Sony - BRAVIA Theater Rear 9 wireless surround speakers, Dolby Atmos/DTS:X - Black

I’ve been using the HT-A5000 with SA-SW3 sub and SA-RS3 surrounds for 3.5 years. The system works fairly well for movies, especially in a rather small living room. It’s not very impressive for music, though the playback source makes a big difference. Sadly, 2-channel Airplay isn’t the best, IMO. The RS3 surrounds are the weakest part of the system, so I recently picked up the RS9’s on sale. They paired easily via the soundbar’s TV menu (the HT-A5000 isn’t compatible with the new Bravia Connect app). The RS9’s are a significant improvement over the RS3’s, as you would expect from something almost twice as big. Seriously, they are *huge* for soundbar surround speakers. At 11.25” tall and 6” across, these big black cylinders don’t exactly blend into the decor. The RS3’s were 7.25” by 4” for comparison. For me, this drawback is worth it. I feel like adding these surrounds finally generated that rich, 360-degree sound bubble that had been advertised, but previously not quite delivered. The real and just amazing benefit is for Atmos movies. The improvement for music is good, again depending on source. Atmos music tracks via an AppleTV sound amazing! I also figured that the RS9’s may be my gateway back to an AVR + some decent floor-standing speakers at some point, since they also pair with the current line of Sony receivers.

I bought these rear surround speakers to replace my RS5s and those were really good but these are MUCH BETTER. The surround sound presence and height effects are much more noticeable. These are also much bigger than the RS5s which I assume is helping with them being louder as well. I am running an older A7000 soundbar set up with the SW3 for reference soon to be upgrading to the bar 9. I couldn’t be happier with these surround speakers. Sony thank you for another home run product

Sony Bravia rear 9 wireless surround speakers were purchased along with the new Bravia 9 subwoofer, Bravia 9 soundbar and Bravia 9 non reflective tv. Our living room sounds like a movie theater. Great purchase for my family. This system has brought our family together with less phone time

The BRAVIA Theater Rear 9's are a great pair of surround speakers to complete the Sony theater experience. These rears really help fortify the 360 Spatial Sound that the Theater Trio starts. Plug them in and use the BRAVIA Connect app to complete the paring to your system and listen how the sound fills the room. I have tested on a few movies and the 360 Spatial sound adds an amazing level of immersion to the viewing experience. The sound is crisp and clear and really does appear to be coming from all around. The build quality is also amazing and photos do not prepare you for the size of these rears. They measure in at 11" high and roughly 6" in diameter. What I found interesting is the wall mounting bracket actually allows the speakers to be swiveled to better direct the rear sound to your seating arrangement, this is not something I have seen included with other rears. Wireless connectivity has been pretty solid and I have only noticed a couple of signal dropouts which were quickly resolved (and probably my fault). Overall these rears are a must have if you are looking for that cinematic surround sound in you viewing room.

