Sony HT-X8500 2.1 ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar for TV with built-in subwoofer

AC Adapter was not included it was totally waste of time…how soundbar can be use without this power supply ? 😔

I received a damaged piece so returned it immediately

Having just come from a sonos beam I expected this to sound worse, it didn't! Firstly, why did I get rid of the beam you may ask? Fabric speaker cover (not good with a 4yr old in the house), lack of Bluetooth and fairly direct and tight sound stage. It was great but really is designed to be incorporated in to the sonos ecosystem to thrive. On to the Sony. Firstly, reviews complaining of muddy dialogue are being very picky. They are muddled if you use Bluetooth, but via eArc they are excellent. On regular TV shows they are spot on, in movies they cut through well. Nothing to worry about there imo. Ours is connected to a Sony TV so I'm guessing that helps too. Moving in to the cinematic feel. This is where this little bar shines. It produces a much broader sound stage than it should, it's shocking really. I have a very expensive Samsung 5.1 soundbar setup in our games room and this sony doesn't punch way way lower. It's less complicated in its output and less nuanced, but for a living room tv I think it delivers exactly what you want. Broad, spacious, weighty (without being overwhelming), and relatively 3d. I have yet to hear a true atmos track through it, but the vertical sound processing is pretty good. Not surround sound whatsoever, but more like an imax screen of sound if that makes sense? It comes up and over and side to side a touch. It does a great service to music too, the music button giving a great curve to the sound model, with crisp highs and a full base. The Bluetooth feature may be slightly outdated compared to WiFi streaming like sonos, but it's a really practical option to have. If you have friends round they can connect and play their music for example. It looks great and it fulfills a need of ours if being tough, as it has a metal grille. This may hamper the sound a bit but it keeps it safe to some extent from jammy fingers. Unlike the sonos which picked up anything that wafted by. The downside, of which is well reported is the horrible LED interface. To confirm selection of modes it goes through a crazy combination display of this light and that light etc etc. Impossible to remember and impossible to decide just by looking at it (bar a few things like input selection). It's placement isn't an issue to me, I've seen people complain that being on the top you can't see it, but what it's trying to achieve is madness. A 2 character lcd would have been 1000x better and would be just about the only thing I would change. I think they figured it looked minimal and slick, which it does, but without any app interface available it means deep diving in to the options is a test of memory and code deciphering. Thankfully I find I onky need two modes (cinema and music) and a single press on the remote does the job. In conclusion, it's a great sounding and looking bar, with plenty of merit for TV, cinema and music but with the worst interface imaginable.

I bought a Sony tv in April, the picture quality is excellent and to be fair, the sound is ok. I wasn't expecting it to be good at all but it was average and definitely better than I had expected for a flat screen tv. I watched a lot of scifi series and movies on the tv and although the sound was tolerable you could hear that something was missing. I decided to go for a soundbar and spent a lot of time reading reviews and watching youtube videos. I was keen to get one with dedicated subwoofers as it was the bass which I knew was missing from my tv and there are other soundbars around the same price or cheaper which do not have subwoofers and I was concerned the sound reproduction would be comparable to my tv. Despite a few negative reviews for this product I decided to go for it as Sony has never let me down before. Words cannot express how pleased I am. The sound quality coming out of this soundbar is superb. You hear everything clearly and perfectly and it all sounds natural. I deliberately left it a month before I wrote a review so I could thoroughly test it. have watch Lord of the Rings on it, Band of Brothers and many other tv series and films with helicopters, cars, planes, explosions and whatever else you can think of. It is fantastic and to be honest I couldn't do without it now that I have got used to it. The bar was set high because I have got a £2000 Bose system downstairs which is out of this world so I was used to a certain quality of sound and expected things to sound a certain way on the tv series I watch regularly. Despite the specs and advertising, I wouldn't be under any illusions that this offers any kind of surround sound. This is just a very very good stereo soundbar which will play dolby atmos encoded audio streams and is perfect for bedrooms. For what it offers I think it is superb for the price (£250) and I would happily have paid around £400 if I knew it was going to be this good. I can't recommend it enough.

