Verdict
The Sony HT - A3000 may miss the ' substantial ' up - firing canal and power of its footfall - up sibling , but it still delivers an excellent rise on your TV ’s built - in sound system for relatively little money . It offers a cracking if expensive upgrade itinerary , too .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
At the sentence of reassessment , HT - A3000 is Sony ’s most low-cost soundbar . In fact , its £ 449 Leontyne Price imply it can now be yours for £ 250 less than it cost at launching .
Not bad for a hefty 3.1 - duct all - in - one soundbar with Dolby Atmos and DTS :X financial support , Sony’s360 Spatial Sound Mapping technologyand an impressive upgrade path for anyone who wants to add extra bass and rearward TV channel to the A3000 ’s out of the box offering .
While it seems enticing on paper , though , can Sony really retain its common high levelheaded timbre standards right down to its most entry - level soundbar offer ?
Availability
The Sony HT - A3000 ’s £ 449 UK terms looks reasonably aggressive for a soundbar with a good feature of speech count and so much Sony audio heritage behind it . At any rate , it ’s much more enticing now than it was when it first came out priced at £ 699 .
The Sony A3000 is wide available across the human race , with pricing in the US and Australia set at $ 699.99 and A$ 799 respectively – which means the UK price actually looks particularly good value for once !
There are two optional nates and two optional subwoofer options you’re able to add to the A3000 if you want to expand its capabilities . The chinchy SA - RS3S rear pair and SA - SW3 subwoofer pick that I ’d say fork out both the best financial and audio match for the A3000 go for £ 449 each .
Which , it has to be said , does n’t make those upgrades look nearly as good value as the A3000 itself . Add all three damage together , in fact , and you end up at £ 1,350 – the same sort of price currently being ask by Samsung for its barnstorming 16 - channelHW - Q990Dfull environment phone plus subwoofer soundbar parcel .
Design
For many consumers , soundbars represent the ultimate fashion of greatly heighten your plate AV setup ’s phone without the tortuousness and aesthetic impact call for with fill your room with Speaker and a separate adenylic acid . The A3000 equip this soundbar flyer especially well , thanks to its compact size , blue profile , all - in - one design and subtly attractive commixture of finishes .
This latter item finds the top edge clad in a cunningly textured vinyl radical - type last , while the front edge gets a metal grille result and the bum gets a more leathery , leprose appearance that ’s a lot more attractive than I made it sound . Using so many different finish could have look awkward in less careful , experient hands , but on the A3000 it ferment a treat .
The optional extra rear speakers and subwoofer ( which I did get cargo area of for this review ) are less overtly fashionable if you opt to add them . But they ’re still compact and , in the SW3 sub ’s case , light to hide down the side of a sofa or under a side board given the comparatively non - directional nature of bass voice oftenness .
The A3000 ’s top edge plays host to a beautifully integrated set of on - bar connection buttons – though as you ’d bear , Sony ’s soundbar ships with a distant ascendancy too . This is full-grown and compact with release , but it does n’t take too long to find out your way of life round the authoritative bits .
All the A3000 ’s speaker unit are house behind the metal grillwork that run along the soundbar ’s front boundary . They be dedicated odd , centre and right driver , with a duo of subwoofers posture either side of the centre speaker to raise bass reproductive memory .
All five speaker unit are built using Sony ’s X - Balanced Speaker technology , where a comparatively orthogonal rather than circular equipment driver shape is used to deliver punchier freshwater bass , reduced distortion and enhanced vocal clarity .
Features
In its default , bar - only configuration , the HT - A3000 delivers its auditory sensation through a 3.1 - channel speaker organisation , complete with dedicated built - in double bass drivers . This set up can deliver a total yield of 250W through a set of Sony ’s S - Master digital amplifier , with a variety of wakeless format decipherer on hand to ensure that whatever speech sound is fed into the A3000 can take advantage of its full compass of power and channels .
Compatible formatting and data file types admit Dolby Digital , Dolby Digital Plus , Dolby TrueHD , Dolby Atmos , DTS , DTS HD High Resolution Audio , DTS HD Master Audio , DTS ES , DSD , WAV , FLAC , ALAC , AIFF , HE.AAC MP3 , Monkey Audio , WMA , Ogg and Orbis . Obviously the soundbar ca n’t deliver a full ‘ dead on target ’ border sound experience from surroundings phone formats in its default state , but it carries virtual environs processing that includes DTS Virtual X.
The HT - A3000 also , as I ’d ask of any Sony soundbar these days , support Sony ’s own 360 - point Spatial Sound Mapping system , with its ability to assess the layout of your elbow room and make multiple virtual surround , side and acme speakers . Sony ’s S - Force PRO Front Surround and Vertical Surround Engines are on offer to create as immersive a sound stage as possible even when you ’re just using the soundbar by itself .
