Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 Review

Sony’s BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 is a 3.1.2 channel sound bar with HDMI eARC for easy integration with TVs and home theater displays. It supports codecs up to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X with three front-firing and two up-firing speakers plus an outboard wireless subwoofer. It melds seamlessly with Sony BRAVIA displays with control by the TV’s remote or the BRAVIA Connect app. Music can be streamed via Bluetooth as well.

Since the dawn of my AV enthusiasm, I’ve heard over and over that one should spend twice as much on audio as video. When I got into this hobby almost two decades ago, that was a hard one, considering that a decent HDTV was at least $2,000. So, I did what many people of modest means did: I bought a home theater in a box! For a few hundred dollars, you could get a tepid receiver and a few tiny speakers and have surround sound with a sub. In reality, it was better than the TV’s built-in speakers, but that wasn’t saying much since they were terrible.

Today, the home theater in a box takes the form of slim sound bars, and they are so much better than what I heard twenty years ago, it’s not even funny. And with the magic of HDMI eARC, it’s super easy to add one to your new TV, control it all with one remote, and even add other components like streaming boxes and Blu-ray players.

I recently reviewed the BRAVIA 5 65XR50 Mini LED TV, and along with that, Sony shipped me their Theater Bar 6. It’s a 3.1.2 channel sound bar with an outboard wireless subwoofer. It supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X and accepts music streams via Bluetooth. It integrates seamlessly with BRAVIA TVs and can be controlled from the TV’s remote. And it costs a reasonable $650. Let’s take a look.

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Sony is completely honest about the Theater Bar 6’s specs. There is no pretense attempting to convince the buyer that it will deliver the sound of 11 speakers and a large subwoofer. It’s a 3.1.2 design with three drivers for left, right, and center facing the listener and two more drivers on the top. Sony doesn’t specify the driver sizes, but I measured them at around 2” x 1.75” with a slight oval shape. The front three are flush with the baffle and face the listener directly. The top two angle up around 45 degrees, are slightly recessed, and fire at the ceiling. Total amp power is 35 watts.

The subwoofer is a traditional cabinet 15.3 inches tall, 15.3 inches deep, and 8.3 inches wide. It has a front-firing six-inch long-throw driver powered by a digital amplifier. A large oval port is underneath, also front-firing. It connects to the bar wirelessly and needs only a wall plug for power.

The cabinets are finished in matte black and feel decently solid and inert. Both feature metal grills and have a nice heft. These are not low-budget components, though the price tag is pretty reasonable. The Theater Bar 6 is $650 at this writing. If you want to add surround speakers, you can’t do that here, but for an extra $120, Sony offers the Theater System 6, which includes two satellites.

The bar is equipped with HDMI eARC and optical inputs, one each. While this may sound limiting, it isn’t as long as you connect to an eARC-equipped display. The Theater Bar 6 will play sound from the TV’s streaming interface or any other component hooked up to the TV. I was able to integrate a Blu-ray player and an Apple TV just by hooking them up via HDMI.

A small remote is included, which is not backlit. It has a large round volume rocker along with buttons for night and voice modes, as well as a sound field toggle. More on that later. The input key switches between HDMI eARC, optical, and Bluetooth. You can stream music to the Theater Bar 6 with any Bluetooth-enabled player, like a phone or tablet. A bass rocker acts as a tone control. If you hook up to a Sony TV, you can control the bar’s volume from the TV remote.

BRAVIA Connect is Sony’s all-encompassing app that works with any Sony BRAVIA product. It controls the bar and runs a short routine during installation to determine the listening distance. With an account, you can also control your BRAVIA TV from a phone or tablet.

Setting up the Theater Bar 6 is super easy with the BRAVIA Connect app. I plugged the bar and sub into the wall and connected an HDMI cable between the eARC input and the BRAVIA 5 65XR50 TV I had in for review. The app found everything right away and ran a few test tones to set the distance. I had to hold my phone near my body for about one minute for this. To pipe sound into the bar, I went to the TV’s audio menu and chose external system from the menu. The difference was immediately obvious. Anyone doubting that this is an upgrade can be assured that it’s well worth the $650 over the TV’s $1,500 price tag.

The bar plays sound from the Sony Core streaming interface, which is part of every BRAVIA TV. It also plays from any other component connected to the TV. I hooked up a Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray player and an Apple TV.

