NEWS: Sony launches HT-G700 Dolby Atmos soundbar

What have you got the soundbar plugged into? e.g. port type, TV?

It's a Panasonic TX55GZ950B and I'm using the ARC HDMI ports on the TV/Soundbar with a decent HDMI 2.1 cable. The Sky Q 2TB box is plugged in to the TV via HDMI.

Music and movies sounds really good and it states Dolby Atmos on the Soundbar so I'm definitely getting the correct signal.

The only issue I'm having is when watching Sky channels such as ITV HD, some of the audio just sounds a bit off and a bit tinny or echoey. I can't seem to get the setting right... I have the Subwoofer set to 6
 
Could it be that the soundbar isn't forgiving with poor sound sources (such as itv player)?
 
I have an LG Oled55B6 and it has 1 arc port, I am thinking of getting this soundbar but I’m a bit of a beginner....

I have a Nvidia shield,PS4 and occasionally plug my laptop in.

We use Netflix, Prime and Disney on the tv app and I wondered how the arc works?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated
 
So I have it. Arrived yesterday.

First impressions? It's okay.

However, I have never owned a soundbar before. As you can see in my sig, I am used to my Monitor audio atmos setup (7.1.4), so this soundbar was never going to compare.

The sound is quite good. I've tried music and atmos mkvs through it. They sound good.

However, the 'immersive fake atmos surround' isn't particularly good. Again, I have only my real atmos setup to compare it to. however, if you think by getting this you will get great atmos sound, you'd be wrong. But playing music and films sounds good. Better than my tv's built-in speakers but it didn't wow me. Maybe my expectations were too high?

There are also a few bugs. I have connected my firestick 4kdirectly to it so i can utilize my tidal hifi account in better detail. Sometimes the soundbar just won't play sound from it (picture is fine). Only by turning soundbar off and on again will it work. If I don't find a solution, that would be enough for me to return it.
 
This arrived today from MartinDawes, £375 thanks to the poster here who pointed out the New25 code. I've never actually had a surround setup or soundbar before so going to run some atmos content through it tomorrow from my Shield and try to get this up and running properly. The device menu seems quite difficult to use with the screen size... Initial impressions were that it sounded good, but was underwhelmed by the "vertical sound stage". Also the AE button didn't seem to work, it kept displaying "NOT USE" whenever it was pressed. I imagine these are all setting related though, so I'll report back once I've had a proper play tomorrow. If anyone can help on any of this, please shout!
 
I still can't get rid of the tinny sound, it's most noticeable when watching something like Friends, Britians got Talent where an audience claps or laughs etc. Before I had a £130 Samsung H450 Soundbar and had none of that tinny noise.

Movies and Music sound brilliant with a good broad spectrum of sound but the Atmos Surround Sound appears to be nothing more than a gimmick. I can't hear any directional sounds at all...

Am I doing something wrong here?
 
This arrived today from MartinDawes, £375 thanks to the poster here who pointed out the New25 code. I've never actually had a surround setup or soundbar before so going to run some atmos content through it tomorrow from my Shield and try to get this up and running properly. The device menu seems quite difficult to use with the screen size... Initial impressions were that it sounded good, but was underwhelmed by the "vertical sound stage". Also the AE button didn't seem to work, it kept displaying "NOT USE" whenever it was pressed. I imagine these are all setting related though, so I'll report back once I've had a proper play tomorrow. If anyone can help on any of this, please shout!
Anything more to report back? This is on my short list of possibilities.
 
I still can't get rid of the tinny sound, it's most noticeable when watching something like Friends, Britians got Talent where an audience claps or laughs etc. Before I had a £130 Samsung H450 Soundbar and had none of that tinny noise.

Movies and Music sound brilliant with a good broad spectrum of sound but the Atmos Surround Sound appears to be nothing more than a gimmick. I can't hear any directional sounds at all...

Am I doing something wrong here?

Without upfiring speakers the effects will be minimal. I had the Sony HT-X8500 and it was the same. Plenty above the TV and off to the sides a bit, but nothing overhead.
 