Music file can also benefit from Sony ’s spat DSEE Extreme organisation , where compressed digital medicine file are returned to something like their original form thanks to the DSEE organisation ’s power to recognise instrumentation , melodic genre and even the individual elements of a song and mend the high range sounds typically lost in the compression cognitive operation .
There ’s support for direct playback of euphony through Spotify Connect , build up - in Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 , and you’re able to assure the A3000 with your voice via external Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa listening devices . you could also moderate the soundbar via Sony ’s Music Centre App for Io and Android if you ca n’t find the supplied remote control and ca n’t think of what to say to the soundbar via the voice control organisation .
A Sound Field push on the remote enable you to fiddle music using a faker surround phone scheme , though of course of instruction , you could stick with consummate stereophonic system .
A vocalization modal value is on bridge player to make talks easier to hear if you ’re follow Tenet ( other talks - hiding films are available ) , while a Night mode setting reduces the sound ’s dynamical range and adjusts the overall sound equaliser so that you may still delight a near movie admixture at comparatively low volumes .
Connectivity is about what I ’d expect of a £ 450 soundbar ( though would have struck me as a bit underwhelming at its original £ 699 monetary value ) . The independent attraction is a single HDMI port equipped witheARC functionality , so that you could slide by lossless multi - channel auditory sensation formatting through the video ’s HDMI output to the soundbar .
There ’s no second HDMI input though , so you ca n’t pass away HDMI source at once through the A3000 . In a arrant world this would n’t count , but I ’ve experienced enough audio sync issues using eARC over the years to screw that it ’s not always the idealistic only option for getting the highest tone audio formats into a soundbar .
Other connections include a USB inspection and repair port wine , an optic digital audio stimulant , and what Sony calls an S - midway output . This enables the soundbar and the verbaliser in compatible Sony tv set to work in tandem as just the centre duct in a wide of the mark multi - channel speaker system system .
The optional RS3S and SW3 bottom and subwoofer speakers both connect with the principal soundbar wirelessly , with the RS3S pair deploy separate woofer and tweeter part and adding another 50W for each speaker to the overall major power , while the SW3 feeds up to 200W into a 160 mm driver .
The subwoofer also carries a couplet of Sony exclusive technology : Magnetic force technology , which optimise the way voice curl is driven by the talker ’s magnetic ascendancy arrangement , and Separated Notch Edge technology , where concentric notches seduce into the proscribed edge of the number one wood help tighten the driver stress and , as a result , make bass sound cleaner .
Sound Quality
As the cheapest and smallest member of Sony ’s current soundbar orbit , it ’s only reasonable to expect that the A3000 wo n’t go as boastful or dynamic as its morepotent A5000andA7000 sib . The doubt is , just how much less potent does it sound ? Has it got enough power and ejection to still give your TV the gravid audio recording boost you still want to hear for £ 449 ?
Starting with the A3000 by itself , without the optional extra rears and subwoofer , for the most part the answer is a prosperous yes . For neophyte , the sound is contrive quite some distance from the soundbar , creating a rampart of sound that extends to the remaining , right and even to some degree above the soundbar . It ’s easy to blank out that all this sound is coming from a single smallish legal profession under your TV .
The height element is n’t as defined as it is on the gradation - up A5000 and A7000 Sony soundbars for the simple reason that unlike its measure up siblings , the A3000 does n’t carry any dedicated up - firing speakers . With the A3000 anything that appears above the horizontal stratum of the primary left and right splay is being adjure up using the various Sony sound elaboration / virtualiser technologies .
There is still actual clearness and some fairly precise detail positioning within the A3000 ’s vertical audio core , though , despite the lack of dedicated up - provoke verbaliser , making it one of the more effective practical tallness system I ’ve get word at the sub-£500 soundbar level .
The soundbar is powerful enough to nurture its wide and high healthy stage without it lose cohesion at its KO’d edges or sounding wishy faded or indistinct when there are a lot of audio object and layers to deal at once . The clear , smooth way sounds passage across the front soundstage , in particular , reveals just how wide but also precise , clean and free of well-grounded level gaps the soundbar ’s output is .
vocal music sit at the spirit of the action without ever sounding overwhelmed by the exfoliation of what ’s decease on around them . In fact , as well as always being very clear and natural , no matter whether a male person or a distaff phonation is speaking , voice also vocalise copious in context of use rather than over - let on or excessively bright . Sony has added a slight perpendicular lift to vocals , too , so that they seem tie to the picture , rather than derive from the soundbar below your filmdom .
There is n’t as much shell , precision or dynamical range with the A3000 as you get from the A5000 and A7000 . But this is inevitable – and crucially the A3000 does at least greet its limitations and run within them , rather than trying too heavily and succumbing to distortions , form buzzing or universal sound mix reconciliation issues .
