Customer Ratings & Reviews

Bought this TV back in September. Not happy with it. Watching a movie with my kid and I see flickering lights down the bottom of the screen. It comes and goes. And is now non returnable. Should have gone with the lg

I was very excited to try out this soundbar system in my basement. My basement gets very loud due to the HVAC air intake. I had an old sound bar that was OK but when you are sitting on the couch you can still not hear much. I liked this Sony system since it looked to be fully immersive with a wireless soundbar and wireless rear surround speakers. So far my experience has been less than exciting. First off, the setup of this system was very simple. You connect the soundbar to power, and in my case HDMI (ARC). Then you literally connect the soundbar and two speakers to power and they automatically sync to the soundbar. It does not get much easier than that. Then I setup the soundbar in the settings, which was not too bad. It runs an auto calibration and then you connect it to your network. This was the first issue. It showed my connection as "failed" and then rebooted itself when I tried again. Then it did not power back up. I unplugged it twice and it was still frozen on the "hello" screen. I was frustrated so I left it, then it finally powered back on by itself about 5 minutes later. Then it showed the Wi-Fi connection as "connected". The next time I used it, the soundbar showed me being offline. The soundbar is right next to my router so I tried to plug it in directly to the LAN port. Unfortunately the soundbar does not have an ethernet port. So I have to keep this unstable wireless connection. Then the next time I turned on my TV the soundbar was in sleep mode and did not wake up. I had to turn it on with the soundbar remote then change my TV's sound settings. This is very frustrating especially since it is connected via HDMI ARC. My TV is a Samsung, so is this Sony/Samsung not playing nice? Either way, I had to then go into my settings to turn off all auto sleep modes and make sure the soundbar is always on stand by. This is so that I can keep the luxury of only using my TV's remote, because who wants to constantly keep two remotes to watch TV? Now onto the actual sound and performance. The soundbar does sound very nice. It has very nice and clear range. I played some action movies and noticed that sound was that explosive. So I had to manually adjust the surround and subwoofer to have this system really make an impact. Then it sounded better, but the experience is not very immersive. It sounds very good, but I don't think the overall sound feels very high end. I cannot complain because it does it's job, but it does not make you feel that you have a top of the line sound system. Overall, I do like this soundbar system, but it does not impress me. The sound is nice, but not very immersive. The install was easy, but the bugs were just too much for me. I think there is much to be desired here.

We returned this item as it did nothing to engage the tv sound alone.

Sound quality was not what I expected.. Without a sub woofer, this sound bar didn’t make any improvement to the sound .

Disappointed in the Sony soundbar. Not good at all. Don't waste your money.

It was a decent sound bar, but really underwhelming for what I was wanting. I ended up exchanging for the HT-A7000. It's incredible!

Shuts off by itself. It appears to be out of sync with the TV. Great picture no sound.

This is a great sounding soundbar once you get it configured to your TV. Setup is fairly easy by following the on screen directions. You can also go back and easily adjust settings, which you can do via a menu on your TV screen when you press the "HOME" button. I really like this feature. I'm not going to lie, when I first hooked it up, I was like, really, that's all? But then I went through the settings on my TV and found that my audio was set to PCM. Once I set my TV audio to pass through, The Sony A3000 soundbar came to life. You have three options for surround sound virtualization: Sony's in-house preset, Dolby Virtualization, and DTS:X. Having tried all three options with the Top Gun movie (86), I have found the DTS:X mode to be my favorite. The Sony mode was surprisingly a close 2nd. Strangely, I found that the Dolby Virtualization mode seemed to cut the volume of the soundbar in half and didn't sound as good as the other two modes, even with the volume set to match the other modes. This could be just a software issue that could be addressed via an update. You also get Alexa and Google services built in, which does come in handy. Another nice feature about this soundbar is that it can be expanded. You can add a wireless powered sub and wireless rear surround speakers to get a more authentic home theater experience. I would highly recommend getting the powered sub that this soundbar supports. It makes a world of a difference in my experience. This soundbar can get fairly loud if you want it to. One thing I didn't like was the the lack of inputs on the soundbar. There is only one HDMI input for your TV. This means that if you have your TV on the wall, like in my situation, and run the wires through the wall, you're going to have to run extra cables through the wall which can be a pain. Likes: 1.) Great Sound 2.) On-screen(TV) menu 3.) Expandability: subwoofer, rear surrounds Dislikes: 1.) Only one input for the TV 2.) Subwoofer not included

