Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 review

We love our misfits and oddballs. From Stranger Things’ Hellfire Club to the madcap James from the most recent series of Traitors, there’s something altogether endearing about those who refuse to conform.

A lack of conformity is not something we expect from a Sony soundbar system, though, yet that’s exactly what we have here in the form of the not very snappily named Bravia Theatre System 6.

At this level, solo soundbars are de rigueur, but the System 6 is, as the name suggests, a complete system comprising a soundbar, subwoofer and two surround speakers.

Such packages aren’t unheard of at the budget end of things – there’s the Hisense AX5125H, for example – but the System 6 is unusual in that the connections and amplification are contained within the large, heavy subwoofer, which then transmits the sound, via a mixture of wirelessness and [gasp] wires, to the rest of the components.

In some ways it’s rather like the home cinema in a box systems of the 2000s, but while there’s something quite old-fashioned in the design, there’s nothing grey or wrinkly about the Dolby Atmos performance.

Price

The Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 (which also has the name ‘HT-S60’) launched at a price of £549 / $800 / AU$1199, but while pricing in the US and Australia has remained fairly static, if you shop around, you can usually find the System 6 for £499 in the UK.

There’s no end of soundbar options in the sub-£500 bracket in which the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6 finds itself, but none (at least that we’ve tested in recent years) is quite like the offering here.

Solo bars dominate at this level, with the compact Sonos Beam (Gen 2) looming large over proceedings, but there are complete systems, too, such as the aforementioned, exceptionally affordable and entirely wireless Hisense AX5125H.

Design

Styling-wise, the Bravia Theatre System 6 is as plain as they come. But while each component is flat black and fairly nondescript, everything feels weighty and well-made.

Indeed, the subwoofer – the undeniable star of the show – is huge and very heavy. A testament to its unusual role as the brains as well as the beating heart of the system.

On the rear of the subwoofer you will find the audio inputs, a power socket and a bespoke speaker terminal, into which the cable from the soundbar is connected.

Said soundbar isn’t as slim as some, but it will still sit in front of most TVs without obscuring the image. There are additional feet in the box that can be screwed into its underside to help it straddle your TV’s stand, if required.

While the soundbar is directly wired to the subwoofer, the surround speakers are not. Instead, the sub wirelessly transmits the surround sound information to a receiver box at the back of the room that is itself wired to the two surround speakers.

The idea is that while all of the speakers themselves are wired, there are no cables running from the front to the back of your room.

The cables provided are very long, so you can be pretty flexible with the placement of the surround speakers, and they, the soundbar and even the wireless receiver can be wall-mounted.

A very small remote comes with the System 6, and it features buttons for Input, Sound Field, Voice, Volume, Bass, Night and Mute. However, there’s no display on any of the components, so you’re left to interpret what the system is up to from a single responsive LED on the subwoofer, next to the power LED.

This predictably isn’t very effective, but thankfully the system is compatible with Sony’s Bravia Connect app, which tells you the status of the system and gives you access to all of the remote’s controls and some deeper settings to boot. If you’re also the owner of a fairly recent Sony Bravia TV, you can access several of the System 6’s settings through the television, which is handy.

Features

The connections on the rear of the subwoofer only amount to an HDMI eARC/ARC port, an optical and a 3.5mm input. There are no dedicated HDMI inputs, so using the System 6 as a hub for your sources isn’t an option.

This is a 5.1 system, with three of Sony’s X-Balanced drivers (and two tweeters) handling centre, left and right duties in the soundbar, and one further X-Balanced driver and tweeter in each of the surround speakers.

These X-Balanced drivers have a rectangular shape that gives them a larger surface area that allows them to shift more air and therefore reproduce a greater range of frequencies than similarly sized circular drivers.

While there are no dedicated up-firing drivers, the System 6 can reproduce Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks using Sony’s Vertical Surround Engine, which uses clever processing to virtually reproduce 3D audio’s height channels. Sony’s S-Force Pro technology is also on hand to send sound to the left and right of the room.

Sony claims that the total power output of the system is a whopping 1000W, with 200W of that coming from the mighty subwoofer. That’s a lot of power for your money.

Once the system is physically installed, it’s worth digging into the settings in the Sony Bravia Connect app.

