Sony HTX8500 2.1ch Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar with Built-in subwoofer, Black

10 reviews for Sony HTX8500 2.1ch Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar with Built-in subwoofer, Black

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Harold – June 2, 2020

   
   As a preface to this review, I’ll say that I’ve been working with surround home audio equipment since the earliest days of the first Dolby units for VHS started appearing on the market.Like many people, I’m in a position where I really wanted far better sound than was available through my TV, but not really willing or able to spend half or more than what I had already plunked down for the TV. I settled on a budget of $200-300 for a soundbar and began my research. Since I’m an apartment dweller at this point in my life, I did consider bars with external subwoofers, but focused mostly on those with subwoofers built-in.The HTX8500 is the third soundbar that I’ve purchased for my Sony 950G on this quest (the first two being a Yamaha and a Polk Audio), and so far, the best at doing what I wanted the bar primarily for in the first place, movies.You aren’t going to get true surround out of any stand alone soundbar, but, in the case of the 8500, you CAN get a sonic experience that draws you more into the film without drawing attention to the soundbar itself.The good:Sony has done its homework pretty well on the 8500. As with most stand alone pieces, it does its job best when you are seated nearly directly in front of it, and about eight feet or closer. When watching the Dolby Atmos encoded movie Midway (2019), the soundstage was amazingly large, with it sounding like Japanese aircraft were zipping by your head during the Pearl Harbor sequence. Moving to a DTS feature, I tried Independence Day, a film that had a great surround track even on DVD, and things got even better. Sony’s proprietary vertical sound engine once again was quite impressive. That said, the Yamaha 1080, with its DTS Virtual X did this job as well or better than the 8500, but because of the Yamaha’s poorer ability to bring dialog to the foreground, the 8500 is, in my opinion, the better choice.The not so good:Like most soundbars, the 8500 takes a stab at trying to keep dialog more intelligible through internal processing. It does a decent job of this about 70-75% of the time, which is a far better percentage than either the Polk Audio or Yamaha soundbars that I tried before it.The bad:Sony offers a mere 3 settings for the bass on the 8500, -1, 0, +1, and those aren’t nearly enough. More often than not, I found the 0 setting to be not quite enough, but the +1 setting to be enough to clearly be overwhelming the built-in subwoofers. This was an area where the Yamaha, with a far more adjustable level for its built in subwoofers, to be the better choice – that said, the Sony’s ability to create a nearly as large soundstage and better at dialog enhancement still make it the better choice.The ugly:Although I really don’t plan on using the soundbar for music, I thought it only fair to include it in my review. The 8500, while producing a nice soundstage, is absolutely dreadful in comparison to both the Yamaha and Polk Audio bars. The Yamaha in particular, while naturally lacking in bottom end due to the small size of its subwoofers, actually produced a smooth soundstage fairly close to that of my 25+ year old Infinity towers driven by a Onkyo receiver. If you’re looking for a soundbar that covers both bases, the 8500 is clearly not for you.Positives+ Wide soundstage+ Decent dialog enhancement+ Amazing surround-like effects+ HDR10 and Dolby Vision passthroughNegatives- Limited adjustment for bass levels- Not great at music reproduction- Need to be 8 feet or less away for the best “surround”My quest is still not quite over. I’m going to be trying a Denon model with built-in subwoofers and DTS Virtual X in the very near future, and will be updating this review to take it into consideration as well.Thanks for reading, and happy viewing.

2. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Bryan – November 27, 2022

   
   If you’re going to spend the money on this, I highly recommend just throwing down $1000 for the higher end version. This is okay, but it’s nothing special, and will just make you wish you’d spent more money on something higher end.Music on this sounds totally mindblowingly spectacular, but voices don’t, which is a big problem for an audio device that you’re hooking up to a TV. Whenever a scene comes on that’s mainly sound effects and music, then this thing really shines and impresses me, but when people start talking then it often disappoints. It’s better than my TV’s speakers for sure, but voices are sometimes less muddy (though lower quality overall) on my TV’s speakers. A big problem is that there are only three bass settings, and the bass is what makes the voices muddy, so you either end up having a little too much bass with voices slightly muddy, or too little bass.The controller and integration with a Sony brand TV also leave a lot to be desired. I have a Sony TV, so you’d think there would be some nice integration, but there’s not. For example, when you turn the volume up or down, it doesn’t show the volume on the TV, only on the sound bar. The sound bar’s whole interface leaves a lot to be desired. There are like 5 LEDs that they use to display everything (including volume), which tends to be confusing. You’d think with a Sony TV at least that the TV would display the settings instead, or at least the volume, but no such luck. You’re stuck with the confusing LEDs.The fact that it comes with a remote at all is slightly annoying; the last thing I need is another remote. The controls have a lot of complex options and functionality. There are different options you can cycle through by holding a button down instead of pressing it and vice versa. It has a bunch of presets, stuff that specific to certain kinds of content, all sorts of options. You’d think that would be good, but it often just ends up being confusing and unnecessary. The default options are probably the best (which is probably why they made it the default), and you can spend hours cycling through the other options just to find stuff that isn’t as good as the default. The whole interface and remote are needlessly complex and confusing. I would have actually preferred if you just plugged the sound bar in and there were no options, remote, or confusing LEDs.The vertical surround sound and other surround sound stuff it does is pretty cool when you’re listening to music, but the moment it switches to voices you’re going to wish you’d spent more money for the higher end version. The surround sound does seem to surround when music is playing, but when voices are playing then it often feels like a slightly smaller sound stage than my TV’s built in speakers. The surround sound stuff seems to occasionally slightly distort voices as well, but like the muddy voices it’s often transient. This thing definitely shows off how cool it could be if you’d spent more money.Overall, this might make a nice gift for a friend or family member (or a child) who isn’t an audiophile or who has an old TV, but I’d highly, highly recommend just spending $1000 instead if you’re going to buy a sound bar for yourself. It’s just kinda not worth it at this price point. It does look beautiful though, I’ll give it that, and when music is playing it’s totally spectacular. It is overall better than my TV’s built in speakers, but the occasional muddy or distorted voices bother me.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   VISHAL REDDY – August 14, 2023

   
   Good

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Jesse – July 16, 2023

   
   The sound quality is excellent, and the virtual surround sound is very immersive.I was particularly impressed by the way the soundbar handles movies.The soundbar is also very easy to set up and use. The included remote control is intuitive, and the soundbar can be connected to your TV using HDMI or optical cable.Saw the reviews about voice over music in movies and if you have it set up to the right function there is no issue.Overall, I’m very happy with the Sony HTX8500. It’s a great soundbar for the price, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a starter sound bar that isn’t going to cost too much.The critics need to realize this is a 2.1 and if your looking for something more you will have to pay for it.

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Boston – July 3, 2023

   
   No display is the biggest draw back. Shutting off if tv is on pause for a while.The sound is outstanding. I love it so far. Big sound from a small bar. It’s under my 75” tv. No complaints there. No need for a wider bar.

6. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   André Généreux, +1 – October 3, 2023

   Convivial
   D’une simplicité absolue.Très jolie produit.Bon sons.

7. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jeremy H. – May 9, 2023

   It’s decent for the price on sale
   This has a good look, good form factor, good remote, good audio options, I really like the repeater for other remotes, and the Bluetooth integration. This also excels very heavily on softer music. This is very crisp, with a decent bit of depth.Where this struggles is bass. The bass on this is good for casual watching or even cinematic purposes, but if you’re a heavy metal fan, don’t even bother buying this. It’s extremely muddy and they don’t give you much for customization on the tone.Otherwise this is pretty fantastic.Needless to say, if bass is important to you, get a bar with a standalone subwoofer on the floor.

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Lynn Mader – June 26, 2023

   Great Sound and Quality Bar
   Very satisfied with the sound quality. Sounds great. love the extra base. It is a whole new experience to watch a movie and hear things that you normally wouldn’t.Great value!! LOVE it!

9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Vince – May 6, 2023

   Perfect for my apartment
   Nowadays tv have poor quality sound and this is a great fix. I don’t want LOUD and BASSY as I don’t wanna annoy the whole building and this has just the right amount of bass and good sound quality for a soundbar.EARC feature works great.

10. 

    Rated 3 out of 5

    steve dolishny – September 23, 2022

    not sure which part to blame
    as with most soundbars the lack of center puts voice behind music and sound effects, start up is problematic but I just got a new TCL tv so I’m not sure which item is to blame, when starting up ( only sometimes ) there is no sound , after farting around with inputs and other controls the sound eventually comes on, when its on it sounds good ( no center ) I may be to blame ( don’t know how )P.S. putting a mute control on the side of a remote is asking for trouble ( that’s the TCL not the Sony )