New Sony Surround Sound

A week or so ago, I had written about having problems with our old home theater receiver. We had upgraded our television to 4K HDR but we found that our home theater receiver would not pass through a 4K signal. There were some other little quirks with that older receiver so I opted to purchase a new Sony Surround Sound Bar system. 

I've been using this new Sony system for a few days now so I figured I would write a little about it now. 

The first thing I noticed about this new sound system is it is very simplified compared to the controls of the old home theater receiver. This is good and bad. I'm not going to get into any detail here but being simplified is very much a positive and this part of it was very welcomed. That old home theater receiver made it difficult to tweak the sound because the controls were in the form of menus inside of menus inside of menus with no graphical interface.

The sound quality of this new sound system is quite good. Most noticeably is that the sound is "different" and "clearer", almost "sparky" when compared to my old receiver. Sheila and I have watched a few movies and I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound coming from these movies.  

I even added two wireless Sony speakers to complete the surround sound experience. These are high quality speakers and adding them into the mix made a tremendous difference in the overall sound. They connect to the sound bar wirelessly and they even receive separate 'Left' and 'Right' signals

There are a few different ways to play music over this new Sony system. For the highest quality, it is best to plug in a USB flash drive into the end of the sound bar. This option allows for high quality, high resolution sound. Naturally, you can also stream music through an HDMI device... such as though FireTV or a BluRay/DVD/CD player. I use Pandora on my FireTV so this is very easy to stream this way and the quality is a step up from our old surround sound system. 

You can also connect to a phone or tablet by bluetooth... you can connect to a device within the same network... and there are NFC capabilities. For the highest quality, however, I definitely prefer using the USB port located on the end of the sound bar. Quality takes a significant hit when using any of the wireless options.

For those who are unfamiliar with high resolution sound, this quality of sound files is at a level far above that coming from a music CD and it is really silly to compare it to a mere mp3 file. High resolution sound is on par with old vinyl records. 

In order, best to worst for sound quality... high res audio files (and old vinyl records)----> music CD's----> most of the mp3's people play today. The difference in sound quality between each of these levels is staggering!

I played some mp3's for Sheila... and, worse yet, we played these mp3's over a Bluetooth connection (quality is lost when going wireless)... then I played some high resolution music files... She noticed the difference immediately. 

When compared to high res files, the mp3's that are so common today sound as though they are being played on a player that is being smothered by a heavy blanket. The mp3's are kind of dull and fuzzy and sort of muffled. Conversely, high res audio files sound as though you lifted that heavy blanket off the player resulting in clear, crisp sound and the clarity is sparkling. It seems as though the instruments are right there in the room with you! I have no desire to ever listen to another mp3 file again. 

If you want a better viewing experience at home, you must buy a high quality 4K television. A cheap 4K television won't do. You get what you pay for when it comes to televisions (and with most things in life) and I don't think that anyone would disagree that Sony is among the best. The television, however, is only part of the equation to "a better viewing experience".

For a better viewing experience, you truly need high resolution audio as well. The difference is amazing. 

Additionally, if you are going to upgrade to 4K, you need the streaming capabilities unless you plan to only play BluRay discs. Manufacturers are already producing cameras that record in 6K and 8K. There is talk of 12K resolutions for the near future. The biggest obstacle right now is finding a way to overcome the lack of effective bandwidth for streaming such immense, highly detailed files. To be honest, 4K only streams on cable networks if it is highly compressed and, believe me, there is indeed a noticeable hit in clarity. Our current infrastructure is not even ready for mainstream 4K resolutions nevermind 6K, 8K and 12K. Time will tell what happens with this. 

While we are on the topic of 4K... some television stations are stunningly crisp because they are being recorded in a 4K resolution live. For instance, news stations are crisp... CNN is spectacular. Some television content, especially older programs, have been recorded in lower resolution formats so they will never look as good as one would hope. The same holds true for older movies... they are not so crisp. They still look better on the 4K television than on older HD televisions but they are not nearly up to current standards.

On the other hand, if I stream movies from Amazon Prime on my FireTV, the clarity is stunning whether it is an HD movie or UHD movie (4K). Amazon, apparently, does not choke the bandwidth. Conversely, Netflix on the same FireTV device isn't nearly as crisp as Amazon Prime even with their so-called higher tier 4K account (which I do have). So, bandwidth and compression play a tremendous role in the quality of what you see on your new television. The 4K television will always look better than an HD television but how much better is dependent upon bandwidth, compression and the broadcast quality of what is being transmitted.

If you are playing up-converted HD movies on a good quality DVD/BluRay player, it will look great on a 4K television. If you are playing a BluRay disc of a newer movie recorded in HD or UHD, it should also look great. There are no bandwidth or compression concerns here.

This talk of compression and bandwidth also reminds me to mention that all HDMI cables and RJ45 network cables are not the same. I had to swap out all of my HDMI cables for Premium High Speed cables capable of 4K HDR bandwidth. And, my old Cat 5 RJ45 network cables needed to be upgraded to Cat 7. (I had already upgraded my router to a Gigabit Router so we are set there...  for now.) Older cables that can't carry the necessary bandwidth will choke and limit your quality.

All that being said, we are extremely happy with the quality of our Sony 4K television with our new Sony high resolution sound bar!

Now I just need to find a good, reliable source of high resolution music...

To be honest, I feel that when we watch video in crisp, colorful 4K detail, we are actually viewing a scene on a television showing much more detail than we can actually see in real life. The clarity is definitely better than I have ever been able to see in real life! Adding high resolution audio into this mix makes for realism we have never before experienced with a television.