It’s perilously easy to lose yourself spending on a home theater sound system. One of the big reasons — they seldom come in one package. Speakers and subwoofers can be expensive tack-ons, and your improved sound quickly gets lost under a mountain of sticker shock. Skip that bad experience: Sony’s BRAVIA Theater Bar 5 is down to a record-low $278 at Amazon, 21% off its $350 list price.
That $278 price is the whole enchilada, because it covers a 3.1-channel soundbar system with a wireless subwoofer included in the box. And while most soundbars at this tier handle dialogue through their left-right drivers and use digital processing to approximate center placement, the Theater Bar 5 has a physical center channel, which is where a significant portion of film audio actually lives: voices, Foley effects, and the specific audio elements dialogue editors spend most of their time on.
Wonder Woofer
The wireless subwoofer uses a 160mm speaker unit, which is large enough to generate bass that registers physically rather than just audibly. Sony’s Vertical Surround Engine handles height information in Dolby Atmos and DTS:X content without up-firing drivers, using signal processing to place sound in vertical space above the listening position. Whether you find virtualized height convincing depends largely on your room and your tolerance for the effect, but the Theater Bar 5 handles it without requiring ceiling speakers or side surrounds. The system also applies Sony’s S-Force Pro processing to widen the apparent stereo field using only the front soundbar, which extends the perceived width of the sound beyond the physical width of the bar.
Setup runs through the BRAVIA Connect app, which walks through placement and configuration and handles firmware updates once the system is on your network. For Sony BRAVIA TV owners, Voice Zoom 3 adds AI-driven dialogue enhancement when the soundbar and TV communicate directly over the BRAVIA connection, pushing voice clarity further than the center channel speaker manages on its own.
Bluetooth Double-Duty
Bluetooth streaming handles music from phones and tablets without requiring the TV to be on, which is the minimum expectation for any soundbar at this price, and Sony meets it without making it complicated. The included remote covers volume, bass level, and sound mode selection for listeners who would rather not pull out their phone for adjustments.
Scoring a 3.1ch Sony system with the wireless subwoofer included for $278 is exceptionally competitive. Most comparable systems at this price ask you to add the subwoofer separately, which quickly pushes the total well north of $350. If you want proper dialogue reproduction and physical bass in the same box at that price, the Theater Bar 5 is one of the few places to find it.
