Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 6 Review

Price

Expect to pay £499 for the Bravia Theatre 6 in the UK. In the US it’s listed at $549, and if you’re buying in Australia, it’ll set you back AU$899. This puts the system at the upper end of comparable 3.1.2 systems, and mid-pack in the wider scheme of things.

Design

• Matte black finish
• Non-removeable grilles

Tidy and understated describe the Theatre Bar 6. The matte black finish is functional. It’s not especially luxurious, and will doubtless blend in beneath most TVs. The bar itself is relatively lightweight at 3.1kg, and at 950mm wide, 65mm high, it’ll comfortably partner screen sizes 50- to 65-inches.

While fingerprints tend to linger on its surface, that non-reflective finish spares you the visual distraction of screen reflections. Behind the grille you can glimpse the driver array if you catch the light just right. 

The matching wireless subwoofer (model SA-WG700) is a squatter, ported affair, a discreet Sony logo is its only visual flourish.

The soundbar ships with a simple remote control, which offers volume adjustment, input selection, basic bass adjustment, and customisable Sound Field selection.

Using the accompanying app, you can assign to Sony’s Vertical Surround Engine, the Dolby Virtualiser, or DTS Neural X. Just try to avoid implementing the soundfield on top of any existing multichannel mix, as it tends to muddle the soundstage.

There are no rear speakers supplied with the Bravia Theatre 6, which simplifies installation if nothing else.

Connectivity

• Single HDMI eARC connection
• Digital Optical Audio output
• Bluetooth version 5.3

There’s not a lot to get excited about here. A single HDMI eARC port, one optical digital audio input, and a USB port (this is for updates only, not media playback) complete the line-up.

Bluetooth supports SBC and AAC codecs, but there’s no Chromecast, and no Wi-Fi streaming, so no Spotify Connect.

Features

• Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatible
• Vertical Surround Engine
• S-Force Pro Front Surround

The raison d’être for this Bravia bar is Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio decoding. But there’s some other Sony sonic trickery available of note. That includes the aforementioned Vertical Surround Engine processing and S-Force Pro Front Surround, which aim to upmix non-Atmos material into something more enveloping.

In practice, these sound modes work better with some content than others, and some degree of experimentation or ambivalence is required.

Key to the soundbar’s performance is Sony X-Balanced speaker units; these are clever little cones designed to reduce distortion and improve vocal clarity by maximizing diaphragm area. Power output is rated at 350W, split between the soundbar and subwoofer. Take that number with a hefty pinch of salt.

Also on-board is DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), ostensibly to upscale compressed sources, and Audio DRC (Dynamic Range Control), used to balance volume levels by compressing dynamic range. Audio file support covers MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and ALAC.

Interestingly, there’s no support for Sony’s Acoustic Centre Sync feature.

Sound Quality

• Energetic sound
• Subwoofer dominates proceedings

In full flight, the Bravia Theatre 6 is nothing if not enthusiastic. In a nutshell, it’s the sort of soundbar that’s desperate to impress, and its urgency is initially entertaining with movies. Musicality, though, is best described as passable but not stellar.

The intro to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Sky Cinema, Dolby Atmos), with its spectral TV show clip and door-slamming poltergeist mischief, showcases the system’s flair for boomy-bass drama. This two-piece system won’t fool you into thinking you’re inside a full Dolby Atmos bubble, but the upfiring speakers add scale and help propel audio every which way.

Unfortunately, the subwoofer’s prominence overshadows subtlety.

With Mad Max: Fury Road, the opening narration from Max feels a touch too guttural, as if the subwoofer doesn’t quite know how to dial back its inherent sense of menace. The opening heel stomp, which gives our hero a tasty reptilian snack, registers with disproportionate weight.

To a certain extent, these are tuning issues more than structural flaws. The default subwoofer setting is bone-jarring. Edge the bass down and the balance becomes more agreeable. But there are limitations to just how much correction you can apply before it becomes counterproductive.

The crossover between bar and sub is high, at around 200Hz, which means the subwoofer is taking some responsibility for the mid-range, making it localisable and more directional than seems right. The presentation also tends to barrel forward, and that dependence on the subwoofer robs the system of genuine musicality. Sure it plays loud, but it also tends to stomp.

Music playback is definitely the casualty here.

Challenge the system with some Hans Zimmer and it’s hemmed in by the bar’s physical width. There’s drama, yes – but not a true orchestral sweep.  Pop, rock, dance. I threw a lot of music at this Sony and didn’t care much for any of it.

Should you buy it?