First, this soundbar is quite the product from Sony. It has Dolby Virtual Atmos and is one of the lowest priced soundbars in the Sony lineup (with the features and options it offers). This is a good thing in that it doesn’t sacrifice on sound, that experience is as it should be and what you would expect both from Sony and at this price point. One thing to note is what you don’t get is an HDMI input on the soundbar. This is not a problem if your TV has HDMI ARC/eARC. As long as it does, you don’t need the additional HDMI input because everything will run through the HDMI ARC once connected to your TV (or Bluetooth of course for features like Apple AirPlay). Also, as long as you are setting up with HDMI eARC, setup is incredibly simple because you plug in the power, plug in to the TV and connect to the bar and you’re basically ready to go. There is additional setup and options to choose and an accompanying app, but basic setup is about as simple as it gets. The sound delivered is rich and with Dolby Virtual Atmos, it gives you the best imitation of the immersive experience of surround sound but without the headache of actually having to install surround sound speakers. Of course it’s not quite surround sound, but it’s certainly a good sound experience and the setup is MUCH easier than installing surround sound. Keep in mind also that this soundbar is a 3.1, and Sony offers some great peripherals in the form of rear speakers and subwoofer, which are connected wirelessly. Again, easy setup and a big enhancement to that surround sound experience. The biggest problem of course is that the rear speakers and subwoofer must be purchased separately from the soundbar, so your price tag starts going way up. I would say if you have a smaller space, you probably don’t need to mess with the rear speakers or subwoofer. The sound bar does have two built in subwoofers and of course the Dolby Virtual Atmos. The bigger your space though, the more the peripherals can add to your experience. The soundbar on its own is a pretty amazing piece of sound tech and does the job it’s supposed to admirably. And on its own, with the features offered, I’d say it’s actually a pretty decent price point as well. Just keep in mind the HDMI eARC requirement as well as the additional cost if you decide the rear speakers and subwoofer are necessary to complete your experience.

I stream out of a firestick which is not dolby atmos so you do not get the full experience of the surround sound system , its not nearly clear or loud enough unless we are streaming from dolby atmos compatible devices , the new firesticks are dolby atmos compatible and have 16 gig memory for less buffering .

Did not work as i was shown on store sample. Tv is excellent without it. Will return.

I brought this soundbar a year and a half ago and it didn’t work all it says is HELLO.

Bought with sony 77 inch oled television. Could not get it to work. With Sonys help we discovered it was faulty. Returned for refund

