1
00:00:00,399 --> 00:00:06,160
it's been a number of years since Sony has released a new flagship Soundbar but

2
00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:09,759
that's exactly what we've got today in this video sponsored by Sony taking a

3
00:00:08,200 --> 00:00:15,400
look at the a7000 now one thing you guys might

4
00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:17,840
notice immediately is that unlike the

5
00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:23,680
st5000 which was their previous top-of the line there's no subwoofer included

6
00:00:21,519 --> 00:00:28,039
well apparently this was based on customer feedback where people were

7
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:33,440
telling Sony like look I want your top-of-the-line Soundbar but I live in

8
00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:37,120
an apartment oops realistically I'm never going to be able to turn the thing

9
00:00:34,879 --> 00:00:42,480
on anyway so what they've done is they've essentially unbundled the two

10
00:00:39,399 --> 00:00:44,680
things so it comes in at a whopping $700

11
00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:50,559
lower price so it's $1,300 instead of $2,000 us and

12
00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:52,640
then you can just add your own subwoofer

13
00:00:50,559 --> 00:00:57,640
to it if you want based on your needs so we've actually got the higher end one

14
00:00:54,800 --> 00:01:01,320
that's $700 which would put this combo right up at the same price as the old

15
00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:06,360
one or you can go for the more basic one which is 400 so this is the S SW S5 and

16
00:01:04,879 --> 00:01:11,119
even though they don't come together they're supposed to just instantly pair

17
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:15,320
now one of the biggest reasons that Sony is replacing their old Flagship cuz

18
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:20,079
already if you guys remember I've talked about it a fair bit in the past both in

19
00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:25,520
sponsored videos and outside of them it already sounded great it had support for

20
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:28,240
dtsx Dolby Atmos it was a

21
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:33,079
7.1.2 setup so it already had upward firing speakers so you have those

22
00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:36,320
virtual ual like top channels but

23
00:01:33,079 --> 00:01:39,439
technology has moved on and HDMI 2.0 has

24
00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:42,920
been replaced ah here we go man this

25
00:01:39,439 --> 00:01:48,399
thing is a beast with HDMI 2.1 so the

26
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:52,000
new a7000 has support for 8K 30 HZ or 4K

27
00:01:48,399 --> 00:01:54,119
120 HZ and all the latest

28
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:58,880
devices oh there's a little label here for which one is the HDMI input oh these

29
00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:01,960
are both HDMI input ah okay I can see why they did it this way because

30
00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:08,239
everyone's going to need to plug this into their TV via the HDMI outport right

31
00:02:05,399 --> 00:02:12,200
here and then you can use it to not only replace that input from your TV but

32
00:02:10,239 --> 00:02:16,440
actually switch so it's got two HDMI inputs in terms of the rest of the I/O

33
00:02:14,239 --> 00:02:20,959
we've got an optical input just in case your TV doesn't support Arc or EC this

34
00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:25,239
does support EC though it's part of the HDMI 2.1 specification it's got an

35
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:30,080
analog in if you have an analog Source you want to hook up to it it's got a USB

36
00:02:27,239 --> 00:02:33,120
port and this s Center out if you've never heard of that before I don't blame

37
00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:38,200
you but Sony has a feature on their Bravia TVs that allows you to use the

38
00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:41,920
builtin speaker of the TV and they've actually got ones that have that speaker

39
00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:45,879
built right into the display it vibrates the display so you can actually use your

40
00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:50,120
TV as a center Channel with this soundbar not that you would necessarily

41
00:02:47,959 --> 00:02:54,800
need to cuz this thing is absolutely bristling with Sony's X balanced

42
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:58,800
speakers oh that's interesting I had expected the grill to be removable like

43
00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:03,040
on their old one but it looks like either it doesn't come off or it's

44
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:07,040
something that you have to unscrew how many of these are there uhoh yeah it

45
00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:10,799
might not be intended to come off interesting that's quite unexpected well

46
00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:14,480
that's fine we can still get a look at this so one of the things Sony's done

47
00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:19,120
really well with their previous Soundbars is creating a really wide

48
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:25,640
Sound Stage so you can see we've got our Center drivers right here and then we've

49
00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:28,200
got our right and left and then this

50
00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:33,120
right here this is what Sony apparently calls their uh beam tweeters that's

51
00:03:31,959 --> 00:03:37,760
really interesting they've got these small to large perforations here and

52
00:03:35,959 --> 00:03:41,760
apparently what this is about is creating a more accurate and wider Sound

53
00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:46,280
Stage so that's that's pretty cool and then ah yes this is another thing so we

54
00:03:44,239 --> 00:03:50,840
can't ah yes no we can see them built into this are also two subwoofers so the

55
00:03:49,519 --> 00:03:55,439
idea is that if they're shipping it without a dedicated subwoofer it should

