Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 Review: Good Design Meets Good Sound

Sony is arguably one of the biggest names in home audio and cinema. On the back of some stellar products, it has built a legacy for itself that very few can challenge. At the core of this has been its Bravia series of TVs and the rather confusingly named HT series of soundbars in the past.

This year, though, Sony is attempting to streamline things by bringing its soundbars under the Bravia line-up of products. Of these, we have the Bravia Theatre Bar 8 Soundbar with us, which brings Sony’s learning from its previous generation soundbars to a product that promises better integration with its TVs.

It also promises overall better performance for home cinema than its predecessors thanks to the inclusion of features such as Dolby Atmos and Spatial Sound Mapping. But do these make the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 Soundbar worth your money? Let’s find out in our review.

Sleek and Modern Design

First things first, the soundbar features a solid and simple design. Despite now falling under the Bravia Threate line-up of products, the design of the soundbar follows the same basic principles that we’ve seen on the HT series of audio products in the past.

The design is understated and classy with clean corners and a blackish-gray exterior that won’t make you sit down and just admire the looks of the soundbar. However, it’s not a bad thing if you keep in mind that this essentially is a soundbar that’s supposed to sit beneath your television and do its job without drawing much attention.

In terms of dimensions, it doesn’t offer anything out of the ordinary as it comes in at around 44 inches in width and wouldn’t jut out of the wall much if you decide to mount it under your TV. Overall, this allows it to sit flush under your TV and almost merge with its surroundings, drawing little attention to its presence.

Although we tried it with a 55-inch TV, its rather basic dimensions should make it sit well with any TV that’s between the 50 to 65-inch mark. Another thing to note is that Sony has used a new wall mount mechanism for the soundbar, allowing it to sit more flush with the wall, thereby making it look better when mounted on a wall.

The Bravia Theatre Bar 8 also ships with a remote control inside the box. It follows the same design principles as the soundbar, flaunting clean corners and a modern design. This remote can be used to access all the important functions on the bar, thus making it easier to operate.

However, the presence of the extremely functional Bravia Connect App does make the remote just an added accessory that you may not end up using much. This is because the app offers full control over the bar and even adds optimization features into the mix.

Feature Packed Offering

Since it’s part of Sony’s flagship line-up of audio products, the Bravia Theatre Bar 8 brings access to features that you’d expect on a high-end soundbar. The most interesting of these is arguably Sony’s proprietary 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology. This feature allows the Bar 8 to create multiple phantom speakers along the room and its ceiling for a more immersive theatre-like audio experience.

While this feature offers better performance on the more expensive Bravia Theatre Bar 9, the Bar 8 too manages to take advantage of this feature by giving you a wider soundstage than you’d expect from a soundbar of its size.

In my time with the soundbar, the 360 Spatial Sound Mapping was truly one of the more impressive things that I came across. However, the performance of the 360-degree spatial feature is greatly impacted by the absence of rear speakers, which sadly are not available in the box with the soundbar.

Sony also uses spatial mapping tech for music. Dubbed 360 Reality Audio by Sony, this feature attempts to recreate a live concert experience in your home using spatial sound technologies. However, again, you need access to the separately available rear speakers to make the most of this feature.

Apart from these, features such as Sound Field Optimisation that automatically tunes the soundbar based on the room’s layout or support for IMAX Enhanced and Dolby Atmos further help improve the overall home cinema experience while using this soundbar.

If you’re a gamer, Sony also bakes in support for 8K/4K at 120Hz, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) to ensure you can enjoy smooth, responsive gameplay with reduced input lag.

What’s the Sound Like?

Before we tell you about what the Bravia Theatre Bar 8 sounds like, it’s important to understand the hardware inside that makes it tick. This new soundbar from Sony doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It comes with 11 drivers, including two up-firing drivers and two on the sides.

Working in tandem with the features we mentioned above, the Bravia Theatre Bar 8 offers generally enjoyable experiences, no matter if you’re watching a movie or just simply listening to music.

Its 11-driver configuration creates a wide soundstage, with some of these drivers used to create virtual speakers around the room where the soundbar has been placed. And if you use a compatible Sony TV for watching cinema, the results are even better. This is because the soundbar hands over the center channel responsibility to the TV, thus offering more depth in audio because of an extra phantom channel.

While the audio is generally detailed and clean, with a clear focus on movie dialogue, the soundbar’s bass response alone is nothing to get too excited about. We did use a sub that Sony sent to us separately to add a little bit of depth to the audio.

But without it, the sound did feel a little lacking, especially for creating grand cinematic experiences. For music, the lack of a dedicated subwoofer in the box again impacted the experience. As such, we recommend picking up a subwoofer such as the SA-RS5 while buying the soundbar, and possibly even consider investing in rear speakers as well.

Yet, if you decide to just go for the soundbar, you’d still be significantly improving on the sound offered by your TV as the Bravia Theatre Bar 8 is capable of creating a good and balanced soundstage that can immerse you in the magic of surround sound during movies and shows.

This is especially true for Dolby Atmos-supported titles, where the soundbar can create a home cinema experience rivaled only by very few products. For music, the soundbar generally showed good range, handling songs like Hotel California, Riders of the Storm, and other modern titles that made use of the soundbar’s good channel separation.

Overall, the experience was generally good. However, as we’ve alluded to a couple of times already, if you want to make the best of the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8, then do consider investing in the separately available rear speakers and subwoofers.

Should You Buy It?

While the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 is not the best soundbar from Sony, it is a compelling product if you’re not willing to pay for the premium Bravia Theatre Bar 9.

It’s powerful, offers clean audio, and above all access to Sony’s premium audio features like 360 Spatial Mapping. If nothing, these help it stand out as a compelling offering against the likes of the Sonos Arc which also retails around the same price point. But if you’re still not convinced and are looking for a complete home theatre system within this budget then check out the LG S95QR.