Most users will be streaming their content to the BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 and its connected display, so I started my listening there with a few choice programs from my go-to services, Netflix and Discovery+. I watched the final episode of Untamed, the new thriller set in Yosemite National Park. It has a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, which is just superb. I turned on the sound field mode, which significantly expanded the sound stage and pumped up the surround effects. Ambient details were very clear, especially those in the higher frequencies, like squeaking doors and the ticks that guns make when handled. The actual gunshots were a bit harsh on articulation, but with a nice decay that projected a sense of space.

Experimenting with the Voice Zoom feature taught me that some things benefit from it and some do not. Untamed is in the latter category. Turning it on upset the balance between dialogue and other effects while putting the music too far into the background. But it was a definite improvement when I watched The House of Muscle on Discovery+. This, and other narrated shows, were far more enjoyable. You’ll want to keep the Theater Bar 6’s remote handy so you can press the Voice button at will.

I turned to some disc-based selections to test the Theater Bar 6’s ability to deliver cinematic sound effects. First up was a demo I often play for guests, the opening scene of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. During the Dreamworks splash screen, there’s a long downward glissando that dips to the lowest frequencies. The wireless sub delivered most of it but ran out of steam around 40 Hz. That’s reasonable given its size and cabinet volume. The first battle sequence had plenty of depth and slam with a super clean presentation. Dialogue was always well rendered, even with mayhem going on around the characters. I noticed the classic Foley artist’s trick of preceding a sharp attack with a moment of silence. This was easy to spot thanks to the Theater Bar 6’s low noise floor. This sort of contrast is rare in sound bars and small subs. The drivers are very well controlled.

In F9: The Fast Saga, there are plenty of long car chases where the drone of engines is the background to tire squealing and shouted dialogue. The drone was present but never overbalanced. The ambient effects were always there, and I could even hear the music. Gunshots had the same strong attack and deep decay. Higher frequencies, when played loud, were a little sibilant.

Turning to some music, I watched the fantastic concert Blu-ray, Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid, to hear Freddy at his finest. The Theater Bar 6 handled this excellent mix with finesse and control. Brian May’s guitar riffs had all the detail of a studio recording. I would speculate that it sounds better in its video form than it would have had I been there live in 1981.

Sound bars often become the living room stereo, so they need to be capable of quality music playback. The Theater Bar 6 can accept Bluetooth streams from a phone or tablet, but the way to better sound is from something like an Apple TV. Much of the content from Apple Music is lossless, and some is remastered in Dolby Atmos. I spent some time with classical selections like a modern-day performance of Bolero by the Berlin Philharmonic. The opening solos had a lovely ethereal quality, and I could hear the evenness of tone that marks European performance technique. In the US, everyone uses vibrato, often to excess. Bolero is far more effective when played with an air of mystery. The Theater Bar 6 captured this nicely. It only fell a tad short later in the piece when the brass’s lowest tones weren’t quite balanced with the higher partials.

A remastered recording of The Planets, again from the Berlin Philharmonic, showed a great understanding of massed strings. The Theater Bar 6’s clean highs kept the violins from turning to mush. Lower strings added the right amount of depth and tactility to the performance. High brass instruments sounded with good warmth, and only the deepest tuba notes were a bit reticent in the mix. This sound bar is certainly a capable music player that benefits, like most speakers and electronics, from high- quality content. Use Bluetooth only if there is no other choice. A quality recording played over HDMI will show the Theater Bar 6 at its best.

For $650, Sony’s BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 is today’s home theater in a box times ten. It sounds great and easily integrates with displays.

The Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 6 is the quintessential evolution of the home theater in a box from 15 years ago. No longer do enthusiasts on a budget need to settle for pea-shooter speakers and a lukewarm receiver. With clear, accurate-sounding amps and speakers expertly integrated into a slim bar, and a wireless subwoofer that’s easy to hide, you can enjoy music, movies, and TV shows a lot more than if you just use the TV’s internal speakers.

Of course, it works best with a Sony BRAVIA TV, but thanks to HDMI eARC, it will integrate easily with other brands too. And for legacy displays, there’s an optical input. I was very impressed by the easy smartphone setup that took just a few minutes. The enhancement features, like sound field and voice zoom, made a very positive impact and were easily toggled from the remote.

If you’ve just bought a new TV and are dissatisfied with the sound of the built-in speakers, and if you’ve read this review, you probably are, then you should seriously consider spending the extra $650 on the Sony BRAVIA Theater Bar 6. It delivers clear audio for movies, shows, and music, and is super easy to install and enjoy. Definitely check it out.