The A3000 does n’t just sound good with film and TV soundtrack , either . It ’s actually one of the most musical soundbars I ’ve hear at its Leontyne Price story , snoop two-channel music with an immaculate sense of balance , detail , ambience , warmth and rude space . Vocals are particularly attractively handle thanks to both their placement at the centre of but just above the rest of the mixing , and they always go clear ( rather than being drag into sudden bursts of basso or shrill guitar ) without sounding clinical or harsh .
The positioning of the dual subwoofers facing out from the front of the soundbar along with the other speakers seems to avail sea bass achieve a strongly rude sensation of proportional depth , exact crossover voter and stark weighting with stereo medicine , too .
Of course , no £ 449 soundbar is going to be perfect , so I have managed to assemble a small collection of niggles about the A3000 . First , while bass with stereo music is handled beautifully , low frequencies sound a little lightweight for big action mechanism moving picture . Bass is present , for trusted , but it does n’t hit the depths or heft needed to amply sell a good cinematic detonation or T - Rex step .
When using the soundbar by itself , moving-picture show soundtracks do n’t force forward into your room enough to give you any sensation of being truly swallow up in the nerve of the levelheaded stage , either . Though powerful impact effect such as gunshot and punches are driven out with a reasonable amount of maliciousness .
If you wager music using the Soundfield effect , while the soundstage becomes bigger and more elbow room filling without losing cohesion or counterweight , vocals lose some of their clarity . Enough that personally I preferred to stick with the stereo setting . Music also needs to be play within a fair specific volume reach to kibosh it vocalise either rather muted if it ’s too quiet or a little strained if it ’s too loud .
While I ’ve focussed so far on the A3000 by itself because of how relatively expensive the optional RS3S rears and SW3 subwoofer are , both options help to take the soundbar ’s performance to a much eminent story .
The rear loudspeaker obviously instantly add a surround good attribute to the A3000 where there just was n’t one before . The caliber of this surroundings experience is excellent , too , as the timbre and book levels of the rears tie in beautifully with the main A3000 stripe ’s sound , while deliver pristine and immaculately place rear soundstage details .
They can start to voice a touch brickle when push really hard , and they do n’t bear any strong-arm up - firing drivers . They do toy their part in ameliorate the effectiveness of Sony ’s 360 Spatial Mapping organisation , though , and their crispiness is only seldom exposed .
The SW3 , meanwhile , hands down solves the shortage of bass part the A3000 suffers . Its comportment greatly heighten the sense of shell of big - scurf legal action scenes , and as with the rears , it lend its cinematic mightiness without sounding detached from or tonally dissimilar to the auditory sensation of the independent A3000 soundbar . Nor does it ever terminate up overwhelming any part of the A3000 ’s sound .
In fact , as with the fanny the ease with which the SW3 integrate with the A3000 is a will to just how effective Sony ’s various audio processing system have become at produce remarkably cohesive surroundings sound systems with minimal manual substance abuser effort necessitate . It ’s just a pity both the extra for the A3000 cost so much .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You ’re looking for a compact , affordable single - legal profession answer that ’s great for euphony as well as films .
You require an HDMI eyelet through , or you desire a full surround audio plus subwoofer answer for less than a grand .
Final Thoughts
The Sony HT - A3000 is a good soundbar for its money . Its knack for detail and delivering a sound stage much larger than you would expect from such a compact unit combines with an power to switch adeptly between motion-picture show and medicine intent that ’s rarefied indeed in the sub-£500 soundbar worldly concern .
It ’s a little lacking in movie - grade freshwater bass in its solo form , though , and its connections are limited . Also , while it ’s slap-up that it tender upgrade options as imposingly capable as the RS3S behind and SW3 subwoofer , the price of those extras comparative to the main soundbar unfortunately make it unlikely that many people will be capable to take advantage of them .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every soundbar we reexamine good over an extensive menstruation of clock time . We use industry standard tests to compare feature of speech in good order . We ’ll always severalise you what we find . We never , ever , assume money to review a product .
Find out more about how we test in ourethics insurance policy .
FAQs
These are so - called object establish audio organization that place good effect into a three - dimensional outer space rather than upshot just sounding as if they ’re coming from the locating of your loudspeaker system .
This analyses your elbow room and then uses Sony ’s proprietary audio processing to create an array of practical speakers around your room to create a tumid , more immersive sound stage .
No , the A3000 does not give up you to relate an external equipment to it and communicate the pictures on to your screen . You have to unite your gadget directly to your goggle box , and utilise HDMI ’s ARC or , better , eARC technology to pass in high spirits lineament sound on to the soundbar .
