Experience sound like commercial cinema at home with Sony HT-S400

The confusion — should I go for a soundbar or a surround-sound system? The home theatre industry inspired audiophiles to pack their dens with speakers in the 1980s and ’90s and then the soundbar arrived, which promises better performance than what is offered by the TV’s built-in speakers. Then TVs started getting slimmer and slimmer, making soundbars very important, even for small rooms. A new problem — the soundbar simply makes the sound louder without any feeling of cinematic surround sound. Plus, dialogues are muffled.

Given the situation, should a movie fan bother to get a five-, seven-, nine or 11-speaker set-up with subwoofer, or get a soundbar which is good enough for all seasons? There is an option in a market filled with 2.1 soundbars — Sony HT-S400.

First, why does this soundbar matter at all? Action films and concerts movies — these are two genres close to me and there is a sizeable collection of Blu-ray and DVDs lying around, besides titles that are available for streaming. Usually soundbars brighten up the sound but after crossing 70 per cent volume level, one can feel some distortion. Further, in a movie series like Die Hard, all the guns simply sound loud (there’s no variation). Or in Fast & Furious all the cars sound similar… in other words just loud. Second, enjoying a concert film like Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii or Queen at Wembley requires good vocal separation and not just enough volume.

It’s a 2.1 channel soundbar, making the set-up uncomplicated. At the same time, a 2.1 set-up means high-resolution audio formats need to be formatted for stereo. Instead of considering technical shortcomings, I looked at how efficiently Sony manages it. Sure, I can always get a more expensive soundbar from Sony or some other brand but that’s not the idea. If my television costs Rs 60,000, I intend to spend one-third the amount on a soundbar.

The soundbar fits below almost any TV set

Big sounds from a simple device

The set-up is flawless. Slim and long, it fits in perfectly below any reasonably-sized TV set. You require two power inputs — one for the soundbar and the other for the woofer but the two sections connect wirelessly, so you don’t have an extra cable running from the subwoofer to the soundbar. It’s as simple as that. The soundbar has a flat back, so once you mount it, the device will be at a level because there’s nothing more irritating than having a mounted soundbar that’s sagging.

What matters is the sound and there is plenty of boom as well as clarity. You get a rated output of 330W between the bar speaker and subwoofer, making the set-up way louder than most televisions offer, especially mid-segment TVs. Not just 60-70 per cent, I was able to turn it up to 85 per cent without distortion. This was while enjoying cowboy films. Then I moved to David Attenborough shows that have a wide range of sounds to offer. The background noises came through well and so did Attenborough’s voice of reasoning.

There is an immersive, almost cinematic sound because of the digital signal processing. Even though there are only two speakers in the front, it still give that cinematic sound, to the point of having a surround feel. It sounds way more expensive than what you are paying.

The soundbar supports high-quality Dolby Digital with S-Force PRO Front Surround, Sony’s virtual surround sound technology. It puts you right at the heart of the movies by emulating cinema-style surround sound.

The front speakers feature an X-Balanced Speaker Unit, so the rectangular shape of these speakers maximises the diaphragm. It reduces driver excursion while maintaining sound pressure, resulting in less distortion and greater vocal clarity. The subwoofer too is powerful with a large 160mm speaker unit that delivers a richer bass sound.

The subwoofer connects wirelessly to the soundbar

In case you are a Sony fan, and have a Bravia TV, you are in luck thanks to an integrated user interface, soundbar settings should automatically appear on your Bravia TV’s quick settings menu.

While listening to music via Bluetooth, an album like Hell Freezes Over sounds quite spacious, making me visualise where the instruments are in the room. Like I said, it’s deceivably simple.

Also, I need to point out that the system comes with all the power cables in the box, an optical (Toslink) audio cable for wired connectivity and even a remote (with batteries). There is a tiny monochrome OLED display at the front to display basic information, including the audio source and volume levels.

Should you buy it?

If you are in the market for a quality but affordable soundbar, this is a sensible choice, especially because Sony is known for its audio science. There is no Dolby Atmos and DTS:X but having those in a simple soundbar is bit of an overkill. Connectivity options on the Sony HT-S400 include HDMI, Optical (Toslink), and Bluetooth. I would have liked an extra HDMI port.

To experience something close to the sound of commercial cinema at home — like enough dynamics, clearest vocal reproduction, and a good amount of bass — Sony HT-S400 is a winner.