NEWS: Sony introduces HT-A9 home theatre system

I did the update once the box was connected to the network

Question ....


Are you having the speakers flat so not pointing in towards you?

Was looking at wall mounting and decided to redo the setup with them flat against the wall as this is how they would end up


Yet to try the above tips and Dune

Tried John Wick and the sound was good all around me in the rain.

Need to look for more films I have with Atmos

Watched Ready player one again - Enjoyed the film and the sound was good.
 
Got my system set up today and I must say that the sound quality is great. I greatly prefer it to my previous Sonos arc setup which has no been redistributed around the house. Tested it with Avengers Endgame and the sound bubble it creates during the final battle is excellent.

Had a bit of a glitch during the firmware update. It told me that the RR speaker was not connected during the update but when I checked the system status post update all the speakers had been updated.

My controller box sits in a cabinet with glass doors and it seems work with no issues.
Great to hear some detail of this hard to source speaker. Did you also buy the SW-5 subwoofer or was it just replacing a Sonos Arc?

I’ve went from a Sonos Playbar + Sub + Play 1 rears and swapped out the Playbar for a Sonos Amp driving a pair of floor standing Paradigm Bipole speakers (together with the Sub and Play 1’s) and it is a real step up in quality/immersive news IMO. However, I’m really interested to hear whether the Sony HT-A9 can really replace a standard 5.1 setup with the added benefit of height/Dolby Atmos to the soundtrack?
 
Great to hear some detail of this hard to source speaker. Did you also buy the SW-5 subwoofer or was it just replacing a Sonos Arc?

I’ve went from a Sonos Playbar + Sub + Play 1 rears and swapped out the Playbar for a Sonos Amp driving a pair of floor standing Paradigm Bipole speakers (together with the Sub and Play 1’s) and it is a real step up in quality/immersive news IMO. However, I’m really interested to hear whether the Sony HT-A9 can really replace a standard 5.1 setup with the added benefit of height/Dolby Atmos to the soundtrack?
I got the SW-5 too. The height effects of the A9 are significantly better than anything I had of the Arc. They really create a 'bubble'. Also I like the width of the front soundstage compared to the Arc. The Phantom centre also works great.
 
For those of you who have this, are you mainly steaming content in compressed Dolby digital? Be it, atmos, 7.1, 5.1 or are you using uncompressed 4K discs?
 
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Changed setting

Dune was a much better film example

Room filling sound all around me
It really amazed me how good the sounds can get. If that is how true hd uncompressed movies sound like In general I might have to buy a 4K Blu-ray player and buy the discs. The only thing holding me back from that is the cost. Holy moly the prices on 4K movies on disc, way too much. 1 movie costs double the price of a month Netflix subscription.
 
For those of you who have this, are you mainly steaming content in comprised Dolby digital? Be it, atmos, 7.1, 5.1 or are you using uncompressed 4K discs?
I am too curious about this. I’ve only seen movies on Netflix, HBO, iTunes etc. basically all streaming. I’d really like to hear if someone have heard the speakers via streaming and via Blu-ray truehd and would comment if there’s a significant big difference?
 
It really amazed me how good the sounds can get. If that is how true hd uncompressed movies sound like In general I might have to buy a 4K Blu-ray player and buy the discs. The only thing holding me back from that is the cost. Holy moly the prices on 4K movies on disc, way too much. 1 movie costs double the price of a month Netflix subscription.
Well my way of thinking is, you’ve just shelled out over £2k pounds if you buy the sw5 which from my point of view is a must have. That’s a lot of money for a sound system. Why then would you not invest in the best possible quality format to get the best out of it. I have a few iTunes movies and yes love the fact they are so convenient and cheaper but seriously there is no comparison in sound over a 4K disc. Pics are getting really close (still not there) but sound is way off! And we are talking about a sound system here…
 
It really amazed me how good the sounds can get. If that is how true hd uncompressed movies sound like In general I might have to buy a 4K Blu-ray player and buy the discs. The only thing holding me back from that is the cost. Holy moly the prices on 4K movies on disc, way too much. 1 movie costs double the price of a month Netflix subscription.
Buy used at CeX or ebay if you are not a fan of the price. Loads of people just buy it watch once then sell on. For older releases you can easily find yourself paying about a tenner per film.

EDIT: Even relatively new releases can be found on a good deal. I got Shang-chi and The Suicide Squad, both new 2021 releases on a 2 for £30 at Zavvi the other day.
 
Some shyster is trying to take advantage of supply chain issues and wants £2,499 for a brand new HT-A9 on eBay currently. That's a £900 mark up on the list price (56%)


They are also selling the SA SW5 subwoofer for £999 which is a £300 premium on list price (43%)


I'm personally not prepared to pay that amount of a premium, especially without being able to hear how good the sound quality is in reality and in one of my rooms.