Bought this to use with a relocated / repurposed 55" LCD HD TV that was previously in a room with a 5.1 surround sound system. I knew that TV would sound pants once it was out of that room and having to rely on its own onboard speakers so I thought 'get a decent sound bar on it'. But... I also didn't have the floor space in its new location for a supporting subwoofer on the floor... so this all-in-one solution made sense. And of course, buying it on here means I bought it without listening to it and entirely on spec. If it was 'pony trap', it would be going right back in its box and on a trip back to Amazon (I love you guys for that). Four immediate observations after setting it up (actually very easy) and in my case, hanging it on the wall under the now-wall mounted telly (forget the supplied folded-sheet-of-paper template... just do it with a tape measure and a level). Firstly, it's a considerably better sound than the TV's onboard speakers. Not a hard job though. Second, it's slender 'no-subwoofer-but-not-wooferless' design means its low end is effective - in the same way that some of these small wireless bluetooth speakers are impressive for their size - but it's not really on par with an average bar and a supporting subwoofer. In comparison to some I've heard, it can sound a little muddy and undefined if worked, especially with music. Third, the 'vertical' sound or the pretend surround sound effect... again, impressive (sort of) but it ain't 'surround sound'. Don't be fooled or sold to on that one. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that some sound sources sound much better (in my humble) with that thing switched off. And lastly... after all that... it felt like it should be at least fifty quid cheaper... mostly because it oddly weighs less than it looks... But on the whole, I like it. It can sound a bit 'ghetto blastery' sometimes when worked hard on loud action movies but really nice when doing general speech & soundtrack. It's a really neat design, has some nice functionality (particularly with Bluetooth connectivity and NFC). The touch sensitive buttons - while won't be to everyone's liking - do respond well. And the supplied remote is well ordered. It's also surprisingly not festooned with 'Sony' logos all over it so it will look pretty neutral with any brand of TV. Hard not to recommend, if you really don't want or can't have a sub on the floor... but if you can... have a sub on the floor.

I had a 5.1 surround set up for many years. It didn't get continual usage, but I always really appreciated the sound quality and how it added to my immersion. I'd seen soundbars and read about them but I really couldn't see how a single speaker could come close to the experience of a full sound system. Of late, my old system had started to develop many faults. I'd had it a long time, it didn't support a lot of the newer sound formats, and I also got annoyed by the wires and found it really hard to get a good placement for the speakers in my new home. I decided to give this a try. What with the lock-down, I have plenty of time to watch movies, so it seemed the right time. I wasn't expecting much, but I was really blown away by the quality. The surround effect is so convincing and so strong that it's hard to believe at times that I don't have speakers all around me. I also thought that it would only work with one device (because of the one HDMI input) but anything connected to my television also comes out through the soundbar. The HDMI through is only so you don't lose out on an HDMI input on your television. The soundbar also looks great. It has a very sleek and minimal design. The accompanying remote controls is easy to use and gives you plenty of options for different situations and different media. I hardly ever review products I've bought online, but I had to share what an amazing product this is and how much enjoyment I've got from it. Sitting down to watch a movie feels like a real experience now, more than even with my old system.

I thought that I would try a soundbar and see if it offered any benefit. It does give an immersive effect when viewing Film - quite impressive. The bass response is, in my view, good. Bluetooth is good and stable - music sounds good. The infra-red transmitter to the rear is a very useful feature. It is well built. It is a little churlish not to include an HDMI cable? It is of pleasing design - solidly built. I chose a Sony so that it would fully integrate with my 2022 Bravia TV. This soundbar does not register as an "Audio System" on my set, and so has limited on screen control - none beyond volume. Given the complicated nature of the light codes on this item, the many options, and the lack of a frontal display, it is difficult to know what is on or off at any given time. This was of concern. I did not want to have to use yet another remote-control. Check compatibility before purchase. The provision of many options is, I guess, a positive, but it is a trade-off with simplicity of operation. There are other minor issues that can mostly be solved with some effort' changing cables, and reference to the manual. The deal-breaker for me is the sound. I spent some time comparing it to the Television and a digital connection to my HiFi. I found both of these to be "better" and in particular, the sound of dialogue was clearer. I had expected better in this regard. I am returning the item for the specific reasons mentioned.