by pseudo, I mean they say this 4 speaker kit uses tech to simulate a 12 speaker surround sound setup.
and it’s not cheap!
Only 1.8k for High Performance Home Theater System and 12 speakers + subwoofer!
That has to be best deal in town. lol
12 VIRTUAL speakers and sub. I’ll give the potential for the 4 speakers to throw the sound so it can reflect and simulate SS…but sub? no way jose.
So we just bought the base HT-A7000, and we are on our 3rd RMA.
Bought it from Crutchfield, and there is a chance these are being damaged in transit to my specific location, but that isnt clear yet.
-1st A7000 was obviously blown, with the middle/right speaker traveling beyond its housing, and very loud snapping and buzzing sounds.
-2nd A7000, being boxed up as we speak, sounds great except for both end woofers. Both woofers barf and fart all over the place at 60-70% volume when playing netflix movies, 4k bluray, or audio streaming.
-3rd A7000… will arrive Friday. I allowed Crutchfield to try once more, as they claim there isnt a widespread issue that they can see yet. They claim they will test it before shipping it.
Bought it with idea that we will test it out, and if its good and we enjoy it, we will buy the sub and the 2 additional rear channel speakers. The image of this soundbar is good, or very good, depending on the source, and I do appreciate the immersive surround effects. The bass response is very good, as well, right up until the speakers fart and rumble.
I really do like the bar, but if we get another defective one, Im going to change brands. Thinking of Nakamichi, or Klipsch, or something. Not sure.
Anybody else buy any of these, or the HT-A9? I would be interested in your thoughts, if so.
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So do i in the literal term of Immersive, but what they give for it… its just an impossible combination.
I would laugh the piss out and make the owner probably mad also… if someone said “lets listen my immersive surround system” and it’s this Sony set… No. No. This aint it.
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Fortunately for us, we are buying soundbars for us and not for our guests.
I understand the difference between standard home theater surround and soundbar surround, and I enjoy the algorithmic simulated immersive effects just like I enjoyed ‘Q-sound’ in the 1980s. Our soundbar is for a specific purpose and location, so if the Sony brand doesn’t work out, we will probably go with Nakamichi’s Shockwafe ultra 9.2.
But for now I’m just seeking objective feedback on the A7000 soundbar. And now, also the Nakamichi product.
Just received my third A7000. No good. At volumes above 55-60%, any source (music, streaming movies, bluray) there is an audible air pressure sound from the woofer vents on either end.
What I mean by that is, when overall sound is low but bass is high (such as soundtracks with deep rumbling drums, deep rumbling engine sounds like tanks driving by), there is a sound like too much air is travelling through a space that is too narrow, creating a “BBBFF-F-F” airflow sound. I think what I’m hearing is an actual flaw in the design of this soundbar. The sound is not present in a lot of content and so it can convince you the device is ok, and then you put on a movie like the new Dune and you hear it. I am quite disappointed and will be calling crutchfield to have them take it back and refund soon.
I think we will try the Nakamichi next.
Out of curiosity. Does it come from the drivers or the actual port?
One reviewer mentioned “Blade Runner 2049’s soundtrack invokes a little distortion”.
Without hearing it my thinking would that the little drivers are trying to play sounds they cannot produce / play with “loud…ish” volumes. Over excursion / driver noise.
Nakamichi probably does a better job with separate woofers so soundbar does not have to play low sound frequencies but location of woofers in room is important and tuning options are not that good. In most cases they might easily be too boomy.
In few cases port plugs and bass levels to minimum after that they pretty ok.
It seems to be the actual port. The very first A7000 I received had major damage on the box, and the unit itself had not only the air sound from the port, but also had an obviously broken center channel speaker that was making loud CRACK and BZZT noises. The second and 3rd soundbar are great OTHER than the port sound.
It sounds to me like if I built a custom sub inside an enclosure, and I did not vent the sub well enough for the amplification and travel range of the woofer cone. It would presumably create back-pressure against the cone when being pushed hard, and create air “PFFFFFF” sounds at the port.
Does not sound blown or broken. Sounds like Sony tried to put a lot of power inside an enclosure that just cant handle it. Its surprising for a Sony product in this range.
I hear what you are saying about Nakamichi. (Soundwafe Ultra). I have a large room with 14 foot ceilings and some space, so I think I can manually tune a dual sub system well enough. I was also thinking the same – if the Nakamichi soundbar is not trying to produce deep sub bass, it probably would not suffer from the same airflow issue. Im frustrated with all of this and will sit on the A7000 for a few days, and then start the return process. I am pretty dedicated to the idea of getting a good soundbar, so this may take time but I am going to find something good. And post about it! : )
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so again, if it’s too good to be true, it usually is.
has anyone tried those 360° speakers Sony released?