Let's see if anyone bites though.....
 
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I did see this on the day I got my one delivered and was wow

Some people like to hope to take advantage


Good luck at that price tho some people just can't wait,
 
I did see this on the day I got my one delivered and was wow

Some people like to hope to take advantage


Good luck at that price tho some people just can't wait,
You'd be pretty mad to do it. No guarantee you will like the product. No guarantee that there is someone else mad enough to buy it at this price.
 
You'd be pretty mad to do it. No guarantee you will like the product. No guarantee that there is someone else mad enough to buy it at this price.
And no guarantee that the warranty will be honoured.
 
I am too curious about this. I’ve only seen movies on Netflix, HBO, iTunes etc. basically all streaming. I’d really like to hear if someone have heard the speakers via streaming and via Blu-ray truehd and would comment if there’s a significant big difference?
There is indeed a difference you can hear the difference in clarity with lossless audio from blurays Sometimes louder cleaner sounding compared to streaming. The system scales up well.

Even streaming music via bluetooth using LDAC, it shows the bitrate and you can definitely notice the difference if you have a device that supports it.
 
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There is indeed a difference you can hear the difference in clarity with lossless audio from blurays Sometimes louder cleaner sounding compared to streaming. The system scales up well.

Even streaming music via bluetooth using LDAC, it shows the bitrate and you can definitely notice the difference if you have a device that supports it.
Does it both transmit and receive LDAC?
 
Anyone know if you can connect a sub other than Sony to this system? I have a 1961 1v on order but amb seriously questioning my decision as this system ticks a lot of boxes... the Sony subs black box appearance doesn't appeal so would be ideal to if I can connect the Arendal to this system..
 
Anyone know if you can connect a sub other than Sony to this system? I have a 1961 1v on order but amb seriously questioning my decision as this system ticks a lot of boxes... the Sony subs black box appearance doesn't appeal so would be ideal to if I can connect the Arendal to this system..
Unfortunately not no.
 
I've finally managed to set up my A9, i received it 3 weeks ago, but end of year rush at work!!

Anyhow, my first impressions are wow!! The sound obviously doesn't compare with a proper Atmos setup, which I have with ceiling speakers, but it does a damn good job and is so much easier to set up.

My main gripe was that I had my Xbox plugged into the A9 HDMI in with eARC to an LG g1. On the Xbox settings, ALLM and VRR support was greyed out, one of the reasons why I went with the LG g1 was because of the gaming features, so my heart did sink a little. However, I decided to try plugging directly into the LG g1 from the Xbox and use HDMI Passthrough setting on the G1.. Hey Presto, Dolby Atmos works as well as ALLM and VRR support. The LG g1 doesn't do DTS so I'll test to see if DTS can pass through to the A9.

I set the system up on the 18th of December, as soon as I connected to the network, it asked to update the firmware. I haven't had any drop outs. The speakers are 2 meters apart for the front, 2 meters apart at the rear. and 3 meters between the fronts and rears. My wifi mesh router sits in between the two fronts, so they are both about a meter away from the router, which is an Asus Zenwifi AX mesh router.

in terms of sound, I've tried Extraction on Netflix and Jack Ryan, both were superb. Bullets flying from left to right, overhead fly overs are pretty damn good too, I think I saw on the FOMO channel that setting the height to be higher works even better, but I haven't really adjusted anything yet.

Alexa support is OK, sometimes a little glitchy, but that could be because I am just getting used to how Alexa works.

if there are any things anyone wants me to try, let me know and I'll try and give it a go and report back. have much more time to tinker, finally started my xmas holidays off work.
 
Thanks, seen it. I found the higher height setting better. The "helicopter" Atmos demo sounds better with this setting.
 
For those with the A9, just trying to work out if my room configuration would provide that immersive audio or not, any suggestions appreciated, I have circled where the speakers would go
374D199D-DDF3-4EDB-899D-7BFBD9095670.jpeg
 
Looking at that it is similar to my setup. My speakers are on stands at head height. I would bring that speaker that is the other side of the door next to the settee if possible. I had a Yamaha Soundbar under my Sony AF9 OLED before and that was pretty useless at producing any kind of effect. The HT-A9 is a different ballgame. I do have the sub however.
 
Looking at that it is similar to my setup. My speakers are on stands at head height. I would bring that speaker that is the other side of the door next to the settee if possible. I had a Yamaha Soundbar under my Sony AF9 OLED before and that was pretty useless at producing any kind of effect. The HT-A9 is a different ballgame. I do have the sub however.
Thanks for the reply, current soundbar isn’t to bad but from what I have read the A9 is a step up might need to try and rejig but good to hear that the sound is great in a similar space
 
Am hearing of a further price increase in Feb 2022 due to the semiconductor shortage and the fact that A9 needs 5 rather than the normal 1 or 2 for a Soundbar :eek:
 

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