56
00:03:53,319 --> 00:04:00,680
have pretty good base performance out of the box confirmed though they've got these

57
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:05,159
little uh these little kind of spacers here to make sure this doesn't get

58
00:04:02,079 --> 00:04:07,400
punched in this is intended to be run

59
00:04:05,159 --> 00:04:09,920
with the grill not naked but I'm still glad we pride it up so we could have a

60
00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:15,040
better look at that ran into a small problem when we

61
00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:21,359
went to set up the Soundbar our Bravia TV has a stand that kind of H we would

62
00:04:18,959 --> 00:04:25,639
need a deeper Media Console so we're we're inde deepening our media console

63
00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:31,720
like this there we go try this at home don't

64
00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,720
try yeah don't try this at home

65
00:04:35,479 --> 00:04:43,080
nice now seems like as good a time as any to have a look at our accessory

66
00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:45,800
package we've got a remote so you can

67
00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:49,960
use this to control the built-in OLED screen in the front or if you have a

68
00:04:48,199 --> 00:04:56,120
Sony TV there will be an onscreen display that'll come up so we should see

69
00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:58,919
that on this one power cable HDMI cable

70
00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:04,479
the 3 1/2 mm cable for hooking up your TV as a center Channel batteries and a

71
00:05:02,039 --> 00:05:10,000
wall mount that's right my friends it's wall mount ready ah yes so the downside

72
00:05:07,919 --> 00:05:14,280
of using optical well the upside of using optical is compatibility if you

73
00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:17,880
have a device that doesn't support Arc or EC then you're going to want to use

74
00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:21,880
Optical but the downside is that it doesn't support the same high defition

75
00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:26,240
formats that e does so you're not going to be running Dolby Atmos over Optical

76
00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:31,039
it just doesn't work that way um yeah it's it's funny cuz you think of like

77
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:35,479
Optical you know as like a high-s speeed connection

78
00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:41,240
but that particular Optical standard hasn't been touched in like 15 20 years

79
00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:45,240
yeah so it's really really slow this Soundbar has support for every surround

80
00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:49,560
format that you could want today Dolby Atmos dtsx um I mean those are really

81
00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:53,720
the main ones when you're plugging in your Soundbar Sony helpfully stickered

82
00:05:51,479 --> 00:05:56,360
over the ports not to use on the sound bar itself but you need to make sure

83
00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:03,319
you're plugging into the correct port on your TV so I'm going to hit the one

84
00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:05,880
right here that is labeled Arc then for

85
00:06:03,319 --> 00:06:11,280
my PlayStation 5 I'm going to plug that into whatever HDMI one okay there now

86
00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:15,599
any content running on the smart TV itself and any content playing off of

87
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:19,759
the PlayStation 5 will all be red through the Soundbar that's kind of the

88
00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:24,280
whole point of audio return channel is that the audio can go out to the

89
00:06:21,759 --> 00:06:27,560
Soundbar either through the TV or directly through the soundbar to the TV

90
00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:32,759
it just doesn't matter hey check this out this is the sw5 and it's got this

91
00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:37,759
kind of like I can't tell exactly what this is

92
00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:42,919
made of it has kind of like a leather wrapped look to what I think is just a

93
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:46,880
plastic mold but I don't know looks kind of cool they call it textured surface

94
00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:51,759
they call it textured surface apparently thanks

95
00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:53,759
jonno I mean it is a real creative name

96
00:06:51,759 --> 00:06:58,160
look I can tell it's a textured surface okay let's see just how painless the

97
00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:01,639
setup process is I'm going to power up the Soundbar is there like a pairing

98
00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:05,840
button somewhere that's what I get for pulling the stickers off I misread the

99
00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:11,319
label and I plugged into the wrong thing that's why there's no Setup Wizard okay

100
00:07:09,039 --> 00:07:17,360
where'd that notification go uh yeah Bravia

101
00:07:14,759 --> 00:07:25,560
notifications setup there we go reconnect the device to HDMI 4 oh all

102
00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:27,160
right and we've got sound now that's an

103
00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:32,360
improvement before we do anything else I want to run their sound field optimization setup thing so it uses

104
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,960
microphones built into the soundbar to optimize based on the shape and size of

105
00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:39,319
your room I don't really want to add this around speakers yet so I want to do

106
00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:44,800
that after because I want to experience it without them but I do want to optimize the round okay a loud sound may

107
00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:49,430
come from the speakers do not stand in front of the speakers during

108
00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:54,199
optimization all right I'm going

109
00:08:00,639 --> 00:08:07,199
Brandon okay I am really impressed

110
00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:12,599
though did that sound like it was coming from above us or what it totally sound

111
00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:14,199
like okay so normally I would be like

112
00:08:12,599 --> 00:08:17,520
okay well the product is working as it's supposed to that shouldn't blow my mind