I love Sony soundbars, I have been using them for the last couple of years. We have a rather large open living room so we setup the A7000 series soundbar in there a while back. The sound is amazing despite the open area and high ceilings. We were looking for something that would work well in a bedroom, and the A5000 series seemed like it might be just a tad too much for the smaller area. This A3000 series soundbar from Sony seems to fit that niche just right. Setup process is incredibly easy, run the power cable to the outlet near your TV, connect the HDMI cable from the eARC TV out port on the back of the soundbar to your eARC input on the back of your TV. The soundbar has one HDMI input in the back of the soundbar so we plugged in our streaming box to that. Once you have everything powered on, the soundbar walks you through the final setup process in configuring the sound to your room. Sony’s audio wizards can reflect sound off the walls and ceiling to really make it feel like the sound is moving around you as opposed to just coming from the soundbar. One small gripe I had when I was setting up was that the soundbar only has 1 HDMI input, not a deal breaker since I can run my other devices to the TV and the soundbar is still going to produce excellent sound. Some of Sony’s other models offer 2 HDMI inputs so it was just a bit of a bummer seeing that this one only had the one, again not a deal breaker but worth noting. So, the sound. In a word ‘Wow!’. I already knew what to expect since we use one of Sony’s higher end models in the living room, but this soundbar on its own can give you an immersive feeling. The clarity and separation are amazing. We were watching a movie and at one point in the movie it was raining, but I instinctively looked outside my bedroom windows thinking it was raining outside. I felt silly a second later when I realized it was just the soundbar making it sound like the rain was coming from behind us. With the soundbar supporting Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Vertical Surround Engine Sony really has you feeling like you are in the scene. Another amazing feature, that I feel often gets overlooked is their support of 360 Reality Audio. Paired with the right digital streaming provider and songs, this makes for a unique listening experience that has you feeling like you are there in the studio or concert where the music is being recorded. Even more so if you are using their wireless rear speakers and sub. More of a test to see if I should make the extra investment, I grabbed the sub and wireless speakers from my living room setup and linked them to the A3000. This is super easy since you just click the link buttons on each speaker and the soundbar can locate them and connect to them. The sound was improved, but if I had to choose just one of those things to make the investment in, it would be the sub. The soundbar can create good bass for explosions in action movie, but unfortunately doesn’t come close to what the sub is able to do on its own. Depending on your room you might get away without utilizing the wireless rear speakers, but if you want the most out of those action movies then the sub should be a serious consideration. This isn’t the best soundbar on the market, but for the right size room and setup this can deliver an incredible experience without emptying your bank. Again, paired with the sub this makes for a very immersive cinema experience.

Bought this in store as a open box item I set it up it worked for one week and that was it..I thought all merchandise bought back to best buy was thoroughly inspected before being sold...

The sound bar would intermittently go silent for 2 to 7 seconds at a time. I left a v mail for a geek concerning this issue. I didn't receive a response. I returned it after about a week.

Not sure why the volume needs to be turned on to almost 85 to sound loud. Not sure but so far I do not like this soundbar. My Samsung bar that I purchase 6 years ago sounds way louder.

