With all the new pocket friendly televisions hitting the market lately, it’s been good times for budding cinephiles. The one caveat is of course the rather poor sound output from most of these televisions. Sony’s all new HT-S700 RF Home Theater aims to help you upgrade to a high-quality surround sound cinematic experience at a price that won’t pinch your pocket. Does it work well? Let’s find out.
Sony Home Theater HT-S700RF specifications
- 1000W output
- 5.1 channel surround sound
- 18cm (HT-S500RF) and 20 cm (HT-S700R) sub woofer size
- Rear speakers – Tall Boy speakers (HT-S700R) / Book Shelf Speakers (HT-S500RF)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth v4.2, USB x 1, HDMI x 1, Optical-in x 1, Analogue Audio Input x 1
- Metal Punching Grille design
- S-Master Amplifier
- Sony Music Center Mobile Application
Design
The Sony HT-S700RF uses a hybrid design where the front three channels are combined into a single sound bar. That leaves you two rear ‘Tall Boy’ speakers as well as a sub woofer. Getting all the components within a single frame proved to be exceedingly hard, so we’re going to leave you Sony’s product image for that.
So, as we mentioned earlier, the centre, left and right channels are combined into a single, well-built soundbar. The bar is compact and easily fits under most televisions except as it turns out, Sony’s own OLED models that sit nearly flush with the base.
The soundbar is covered in a metal grille that covers the drivers all the way around and has slots for wall mounting it if you want. There’s not much else going on around here, and we really appreciate the understated aesthetic that goes with most decor options.
The rear satellites are tall speakers just under 4-feet high with drivers running all the way along. Both the soundbar and the rear units have fixed wiring making cable management a bit hard. You can’t really get shorter cables to run between the subwoofer and individual speaker units and in all likelihood, you will end up with reams of cables hanging loose.
As you’d have guessed by now, the subwoofer is the principal unit in the system. All the cables and interconnects land up here and this is also where you’ll get all the capacitive control keys. Rated at 240W, the front firing subwoofer continues the punched metal look with a bass port at the bottom. The unit is pretty sleek and looks like a PC tower from the mid-2000s. A small display over at the front lets you know what mode you’re in and current volume levels.
Connectivity options include analogue in, a single HDMI port that connects to the audio return channel on your television, optical in as well as Bluetooth for wireless pairing. The subwoofer also supports tap to pair via NFC which is a nifty feature to have. The remaining ports are used to connect to the speaker units.
Performance
So, how does it sound? We tested out the S700RF with surround sound content from Netflix as well as a Blu-ray copy of Avengers: Infinity War. The speakers were connected to the television over the HDMI ARC channel.
Let’s start with music. Don’t use surround sound speakers for listening to music. No, seriously. Music is stereo two-channel media with a good subwoofer taking over bass duties at max. That said, Sony knows that Indian content preferences are music heavy, and they’ve added said mode to the system. Bollywood content sounds pretty good here though the system simply won’t cut it if you’re planning to listen to jazz, rock or classical music. Again, not the fault of the system. Surround sound systems simply aren’t meant to listen to music.
Movies, on the other hand, are a very enjoyable experience for the most part. Sitting back and watching horror movies like Hereditary gave me the chills as the score soared around. Hearing raindrops fall behind you in an ambient scene really enhances the experience and you don’t realise what you’ve been missing out on till you’ve tried it. My biggest gripe, however, was with front stereo separation or the lack thereof. While the rear channels do a solid job of making audio sound clear and distinct due to the sheer physical separation, the clubbing together of the centre and front left, right channels into a single bar means that the audio simply doesn’t have room to breathe. You can still make out left and right channel audio separately but for the most part, audio projects as a wall of sound instead of enveloping you. With the emphasis on vocals from the centre channel, audio from the side speakers gets pushed down in the soundstage.
Moving on to the subwoofer. It goes pretty damn deep though at the lowest frequencies, it sounds like more of a low-end grunt instead of a punch to the chest. Still, pretty damn good for the price and quite competitive too.
Conclusion
Priced at Rs. 39,990 (MRP), the Sony HT-S700RF is a good option if you want a no-nonsense plug and play set up. The focus on aesthetics via the front sound bar makes sure that it’ll fit in your living room and while wireless rear channels would’ve been nice to cut down cable clutter, we’re happy with the compromise given the price.
Enthusiasts willing to put in the time will likely be able to build a superior performing set up but for everyone else, the Sony HT-S700RF genuinely improves the home entertainment experience and is leaps and bounds ahead of the speakers in your television. It is definitely worth considering if you’re looking for an affordable way to improve your movie watching experience. Even though it usually costs Rs. 37,990 (MOP), it is avilable for Rs. 35,990 during Amazon Sale for a limited period.