113
00:08:16,199 --> 00:08:25,039
but Brandon look up that is a

114
00:08:20,599 --> 00:08:26,520
26 I believe 26t ceiling with acoustic

115
00:08:25,039 --> 00:08:32,479
treatment on it I didn't think it was really going to be able to meaningfully bounce anything off of it

116
00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,919
um but here we are in the next part of setup it's prompting me to set up Alexa

117
00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:40,440
so it has support for Google Assistant Alexa and this is new it supports

118
00:08:38,279 --> 00:08:44,360
AirPlay 2 so we're going to try that before we're done here as well uh I

119
00:08:42,680 --> 00:08:50,200
don't know if I'm going to bother with Alexa for the time being though uh yes

120
00:08:46,959 --> 00:08:53,360
Spotify and chomecast um but that that's

121
00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:55,560
not new AirPlay 2 is new with this model

122
00:08:53,360 --> 00:09:01,079
oh that's this is good to know both of the inputs on it are full HDMI 2.1

123
00:08:58,519 --> 00:09:05,959
standard so you can do 4K 120 or 8K that's not a given oh that's another

124
00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:09,120
thing it has D this isn't a new Sony feature they do have other products but

125
00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:13,959
I believe it's their first Soundbar with d so what it does is it takes low bit

126
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:19,640
rate music so from services like YouTube music for example and it will on the-fly

127
00:09:16,959 --> 00:09:24,360
AI upscale it or upsample it I've tried it before and it's not you know the same

128
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:27,600
as just having lossless files in the first place but it is a noticeable

129
00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:34,600
effect for sure now I want to hear the demo there are two demos it has a Dolby

130
00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:34,600
Atmos demo and then a 3D reality audio

131
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:43,800
demo that's definitely better than when we tried it before we optimized

132
00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:54,079
it I think part of it is just that a subwoofer does add more hutzpah to it

133
00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:59,040
like to be clear it already had decent base for a soundbar like considering

134
00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:04,160
that it was a soundbar it was good but I would probably recommend if your living

135
00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:07,040
space accommodates it add the subwoofer

136
00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:10,760
let's try their 3D reality audio demo this is really showing off how wide The

137
00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:14,680
Sound Stage is one of the tests for that is if you're listening to music you

138
00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:20,760
should be able to make out exactly where each instrument was on the on a virtual

139
00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:22,920
stage and yeah it's pretty

140
00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:26,560
clear of course the best way to get surround is to add surround speakers so

141
00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:31,040
we're going to do that next these are Sony's rs3s surround speakers and if you

142
00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:34,640
find you don't get enough of a surround effect from the Soundbar on its own you

143
00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:38,880
can add a couple of these on speaker stands they do need to be powered but

144
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:43,040
other than that they connect wirelessly to the Soundbar and they should enhance

145
00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:45,680
the surround experience the rear speakers are M5 threaded in case you

146
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:52,639
were wondering so we're going to go ahead and mount them to our

147
00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:57,320
STS something I should have mentioned by the way if you want to experience Sony's

148
00:10:54,440 --> 00:11:01,760
360° immersive music you do have to subscribe to a supported music service

149
00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:05,680
like title the light's green on that one I think these might have just picked up

150
00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:11,040
either way I want to recalibrate it for the room with these accounted for though

151
00:11:08,399 --> 00:11:17,240
okay let's do it again it I think it oh yeah okay time to enjoy Linus's

152
00:11:14,839 --> 00:11:21,120
terrible driving the challenge here is I want to hear what it's like to have a

153
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:25,680
car coming up behind me and I have to pass one for that to happen you can

154
00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:29,639
definitely feel like the the gravel kind of being kicked all around coming from

155
00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:33,760
all around you though that is a pretty fantastic surround experience I think

156
00:11:31,959 --> 00:11:36,920
it's fair to say at this point that if you have another person living in your

157
00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:42,639
house that doesn't want to deal with the whole fussing about with inputs on a

158
00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:45,880
receiver or whatever good quality

159
00:11:42,639 --> 00:11:47,839
Soundbar it is really hard to go wrong

160
00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:52,639
this is a pretty freaking sweet setup oh and we didn't even try airpl 2 yet let's

161
00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:58,680
go ahead and do that step one is have an iPhone step two try to cast step three

162
00:11:55,320 --> 00:12:02,040
AirPlay and Bluetooth devices step four

163
00:11:58,680 --> 00:12:03,830
enter this code that's pretty big sound

164
00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:09,499
I'm at like

165
00:12:16,199 --> 00:12:22,639
70% I mean that's louder than you would reasonably want to listen to in your

166
00:12:19,839 --> 00:12:27,000
living room I would think and I think that's about the end of the video here

167
00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:31,959
today thank you Sony for sponsoring this video and sending over your a7000 looks

168
00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:35,320
like a worthy successor to the st5000 and make sure you subscribe to

169
00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:37,720
ShortCircuit for more videos like this one