- Sony’s new sound beams get us prices, though no release date
- Sony Theater Bar 6: $ 649 | Sony Theater System 6: $ 769
- Continuing a tendency to pricing higher than competition
Sony recently revealed the US awards on its new TV-Line-Up, and the award of its new OLED TV is far higher than the competition and that is, despite the same TV that is right in line with the competition in England.
It looks like the same pattern is also happening with its new sound beams. We do not have British pricing yet, but the US pricing is pretty high of budget-to-mid-series sound beam standards.
The new Sony Bravia Theater Bar 6, which is a 3.2.1-channel Dolby Atmos Soundbar with Furtle Speakers and a Separate Wireless Subwoofer, costs $ 649. Sony Bravia Theater System 6 is a 5.1-channel surround system with sound beam, two rear speakers $ 769.
Don’t get these two models confused despite the very similar names – the latter does not include abusive drivers, even if it supports Dolby Atmos decoding. Both audio beams support DTS: X too.
Sony’s new theater rear 8 wireless rear speakers that can be added to sound beams (including the Bravia Theater Bar 6, but also like the Sony Theater Bar 8) costs $ 449 for the couple.
There is a lot of power and scale to the sound of these speakers-theater system 6 is 1000W-but they are not very high-speck, and these seem to follow Sony’s tendency to price its TVs and sound beams a little high in the United States.
The Sony Theater Bar 6 is a replacement for the Sony HT-G700, a model that costs $ 599 when it was launched by 2020. To the replacement of adding inventing speakers and costing only $ 50, as inflation has collected over 20% since in the US, it means the price increase is not too bad in a vacuum.
But the question here is really how much higher the American price is likely to be than the British award. We haven’t yet, but the British Launch Price of HT-G700 was £ 449-there was equal to $ 560 at that time and that price included Revenue tax. The street price in the UK also tends to fall more regularly on Sony Soundbars.
As I referred to above, we see the same kind of story with Sony Bravia 8 II TV, which is the company’s new top-tier OLED TV, and is much higher in the US than the UK.
In the UK, Bravia 8 II is priced very slightly higher, but basically in line with its competitor, the LG G5, of 55 inches – and is cheaper than G5 of 65 inches. In the US, however, Bravia 8 II costs $ 600 to $ 1,100 more than the LG G5 or Samsung S95F, depending on size.
Are tariffs blame?
There is a question of whether Sony has priced these with the expectation of having to include customs costs – but the company has not confirmed this and there is no real reason to believe it, except that prices are so out of line with the competition.
But as I said above, Sony has a frustrating habit to do this in the United States, and the sound beam prices fit right into what we have seen from the company in the past.
Will the sound beams be worth the price anyway? I’ve heard them both in action, and the Bravia Theater System 6 (The Surround One) offers a very impressive scale of sound, plus a good party trick (literally) that I think Sonos should steal.
The theater bar 6 is also impressive punchy, although in my demo I was worried that it was a bit compressed in the middle area. We will have to wait for a full review to be sure, but with the Samsung HW-Q800D, which has a street price very close to the theater beam 6, I suppose Sony can be angular out of the better-specified Samsung.
I would see Sony come out and swing with aggressive prices for these bars and really take our list of the best sound beams by storm – the competition is good for everyone. These prices just seem a little too high – but we’re waiting for our reviews for final judgment.