I am now thinking that the Sharp Atmos bar would be a better option for me. This looks a decent option if you are going to be feeding it Atmos all the time but maybe not the best option for regular viewing.
 
Anything more to report back? This is on my short list of possibilities.

I'll report back more on Monday, so far Trying Netflix content and content via my Nvidia Shield running through my Nas. I'm impressed by sound generally, but nothing overhead, everything feels very centered, so I'm still wondering if there's any settings that I'm overlooking.

For anyone who owns this unit and reads this, when i click Display to check the current playback settings, here's what's displayed. Does this mean it's running properly and playing back Atmos audio correctly?

Cinema
Immersive AE: On
VO: Off (Voice mode)
N: Off (Night mode)
Dolby Atmos True HD
 
Worth noting that Rtings currently have this in their lab for testing so hopefully a decent report shortly.
 
This isn't going to be super helpful, so I apologise in advance if anyone was looking for something more comprehensive. This is my first soundbar / audio setup, I'm afraid I've just been using built-in until now!

Audio wise, I think it's great all round. The sub and audio quality have been impressive for watching films. I havn't tested normal tv/sport. In terms of "sound stage" - I can certainly hear nice width and when listening to atmos audio tracks you can really hear where certain elements are within the screen itself. However, there is very little / no vertical sound which I can speak of. Perhaps I was expecting too much, more experienced reviewers/users will hopefully be able to feedback more on this.

Testing wise, I watched a few different films / scenes - in both Atmos and DTS. Turning on and off the "Immersive AE" button and using both the standard audio settings as well as the "cinema" mode.

The best test I could come up with was to watch the car race from Ready Player One in following:
DTS - Standard Mode
DTS - with Immersive AE turned on
DTS - with Immersive AE turned on and Cinema Mode
Atmos - Standard Mode (No immersive AE)
Atmos - Standard Mode (Immersive AE on)
Atmos - Cinema Mode (Immersive AE on)

There were some notable differences and it was great to use this as some sort of benchmark to play with the different settings, however if anything it just confirmed that whilst the Atmos audio sounded better, there was no vast difference in terms of vertical sound from the device.

I'll retry the test again today as yesterday I wasn't doing it in any real order. I may however still keep the device as for me 375 isn't bad given the audio quality and bluetooth speaker capability. Plus it has DTS:X and Atmos - so future proofed for a newbie like me. However keen to hear more experienced owners and their thoughts.
 
This isn't going to be super helpful, so I apologise in advance if anyone was looking for something more comprehensive. This is my first soundbar / audio setup, I'm afraid I've just been using built-in until now!

Audio wise, I think it's great all round. The sub and audio quality have been impressive for watching films. I havn't tested normal tv/sport. In terms of "sound stage" - I can certainly hear nice width and when listening to atmos audio tracks you can really hear where certain elements are within the screen itself. However, there is very little / no vertical sound which I can speak of. Perhaps I was expecting too much, more experienced reviewers/users will hopefully be able to feedback more on this.

Testing wise, I watched a few different films / scenes - in both Atmos and DTS. Turning on and off the "Immersive AE" button and using both the standard audio settings as well as the "cinema" mode.

The best test I could come up with was to watch the car race from Ready Player One in following:
DTS - Standard Mode
DTS - with Immersive AE turned on
DTS - with Immersive AE turned on and Cinema Mode
Atmos - Standard Mode (No immersive AE)
Atmos - Standard Mode (Immersive AE on)
Atmos - Cinema Mode (Immersive AE on)

There were some notable differences and it was great to use this as some sort of benchmark to play with the different settings, however if anything it just confirmed that whilst the Atmos audio sounded better, there was no vast difference in terms of vertical sound from the device.

I'll retry the test again today as yesterday I wasn't doing it in any real order. I may however still keep the device as for me 375 isn't bad given the audio quality and bluetooth speaker capability. Plus it has DTS:X and Atmos - so future proofed for a newbie like me. However keen to hear more experienced owners and their thoughts.

Very helpful for me as I’ve never had a sound bar either.

Your post (and others on different models) leaves me with two trains of thought.