PROS: + 360 Spatial Sound really expands the soundstage + Sound Field Optimization very quickly adjusts the sound for your space using built-in microphones + Ability to adjust speaker distance & position manually for fine-tuning the audio + Vertical Surround Engine & S-Force Pro successfully heighten soundstage for Atmos & DTS:X + Comes with on-screen display for adjusting settings, it addition to visible display on soundbar + Great remote with lots of control right on the remote without needing to nest through menus + Can easily expand with wireless speakers and wireless sub + Integrated support for music streaming services + Built-in Atmos & 360 Reality Audio demos for testing CONS: - No HDMI Inputs for passthrough - Sound field can sound a bit hollow when off-angle from the bar - No EQ for fine-tuning sound - Bass is fine, but really could use a dedicated sub (which costs extra) SO-SO: * For some reason the power input and HDMI eARC are on opposite ends of the bar, which makes for weird cable management THE LONG & SHORT OF IT The Sony HT-A3000 is a unique soundbar in the world of 3D audio in that it supports modern 3D audio formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, but doesn’t actually have up-firing speakers to bounce off the ceiling like. The result is that the HT-A3000 uses audio processing to simulate a “bubble” of sound while watching content, and this virtualization actually works quite well. I have used a lot of Atmos enabled systems, and the pure virtualization approach here does not provide a more convincing experience than something like dedicated speakers can provide, but it does come a lot closer than it has any right to. Turning on the 360 Spatial Audio mapping results in a soundstage that feels both noticeably taller & wider than without it, and as sounds move through the space, you do get the definite impression of movement of objects through the air. The downside to this is that, while the sound field is great, it can sound a bit muffled or messy in heavy action scenes, as the virtualization tries to emulate everything at once. Adding in Sony’s wireless rear speakers does help this quite a bit by providing dedicated channels for the rear sound. One other issue with the virtualization is that, when off-angle of the soundbar, the sound can also sound more hallow than when watching dead-on, which isn’t an issue for me since I always have mine set-up in the center to my seating, but with an L-couch or wide seating, you may find a noticeably different sound profile than when direct to the bar. While I never got the impression of audio going directly above my head, I did get the sense of height effects being higher in the sound field than other effects. For example, when the T-Rex roars in the Ready Player One chase scene, it sounds definitely higher above my TV than the rest of the lower channel effects, although nowhere near to being over my head like it is supposed to be. One benefit of this virtualization approach though is that it is less dependent on your ceiling height, and in my living room I have high vaulted ceilings, which are awful for speakers that need to bound sound off of them and back down on you. I actually found the HT-A3000 quite effective in this set-up. Additionally, when listening to music, not only do you get full support of most modern streaming services, but the HT-A3000 does a great job of making them sound even clearer through its audio processing. In fact, all told, this is probably the most software driven soundbar I have ever owned, with so many audio engines it is hard to count. What is missing though is a dedicated EQ option, so you can’t really tune the sound profile to your liking. This being said, the spatial audio optimization does a great & quick job of tuning the sound to your space, by playing a few fast test tones from the soundbar (and rear speakers & sub if you have them), and calibrating using the built-in mics. You can also manually go through and adjust speaker distances to further tune the sound for your listening position. If I had one complaint on the sound, it would be that the soundbar really does need a dedicated subwoofer. The built-in subs are fine, and may be good for a smaller space, but for a larger room they really don’t provide the low-end needed for a lot of movies and even music. That being said, like with the wireless rear speakers, you can add a wireless Sony sub as well. I paired the soundbar with one and it significantly improved the audio experience, but it is an additional cost to keep in mind. One other small gripe with the bar is a lack of any other HDMI passthrough ports, other than the eARC port. This means to get Atmos or DTS:X, you need an eARC TV. I have one, and so this is a non-issue for me, but even still, I do have a lot of devices, and it is nice to be able to plug them into the soundbar instead of a separate HDMI switch for passthrough to the TV, if you need more ports than your TV has. Also, weirdly the power input is on the opposite end of the bar from the HDMI input, which makes for weird cable management when you have cables coming from both ends of the bar. Design-wise, I think the bar looks and feels great. You have a slim profile, on-bar display, fully functional remote, on-screen menu for advanced settings, and buttons on the top of the bar for control as well. It looks great under my TV, and I imagine it will easily fit under most people’s TVs without any issue. I had no connectivity, drop-out, or other technical issues. The bar was set-up in minutes and the on-screen calibration is very straight forward. As an added bonus, you get two built-in demos with the bar, one for Atmos and one for 360 Reality Audio, which you can use to demo your calibrations and adjustments of the sound field in your space. All-in-all, this is a great soundbar, and does amazing work with its virtualization. It sounds good, has great center channel and 3D audio performance, and works great with both music and movies. If you add the rear speakers and sub, you will notice a very worthwhile upgrade to the audio experience, but as a standalone bar, it really does hit a lot of the boxes. It doesn’t work miracles, but it does push the bounds of what a single, thin soundbar can do from an audio processing perspective. The other question with all of this is price, which is still on the mid-to-upper range at $699.99. If you are willing to invest in a quality sony sub and rear speakers, and you don’t need the up-firing drivers, then I think you can get a solid surround sound system. That being said, if you are looking for a true all-in-one solution from a single bar, you may want to demo this one ahead of time if you can, to make sure it suits your needs, as it really does benefit from adding the rears and sub.

Sounds like crap !! TV sound cuts in and out. I’ll go back to Bose

Returned this soundbar and bought a Sonos. This one has poor sound quality and tinny dialogue. Not worth the high price.