This is part III of a three-part review for the Sony Bravia Theater series of products. Please see my reviews for the Bravia Theater Trio and Bravia Sub 9 for my complete review. The Sony Bravia Rear 9 wireless surround speakers provide surround sound and Dolby Atmos support for the Bravia Theater Trio, Bravia Theater and HT soundbars, and Bravia TVs. The Rear 9’s are an add-on product. Do you want them? Probably. The Rear 9’s completes the immersive home theater experience for movies, video games, sporting events, music, and other content that supports multi-channel and Dolby Atmos audio. For me, a home theater is not complete without the surround speakers. They add that little bit extra to the sound field, like MSG on Chinese food, that complete the immersive experience. Yeah, I know, poor analogy. But you all get my point. Setup and Configuration: Setup, for me, was super easy. I already have a pair of tower speakers at the back of my room in the exact locations that work best for my living room. I plugged in each Rear 9 to wall power, placed a protective cloth over each tower speaker, and then placed a Rear 9 on top of each speaker. I could have also used a shelf, speaker stands, tables, or even wall mounted the Rear 9’s using the included mounting hardware. The bottom of each speaker has a power/link button. Pressing the button powers the speaker and automatically puts it into link mode. My Theater Trio center channel found and connected to the Rear 9 before I even opened the Bravia app on my phone. I still needed to add the speakers in the app, perform a software update, and then take calibration readings with the Bravia Trio USB calibration mic with my iPad. I was up and ready to rock and roll within five minutes. * See my Trio review for an explanation of why I started with an iPhone and ended with an iPad. Placement: For my room, I placed the Rear 9’s behind my couch; elevated slightly to align the bottom of the speaker with the top of my couch. Why? Because my couch would simply absorb the Rear 9’s output and reduce the overall 360 experience. I could turn up the volume on the Rear 9’s but that seemed like a terrible option when I had better options available. Please note, this has nothing to do with the Rear 9’s. It is just physics. Elevating the Rear 9’s produced the best results for my space. The power cables for the Rear 9’s are long enough to reach almost any outlet in a medium-sized room that has properly spaced outlets. In my case, I do not have a wall outlet along my right wall. The power cord is long enough to reach my rear wall. Unfortunately, my only option here is to wall mount the speaker. And that would mean mounting the speaker to a window. In this case, my room constraints picked the best location for my Rear 9’s. Movies: The Rear 9’s, just like the Theater Trio front left and right speakers, have tilted up-firing Atmos speakers built into the case. These speakers are designed to literally bounce music, sound effects, and objects off the ceiling to my listening space. This can work. For instance, when watching the 4K Blu-ray presentation of Pacific, effects such as falling rain sounded convincing. Large splashing ocean waves, Kaiju roars, and overhead helicopter blades sounded more generally positioned in front of or behind me instead of pinpoint locations in space. Sony claims their 360 Spatial Sound technology creates virtual speakers across my listening space. I simply did not find the effects convincing with movies such as Pacific Rim, Godzilla: King of Monsters, and Project Hail Mary. Now, did the 360 Spatial Sound create an immersive environment? When compared to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, yes. 360 Spatial Sound did manage to create an enveloping 360-degree sound field around my listening position. It worked very well wherever I was standing in my living room. It simply did not convince me that I had 6 extra speakers in my ceiling or two extra sidewall speakers. Sonically, the Rear 9’s do an excellent job with straight forward surround sound content and music. Sports: I watched the Spain vs Argentia World Cup game Sunday afternoon on network television. This was an over-the-air presentation, with an antenna, connected directly to my TV. The Bravia Trio carried all the commentator conversations, game announcers and announcements, and the few times the refs made audible calls. The Rear 9’s worked with the Trio speakers to fill in the white noise of the cheering fans. It was like being there but at my desired volume level. Sometimes there was a random audio effect that accompanied the a transition from the field to the commentator’s booth. Backfilling the crowd noise in the room really adds to the immersion of live sporting events. Turning on 360 Spatial Sound expanded the crowd noise to everywhere all at once. Video Games: The Sony Rear 9’s did an excellent job of supporting my multi-channel gaming audio experience. I played Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Footsteps of opposing players sneaking up behind me were properly resolved in 3D space. Grenade explosions, gun fire, and other effects originating from behind me in 3D space were equally resolved. I actually stop paying attention to what speaker sound effects were issuing from and found myself completely immersed the game play. I was able to react to events quickly due to the positional audio queues scattered around the room. Again, like with my movies, I was not exactly sure if the Atmos speakers were offering much. But they were not taking away from the experience. And the audio did sound like it was all around me and immersing me in a full 3-dimensional sound bubble. Music: I found Music to be the most interesting experience. The Bravia Connect app allows the Bravia Theater system to spread a 2-channel audio track across my Bravia Theater Trio, Bravia Theater Sub 9, and the Bravia Theater Rear 9’s. And I honestly did not like the audio experience when the Center and Atmos speakers were engaged. Instead, I set the system to play the stereo signal between the front left, right, Sub 9, and Rear 9’s exclusively. And that was really good and immersive. The Trio speakers did a good job of creating a believable sound stage. And the Rear 9’s did an excellent job of filling in a believable sound stage. The Bravia Remote and the Bravia Connect app allow adjustments to the Rear 9’s volume. I could have volume level matched the Rear 9’s with the front speakers. But chose not to. Keeping the Rear 9’s about 1/3 the volume of the front speakers created a more convincing front sound stage than asking the Rear 9’s to directly compete with the front Trio stereo pair. Final Thoughts: The rear speakers of any home theater system tend to only call attention to themselves when a movie reaches a crescendo, atmospherics are required to pressurize a room, or a special effect is triggered. Otherwise, you may never notice the rear speakers at all. The Bravia Rear 9’s do an excellent job of filling these roles. They are slightly smaller than the Trio left and right speakers. They can be wall mounted or placed free standing on a table, shelf, or other flat surface. And they do an excellent job with movies, TV, and video games. I am still not convinced of the virtual speakers of 360 Spatial Sound. Maybe Sony should include an app that will run the user through all the physical and virtual speakers in the room like Dolby Atmos or DTS will do. Just a suggestion. Overall, the Rear 9’s are not a necessity to enjoy immersive content. But I would recommend getting them anyway. They may not be flashy or call attention to themselves. But you will them once you’ve heard them. Thank you for reading my review.