SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM
How can you get surround sound in the lounge? Two choices, really: either you get the traditional home cinema system of big AV receiver and speakers all over the room, or the more convenient soundbar, a compromise solution that generally fakes the immersive element,
One is too big for many modern lounges; the other is a sonic compromise. But now here’s a third option from Sony: a proper all-round surround system of identical speakers, and each speaker also containing a dedicated height channel firing up, to bounce Atmos content off your ceiling. What’s more, there are no signal cables: everything is wireless. No big receiver required either: Sony’s small control unit does it all. And no centre-channel speaker to accommodate: there are four speakers, plus an optional subwoofer (though we’d suggest it’s not really optional; see below).
Four speakers means real surround, no psychoacoustic virtual trickery required. And identical speakers mean a perfectly balanced soundfield all round. As soon as we saw the HT-A9’s release, we thought — how clever! And how very ‘Sony’.
One box, four speakers
The first thing out of Sony’s all-in-one packaging is the control box (see overleaf), a curved square unit
