Sony HT-S2000 Sound Bar Review

Sony’s HT-S2000 3.1 Channel Sound Bar delivers Dolby Atmos and DTS:X from five active drivers, 250 watts of amplification, and two bass-extending ports. Hookup is a simple matter with any display that includes HDMI ARC. You can also play music through its Bluetooth 5.2 input.

We all love our giant thin flat-panel televisions. But they have one major downside – where do you put some decent built-in speakers? I’ve seen a few, a very few, designs that include good speakers that attach to the sides of the screen. Think Pioneer Elite plasma or Sony’s 65X900B which I reviewed almost 10 years ago.

In most cases though, the speakers built into your slick new flat panel will be lame. They’re going to be, and sound, small, and underpowered. The obvious solution is a sound bar and there are many to choose from. Today, I’ll be focusing on a value option from Sony, the HT-S2000. If you’re a fan of Honda sports cars, that model number will be easy to remember.

I’m covering just the sound bar here, the HT-S2000 can be enhanced with wireless surround and subwoofer channels for extra cost but in its basic form, it’s a 3.1-channel unit. Five active drivers are driven by 250 watts of amplification and the two outer drivers are ported for greater bass extension. HDMI eARC makes hookup easy and it can function as a Bluetooth speaker. Let’s take a look.

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Looking at the HT-S2000 sound bar, my first impression is that it is just the right size. At 31.5 inches wide, it will fit below any television without calling attention to itself. It’s only five inches deep so it has a very efficient footprint. I doubt there are many instances where you could not easily place the unit for maximum performance. It’s also just 2.6 inches high so it will fit below the screen of any panel sitting on its stand or feet.

The five drivers are visible behind a rigid grill made from perforated metal. They are a rounded rectangle shape measuring approximately 3 x 1.5 inches. All are active, driven by what Sony calls “Digital S-Master” amplifiers. I suspect this is another term for Class D. Total power is 250 watts, 50 watts times five. I certainly had no problem playing the HT-S2000 at high volumes without distortion so there is no reason to doubt Sony’s output claim. A small display appears whenever you change inputs or sound modes.

The two outermost drivers are the subwoofer channel and have ports out the sides for greater bass extension. The HT-S2000 has no shortage of bass, and you can boost it with a rocker switch on the included remote. If you want to add a subwoofer, Sony’s SA-SW3 ($400) and SA-SW5 ($700) wireless models are compatible. You can also add Sony’s SA-RS3S ($350) wireless surround speakers for a full 5.1-channel setup.

All the latest sound formats are supported up to Dolby Atmos and DTS: X. LPCM bandwidth is 192/24 and the bar will accept a seven-channel signal and downmix it to five channels. For input, the easiest method is through the single HDMI eARC/ARC port which interfaces directly with the display. It’s difficult to find a flat panel without eARC these days but if you have an older TV, there’s an optical digital port. You can also play music through the HT-S2000’s Bluetooth 5.2 input. I was slightly disappointed to see no support for aptX or Apple AirPlay. But Sony offers it in the $700 HT-A3000 model.

I had just the core HT-S2000 sound bar without any surround or sub channels in for review, so I created two usage scenarios. First, I set it up on a stand in my theater to evaluate its music chops. Since there’s no Apple Airplay, I used the Bluetooth input. Music was streamed from an iPhone 12 in Apple Lossless format (CD rips). For the second scenario, I connected it to the HDMI eARC port on an LG 65GX. The content came from LG’s excellent WebOS operating system which includes AppleTV+, Disney+, and Netflix.

The sound bar has soft rubber feet that won’t mar the finish on your furniture and provide a reasonable amount of isolation. I didn’t detect any vibration in my TV stand when the HT-S2000 was playing at full honk. Sony includes a template for wall mounting but you’ll need to provide your own hardware to hook into the keyed holes in the back. The inputs are recessed for clean wire management in either installation scenario.

