Sony HT-A5000 Review: 5.1.2ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar

The Sony HT-A5000 is a premium soundbar built around a 5.1.2-channel configuration. Compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, it is packed with technologies designed to strengthen immersion, such as 360 Spatial Sound Mapping. This review is based on the published test of the HT-A5000, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

Unveiled in September 2021, the HT-A5000 kept buyers waiting: it did not go on sale until September 2022, a full year after its official announcement. It sits just behind the excellent HT-A7000 within Sony's soundbar range, adopts a 5.1.2-channel layout and supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Sony has also loaded it with technology of every kind — 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, for instance, creates phantom speakers all around the listening position to heighten immersion, and the bar also supports 360 Reality Audio, an immersive audio format dedicated to music. It can be partnered with rear satellite speakers such as the SA-RS5 or SA-RS3S to reinforce surround effects, or with a wireless subwoofer such as the SA-SW5 or SA-SW3 to strengthen its presence in the low end.

Presented as a rather austere black block, the HT-A5000 takes a much more rustic approach than its bigger sibling, the HT-A7000. Sobriety is the order of the day, with a matt plastic shell in place of the A7000's mirrored plate — a less elegant choice, admittedly, but one that avoids on-screen reflections, fingerprints and micro-scratches. Grilles protect the front drivers as well as the two upward-facing units, and the standard of finish is quite simply exemplary. This is a substantial unit at 121 cm long, which will sit most naturally beneath a 55- or 65-inch television, while its restrained 6.7 cm height lets it slide under the screen without blocking the bottom of the picture. Watch its 14 cm depth, though, which can demand a little room on a TV stand, especially if the television's foot extends well forward. In the box, Sony supplies a wall-mounting system, an HDMI cable, a mini-jack cable and a remote control with batteries.

The HT-A5000 carries an HDMI 2.1 input that handles 8K, 4K at 120 Hz and Dolby Vision signals, plus an HDMI output compatible with eARC. To these it adds an optical S/PDIF input, a USB-A port and a mini-jack output which, unfortunately, serves only to connect a compatible Sony television using the S-Center function, whereby the TV acts as the centre speaker.

Like the HT-A7000, the HT-A5000 offers an extremely complete user experience that can nonetheless feel a touch intimidating for the uninitiated. That complexity shows most clearly in the remote control, which carries numerous buttons — some of which will probably never be used. Fortunately, the bar benefits from a very complete and responsive TV interface, a too-rare luxury that makes settings far easier to navigate than on the simple front display fitted to most soundbars. The HT-A5000 has one of those as well, showing information such as volume level or the selected input, though it requires user action to switch off fully; automatic switch-off would have been welcome.

The bar can also be driven from six touch buttons on its top surface, and Sony has had the good idea of building in Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio demonstration clips, triggered by a long press — a neat way to show what the bar can do in a single gesture. It can equally be managed through the Music Center app for iOS and Android, which opens access to numerous music-streaming platforms and the phone's local library. Connecting over Wi-Fi and supporting Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Alexa casting, the HT-A5000 favours no single ecosystem and reaches the vast majority of streaming services even when they are not natively integrated; 360 Reality Audio is available through Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer. Voice control is possible too, but the bar has no built-in microphones, so it needs help from a smart speaker such as a Nest Audio or an Amazon Echo.

On pure sound reproduction, the bar delivers such good low-end extension that it is fair to question whether an external subwoofer is needed at all. Rumbles and explosions come through convincingly, though impacts tend to drag their feet — the bass lacks a little reactivity, something an outboard subwoofer can partly correct. Everywhere else the HT-A5000 boasts real balance and fine transparency, qualities that benefit films and series as much as music. The level of detail and the precision of the reproduction are beyond reproach, good extension into the highest treble helps widen the soundstage, and voices are present and emerge naturally from every scene. A dedicated Voice mode pushes dialogue further forward by lowering the bass and treble.

The 5.1.2 configuration comprises three front drivers, two tweeters coupled with beam-forming waveguides on the sides, two drivers dedicated to bass and two aimed at the ceiling for height effects. Its behaviour is close to the HT-A7000's, though with a little less mastery in the precision of surround effects — which does not stop it delivering particularly broad, immersive spatialisation. The soundstage is reproduced with striking amplitude and airiness, above all after running the automatic acoustic calibration, which completes its work in around ten seconds. Lateral effects manage to escape the physical limits of the bar, producing a genuinely enveloping scene that puts you in the middle of the action. Height effects are more uneven: some struggle to lift away from the bar, while others give the impression of coming from a ceiling speaker with quite astonishing precision.

On films mixed in 5.1 or 7.1, the Sound Field upmixing function is well judged and can add immersion, raising the front stage and even making the centre channel appear to come from the television itself. Its use with music is far less convincing: it degrades the accuracy of timbres, and the added reverberation muddies the result. A few immaculately mixed tracks may survive the treatment, but music is best left in a classic stereo configuration.

With the HT-A5000, Sony presents a soundbar that succeeds on many levels. It offers a sound signature as pleasing for music as for films thanks to a particularly immersive soundstage, integrates numerous connection options and provides a complete user experience — albeit one a little complex for newcomers.