1. I will regret spending £400 to not get the WOW factor of immersive sound that these companies claim to make.

2. I should buy a Sonos arc

Life comes at you fast 😂

Thanks for posting.
 
Very helpful for me as I’ve never had a sound bar either.

Your post (and others on different models) leaves me with two trains of thought.

1. I will regret spending £400 to not get the WOW factor of immersive sound that these companies claim to make.

2. I should buy a Sonos arc

Life comes at you fast 😂

Thanks for posting.

I think this confirms what we thought unlikely to provide an immersive experience but widen the sound stage at the front. Probably rules it out for me. I have a price match on the HT-ZF9 with the surround speakers for £679 so might go for that or the Arc. Waiting for that to drop and see some proper reviews from trusted reviewers and folk on the ARC thread. Main issue is compatibility for me to my tvs.
 
I think this confirms what we thought unlikely to provide an immersive experience but widen the sound stage at the front. Probably rules it out for me. I have a price match on the HT-ZF9 with the surround speakers for £679 so might go for that or the Arc. Waiting for that to drop and see some proper reviews from trusted reviewers and folk on the ARC thread. Main issue is compatibility for me to my tvs.

The JBL 9.1 is a great bar with 4 upfiring speakers. Currys were doing 30% off with any TV. Someone bought the bar and a 32" TV for about £760 and just plans on selling the TV.
 
The JBL 9.1 is a great bar with 4 upfiring speakers. Currys were doing 30% off with any TV. Someone bought the bar and a 32" TV for about £760 and just plans on selling the TV.
Will check that out. Thanks
 
Thanks to posters who have updated. Really help me make my mind up as I was fairly keen on this. Following a few YouTube videos and other reviews I have ordered the Sonos Arc at £679 (15% UNiDAYS discount if you no a student).

Fingers crossed it’s as good as the hype.
 
So those that have this fair to say you wouldn’t recommend it?
 
I still can't get rid of the tinny sound, it's most noticeable when watching something like Friends, Britians got Talent where an audience claps or laughs etc. Before I had a £130 Samsung H450 Soundbar and had none of that tinny noise.

Movies and Music sound brilliant with a good broad spectrum of sound but the Atmos Surround Sound appears to be nothing more than a gimmick. I can't hear any directional sounds at all...

Am I doing something wrong here?
From your first post I think you have Sky Q going into TV and then using ARC for audio back to soundbar? I would take Sky Q into soundbar to use it for audio (set SB to HDMI) while the video will go up to the TV. When using a TV App such as YouTube then audio will go to soundbar via ARC (you set SB to TV).

Also check that your Sky Q is set to output DD+ on HDMI.
 
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I have just ordered a G700 today from JL, with 2 year warranty. I was going to buy the ZF9 but I do not want rear speakers and eARC is better for future. With the price of the ZF9 down to £499 it was tempting but I read a review of G700 that said the audio is improved (I was not sure about the 3 small round drivers compared to the 3 bigger rectangular drivers).
 
From your first post I think you have Sky Q going into TV and then using ARC for audio back to soundbar? I would take Sky Q into soundbar to use it for audio (set SB to HDMI) while the video will go up to the TV. When using a TV App such as YouTube then audio will go to soundbar via ARC (you set SB to TV).

Also check that your Sky Q is set to output DD+ on HDMI.
I'll give it a go to see if it makes a difference, thank you :)
 
From your first post I think you have Sky Q going into TV and then using ARC for audio back to soundbar? I would take Sky Q into soundbar to use it for audio (set SB to HDMI) while the video will go up to the TV. When using a TV App such as YouTube then audio will go to soundbar via ARC (you set SB to TV).

Also check that your Sky Q is set to output DD+ on HDMI.
Hi

Been lurking and reading re this and the Sonos, where you say Sky Q into TV ARC port and then TV back to soundbar, does this not have to be ARC/E and only a few Tvs have this? this is the big holding point for me, hopefully I have mis understood what I have previous read and ARC alone is ok but I think it has to be ARC/E for the Sonos, can anyone confirm, so confusing at times.....
 

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