There’s no auto calibration, which is a shame, but you can manually adjust the volume level of the surrounds and subwoofer, as well as the distance of each component from where you sit. Setting the distances is certainly worth doing to improve the balance and cohesion of the system.

The system can play a test tone that you can use, along with an SPL meter, to further trim the volume levels of the individual components. This is nice to do, but it’s not entirely necessary in our experience. Get the distances roughly correct, and the system is nicely balanced.

Sound

Despite the hefty amount of power, the Bravia Theatre System 6 feels primarily designed for relatively compact rooms, where the distance between the soundbar and surrounds isn’t excessive. That said, cohesion remains impressively strong even in a larger space such as our test room.

It’s worth taking some care over surround placement. Sony’s official diagrams show the speakers positioned behind the main seating position and firing directly towards the front of the room – an unusual configuration that won’t be practical for many set-ups anyway. In our experience, placing them to the sides works very well, maintaining strong integration with the bar while delivering convincing wraparound effects.

With standard 5.1 content, there is the faintest hint of separation between the bar and surrounds – a slight gappiness that keen ears might detect. Switch to Dolby Atmos, though, and that subtle disconnect disappears. The presentation becomes seamless and genuinely room-filling.

The Atmos processing, in particular, is superb. During K’s baseline test in Blade Runner 2049, the unseen interviewer’s voice is placed precisely behind and slightly above you, while K’s voice remains firmly anchored to the screen.

In the following scene in K’s apartment, Frank Sinatra’s Summer Wind floats ambiently overhead, just as it should, and when he and Joi head out onto the balcony, the layered city soundscape spreads convincingly around the room, with the various audio advertisements clearly and accurately positioned in space.

The only minor caveat is that the surrounds don’t always completely disappear into the mix. On occasion, particularly during heavy action scenes with lots of gunfire, your ears are drawn briefly to their physical location. It’s rare, but noticeable.

Bass performance is a real highlight. The subwoofer delivers serious depth and weight, capable of physically shaking your sofa, yet it also delivers solid punch and good tonal flexibility. There’s a faint fuzz to the incredibly deep opening of Blade Runner 2049’s chapter two – almost as if something within the sub is momentarily rattling – but it’s still more composed here than the majority of rivals, and the issue doesn’t recur with any of the other discs we use during our two days of testing.

Detail levels are excellent. In the new 4K, Dolby Atmos remaster of Master And Commander, you can clearly hear splinters flying as cannon balls tear through wood, and there’s impressive nuance and subtlety during the movie’s many quieter moments.

And in Alex Garland’s Civil War, distance cues are conveyed superbly – mortar shells landing on the White House lawn sound convincingly remote, with gunfire over your shoulder oppressively close.

Even during the heaviest, most intensely layered action scenes, such as Civil War’s battle for Washington, The Rip’s garage barrage and Deepwater Horizon’s catastrophic failure, the system remains composed and dialogue emerges cleanly. This is a strong option if you’re someone who regularly complains that you can’t hear what people are saying.

Tonal matching between the soundbar and surrounds is spot-on, too, allowing effects to pass between channels smoothly and naturally. For scale, weight and spaciousness at this level, there’s little else that can deliver a blockbuster soundtrack quite so convincingly.

Lots of people will expect their soundbar to also act as their living room music system, and by the standards of the class and price, the Bravia Theatre System 6 performs well here, too.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is crisper, cleaner and more musical overall, but the subwoofer-boosted System 6 is bigger, deeper and weightier. The subwoofer again proves to be surprisingly rhythmic and tonally flexible, and it blends pretty seamlessly with the sound from the bar.

Big dynamic shifts could be dispatched a little more energetically, but this is far from the flat delivery offered by many soundbars, particularly those at this level.

Verdict

Many people will undoubtedly be put off by the Sony Bravia Theatre System 6’s cabling, and that’s a great shame, because this is a supremely capable soundbar system for the money.

This is a huge, deep, room-filling performer, but it combines that scale with control and nuance. Look past the slightly awkward installation, which you will probably only need to do once anyway, and you will see an excellent home cinema option at a bargain price.

SCORES

• Sound 5
• Build 3
• Features 4

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