To evaluate the HT-S2000’s musical abilities, I started with Yo-Yo Ma’s Grammy-winning recordings of Bach’s Cello Suites. They are super detailed with lovely warmth. My first impression was that the sound seemed very wet. The sound bar seemed to be adding a bit of phase to broaden the sound stage. While this increased size was obvious and effective, the accompanying reverb was a bit distracting. The presentation was still very musical with excellent dynamic range, but it lacked tautness.

Orchestra music was a better choice for the HT-S2000. I recently purchased Anne-Sophie Mutter’s recording of Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Korngold is a very golden-age-of-Hollywood-style composer. He was the first purely classical composer to write for film and he paved the way for greats like John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Mutter’s tone and approach to this piece is ideal with a singing sound that permeates every part of the sound stage. The sound bar handled the material expertly with clear instrument placement side to side and fore and aft. It definitely presented the piece in a way that made the sound bar disappear.

Of course, the main reason for the HT-S2000’s existence is to enhance a flat panel TV. When purchasing any sound bar, buyers should consider two main things, dialog clarity, and sound stage. To start my viewing, I cued up the new season of Michael Symon’s BBQ USA. Obviously, this show is nothing without clear dialog. Symon’s voice is a bass-baritone, delivered forte, with his signature heckling laugh thrown in. The HT-S2000 made easy work of this with a perfectly balanced center dialog presentation that avoided any chesty or harsh edges. The sound stage was scaled correctly to place the dialog in the right places, whether in the center or off to the sides. I could hear the voices move about the screen. Female voices were equally clear, detailed, and balanced.

Netflix has many shows that feature Dolby Atmos, so I went to its latest sports documentary, Tour de France Unchained. Here, the sound stage was definitely wider than the sound bar. My normal TV audio setup has full-range left and right cabinets to either side of the screen and the HT-S2000 managed to extend its presentation out to that same width. The sound emanated from around the screen during shots from the peloton or inside chase vehicles. And the narration dialog stayed centered with excellent clarity and balance. At no time was I tempted to adjust the volume. There was plenty of dynamic range, but never did I strain to hear subtle sound cues.

For a more cinematic experience, I turned to the familiar Lost in Space from 2018-2021 on Netflix. It is a very movie-like presentation with plenty of premium CGI and superb audio to match. The third season gets the full Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision treatment and the HT-S2000 delivered it with force and power. I could turn up the volume very high with no distortion and the bass coming from the internal subwoofer and its ports was more present than expected. This is where the wet sound I spoke of earlier is a good thing. It may not be ideal for some music but content like this can never sound too big. I can only imagine what the satellite sub and surrounds would bring to the party if I’d had them on hand. But if you can only accommodate the sound bar in your setup, you will not be disappointed.

To complete my viewing sessions, I hooked up an Oppo UDP-203 to the TV so I could watch Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. This Ultra HD Blu-ray also features Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos in its least compressed form. The HT-S2000 has enough resolution to make a difference with this reference-level material. Having the latest audio and video formats from streamed content is great, but optical discs are still better. It’s impressive that a $400 sound bar can flesh out that advantage. The dynamic range was even greater, but I could still hear the quietest dialog without reaching for the volume control. I tried out the sound field button and the processing managed a decent virtual surround effect. The voice button made the dialog louder, but I didn’t find that necessary. If you are one to turn on subtitles though, the voice button might provide an alternative. The night mode also works well to reduce dynamic range so you can turn down the volume and still hear everything.

Sony’s HT-S2000 3.1 Channel Sound Bar is an inexpensive way to enhance a flat panel TV. It delivers sound greater than its physical size.

At $400, it’s hard to fault Sony’s HT-S2000 3.1 Channel Sound Bar. While it lacks support for AirPlay and aptX, it more than delivers in the sound quality and ease of use department. Installation is as simple as plugging it into power and connecting it to the HDMI eARC/ARC or optical output of your TV. With support for the latest audio formats, it sports big sound and an immersive experience. The ported subwoofers on each side render more bass than you’d expect, and the overall presentation is very balanced. I can only imagine that it would be even better with the additional wireless sub and surround speakers but that would reduce the value quotient a bit. For the price, the HT-S2000 brings a very high performance-to-price ratio. If you’re looking to enhance your television’s audio on a budget, it is Highly Recommended.