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Na. I was going to consider trying them, but after this experience with three A7000 soundbars, I’m feeling a little annoyed with Sony.
Sony’s brand and marketing managers should consider this - they could have made around $2000 from my family for the A7000 + the additional sub and surround speakers, but now they get to eat 3 RMA’ed soundbars and the cost of shipping and make $0. I’m genuinely surprised by this. I’ve had good experiences with Sony for 40ish years in the low/mid end.
if you enjoy them, and the air flow issue is your only real problem, that can be solved. not that you should have to at the price they are, but just saying you can fix that.
Do you think I can solve that? I do indeed enjoy this bar and really don’t want to go through another swap, and potentially buy something larger and not as well suited for the space.
I fear that in order to even find the source of the air pressure sound, I would have to crack this very well-built sound bar open, invalidating the warranty. That’s my biggest issue. Right now I have 50 days of my crutchfield 60 day unconditional warranty, 2 years from Sony.
What are your thoughts on trying to stop the airflow sound on the A7000? I have taken videos of the device making the sound, and I am a 30+ year net/sysadmin who does not shy away from repairing anything as long as I can ensure I don’t kill an active warranty.
After I eat, I’ll put up some photos of the bass ports on the ends and close-ups of the frame and enclosure surrounding the area that would need to be cracked open.
Check it out.
Again, the air pressure sound is absent during 98% of playback. Most songs, movies, games do not cause it. Only the biggest, deepest sounds from movies like the Marvel films, Dune, Bladerunner, etc, where the overall sound is quiet but huge booming bass is heard when voices and other sounds aren’t focused. The sound can be made less noticeable by using the “subwoofer control” on the remote to turn bass down.
EDIT:
Decided to go directly to Sony, since I have 50 days left on my crutchfield warranty.
Sony asks me for the chance to take this to their own lab and fix it for me. They claim they will turn it around within 2 weeks so I dont miss my retail warranty. I am not super confident they will fix it.
Ill ship it out tomorrow or the next day, but in the mean time – if anybody has any ideas, such as stuffing the port, or other methods, I would love to hear about it. Ive never had any trouble like this before, with any sound device, so Ive never had to try to repair.
i would use foam plugs, black if you can find it so its not so obvious. that will slow down the escaping air and you wont hear it anymore. try airy foam to start if you can find some cheap. if you have any buddies that have a decent pair of bookshelf speakers, they probably have a pair they are not using. most mid range, big box brand bookshelf speakers, come with them.
edit: you can also use cloth, just harder to get looking good without access to the inside.
edit2: the idea is just to add a little resistance to the air, so as to not reduce bass output much
you can try something like this, should be available at your local hardware store as well. you can stuff it in w/o taping it down to start to see if it helps. if it helps, then tape it down and its there forever( or close to it).
edit: and by stuff, i mean try to get a size thats roughly the size of your port. you dont really want to compress the foam much. want it to be thin and airy.
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Thanks for your advice. I found some stuff around my house but so far I don’t have the perfect material, and I’ll probably order some of that acoustic foam.
I’m going to talk to Sony, probably on Tuesday after the holiday, and ask them to provide a factory solution for this. If they can’t or are unable to for some reason, I’ll consider my own solution.
I have these items, but they don’t help significantly. The small piece of white foam actually made it louder. All other thin, dustless cloths helped slightly, but probably block air flow more than a final solution should.
Just a hunch how they would “fix” it. Most like just update new firmware and hope for the best and call it fixed or no errors can be found.
Anything else than that. There has to be software/hardware EQ that is programmable or altered by firmware. They probably could EQ the bass range or and lower the bass (full range?) so that it will not produce port noise.
That relates to some what of work and knowledge… so most likely not.
Kinda still wondering if its driver noise if plugin the ports only helped slightly?
Just wondering how the driver / amp likes that port being plugged cause its not designed for that. Might cause problems in high levels of volume.
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Understood - I wouldnt want to create back-pressure against an enclosed subwooofer by closing the ports too tightly. I loosely packed the port, leaving space for air flow, so these weren’t even the best tests. I would need a precisely cut and placed bit of breathable foam to truly determine if this is fixable.
I’m going to talk to Sony by phone before sending this to them, and they will either commit to providing a factory solution to this or I won’t send it to them. A firmware reset is not a solution and has already been done, & reducing subwoofer performance is also not an option. Either their soundbar can be used with the features advertised, or it cannot.
Edit/update: my ADHD, etc, has kicked in and I lost interest in dealing with this. Sony dropped the ball and didn’t offer what I wanted to hear, and the bar still sits on our TV stand, sounding good for 98% of what we throw at it. Our family is tired from years of covid and other nonsense, and we’ve been fighting with shippers and retailers a lot of that time on failed products, items broken in shipping, etc. We are tired. We may just let this one be, and keep the damn bar.
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