wanted far better sound than was available through my TV, but not really willing or able to spend half or more than what I had already plunked down for the TV. I settled on a budget of $200-300 for a soundbar and began my research. Since I'm an apartment dweller at this point in my life, I did consider bars with external subwoofers, but focused mostly on those with subwoofers built-in.The HTX8500 is the third soundbar that I've purchased for my Sony 950G on this quest (the first two being a Yamaha and a Polk Audio), and so far, the best at doing what I wanted the bar primarily for in the first place, movies.You aren't going to get true surround out of any stand alone soundbar, but, in the case of the 8500, you CAN get a sonic experience that draws you more into the film without drawing attention to the soundbar itself.The good:Sony has done its homework pretty well on the 8500. As with most stand alone pieces, it does its job best when you are seated nearly directly in front of it, and about eight feet or closer. When watching the Dolby Atmos encoded movie Midway (2019), the soundstage was amazingly large, with it sounding like Japanese aircraft were zipping by your head during the Pearl Harbor sequence. Moving to a DTS feature, I tried Independence Day, a film that had a great surround track even on DVD, and things got even better. Sony's proprietary vertical sound engine once again was quite impressive. That said, the Yamaha 1080, with its DTS Virtual X did this job as well or better than the 8500, but because of the Yamaha's poorer ability to bring dialog to the foreground, the 8500 is, in my opinion, the better choice.The not so good:Like most soundbars, the 8500 takes a stab at trying to keep dialog more intelligible through internal processing. It does a decent job of this about 70-75% of the time, which is a far better percentage than either the Polk Audio or Yamaha soundbars that I tried before it.The bad:Sony offers a mere 3 settings for the bass on the 8500, -1, 0, +1, and those aren't nearly enough. More often than not, I found the 0 setting to be not quite enough, but the +1 setting to be enough to clearly be overwhelming the built-in subwoofers. This was an area where the Yamaha, with a far more adjustable level for its built in subwoofers, to be the better choice - that said, the Sony's ability to create a nearly as large soundstage and better at dialog enhancement still make it the better choice.The ugly:Although I really don't plan on using the soundbar for music, I thought it only fair to include it in my review. The 8500, while producing a nice soundstage, is absolutely dreadful in comparison to both the Yamaha and Polk Audio bars. The Yamaha in particular, while naturally lacking in bottom end due to the small size of its subwoofers, actually produced a smooth soundstage fairly close to that of my 25+ year old Infinity towers driven by a Onkyo receiver. If you're looking for a soundbar that covers both bases, the 8500 is clearly not for you.Positives+ Wide soundstage+ Decent dialog enhancement+ Amazing surround-like effects+ HDR10 and Dolby Vision passthroughNegatives- Limited adjustment for bass levels- Not great at music reproduction- Need to be 8 feet or less away for the best "surround"My quest is still not quite over. I'm going to be trying a Denon model with built-in subwoofers and DTS Virtual X in the very near future, and will be updating this review to take it into consideration as well.Thanks for reading, and happy viewing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good upgrade from a dependable brand

M. · August 2, 2024

When i first hooked up this soundbar, i felt a little intimidated because i had grown so used to the HT-100F, which is a 2 channel soundbar, that the heavier base and enveloping sound field felt surreal, but i quickly grew accustomed to it and I am very pleased with it. ATMOS sounds great. It requires a little more set up to get used to the control so make sure you read the instructions, but it is a noticeable improvement over my previous soundbar, which i still recommend by the way. This is a good step up one piece solution. If i could change one thing it would be to have the power supply on the inside rather than the outside, but otherwise i am pleased.

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME

C. · August 20, 2021

This sound bar is absolutely perfect for the money. Just buy it. I hope Sony never discontinues it. The only downside is that sometimes certain audio with movies or videogames sounds a bit like thin like it doesn't sound like it fits what your seeing. But I use it in combination with my tv's speakers so the tv speakers balance out if the audio sounds funny sometimes. This might be caused by me using the optical cable so the audio isn't getting the eARC. But that's cause when using arc it auto mutes my tv speakers which i don't like. As far as increasing your volume level this thing is amazing. It has excellent bass. I never really need it on full volume it fills up my room pretty well. And I leave my tv speakers on 60% for a really good stereo sound. Now when I play gta5 it sounds like there's a real car engine idling next to me. Literally! I can feel through the floor up through my bed a vibrating rumble from this trucks engine. So not only are noises loud. But they create vibrations you can feel. Which really immerses you in the environment making it feel much more live and real. Yeah the fact that I can not only hear the noises but FEEL the noises. It's exceptional quality

Great Sound and Quality Bar

L.M. · June 26, 2023

Very satisfied with the sound quality. Sounds great. love the extra base. It is a whole new experience to watch a movie and hear things that you normally wouldn't.Great value!! LOVE it!

Audio excelente en uno solo

A. · December 24, 2021

Definitivamente la mejor barra de sonido de una sola pieza, la virtualizacion del sonido de 2.1 canales Dolby Atmos y DTS:X hacen que la experiencia en una sala de mediano tamaño hacen que el sonido sea excelente, los efectos de las películas sean claros y parezca que se efectúan de partes distintas de la habitación.Una de las cosas que en un principio cuesta trabajo es la codificación de los focos para saber que tipo de configuración de sonido, ya que no tiene una interfaz gráfica.Ideal que tienes puerto e-arc para aprovechar todo su potencial, sonido con graves profundos sin llenar tu espacio vital de aparatos teniendo que ya está el sub buffer también integrado.

Terrific sound, great bass without separate subwoofer

F. · November 28, 2020

Phenomenal sound without separate speakers and sub woofer. Do need to keep the manual nearby to interpret the LED's on settings, but not a problem.

Perfect for my apartment

V. · May 6, 2023

Nowadays tv have poor quality sound and this is a great fix. I don't want LOUD and BASSY as I don't wanna annoy the whole building and this has just the right amount of bass and good sound quality for a soundbar.EARC feature works great.

All in

A.C. · March 13, 2021

Todo el sonido integrado en la barra no necesitas más