Sony has been expanding its presence in the Indian audio space by launching products across budget and device categories. One of the latest products to come out of Sony’s R&D labs is the Sony HT-S2000 Soundbar. Priced around ₹50,000 (₹42,900 on Amazon at the time of writing), the HT-S2000 soundbar falls into very tricky territory. Clearly, it does not fall into the upper echelons of the soundbar market, as we have seen much pricier and better-sounding systems. It is positioned, in my opinion, to fill the gap between the upper mid-range segment and the budget segment in Sony’s portfolio in India. And when you are operating in this budget and target segment, providing a good mix of performance, features, and a great price-to-performance ratio is a must. The 3.1 channel soundbar showed up at the Digit Test Centre, and I spent some time playing with it as a standalone bar after pairing it with a separate subwoofer and two satellite speakers that Sony had sent over to the Test Centre. Here’s what I found out –
The Sony HT-S2000 soundbar clearly borrows its design elements from its cousins, both above and below in terms of price. It carries a metallic front grill, painted in black, with the rest of the body being made of robust plastic, which does not feel like it would pick up many scratches and scuffs over long-term usage. The feet at the bottom of the soundbar also carry the quality of the rest of the soundbar and prevent any rattling or moving of the bar when it is pegged at max volume.
I will speak about the loudness in detail later, but for now, just know that the bar on its own got pretty loud and, without proper support at the base, would have rattled off the surface it was placed on.
As for the design and overall look of the soundbar, the Sony design language and aesthetic sense carry through here as well. The HT-S2000, in my opinion, would fit well in most of the interiors. The monochrome look of the bar, with branding only making a subtle appearance on the top part of the casing and the I/O ports being tucked at the back, allowing the cables to be routed around the back of the bar, increases its versatility in terms of just pure aesthetics.
If you are someone who would want to mount the bar on a wall, there are two keyholes provided by the brand with a set of support pegs, ensuring that you don’t need to go through much hassle. The support around the holes is also enough to assure that the HT-S2000 wouldn’t free itself of the clutches of the screws holding it in place.
Note - Sony had sent the Sony SA-SW3 subwoofer and the Sony SA-RS3S wireless satellite speakers to the Digit Test Centre along with the HT-S2000 soundbar. The same were used by the author during his time with the soundbar.
In terms of features, the Sony HT-S2000 brings to the table all the essentials that one would expect and need from a soundbar that they are spending half a lakh on. The first ones which I put to the test were the Vertical Surround Engine and S-Force Pro Front surround, which are supposed to mimic the presence of a vertical channel and channels on the side of the sound source, respectively. When using the soundbar in isolation, without the additional satellite speakers and subwoofer, the technology did register its presence. It is not as mind-blowing as the 360-degree surround sound that kicks in once you hook in the satellite speakers as well. However, for what it is, the feature works well.
Sony has also added their DSE Engine (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) and a newly developed mixer. Me and my fellow audio reviewer, Dhriti Datta has already written about our thoughts on DSEE on Sony’s TWS earbuds. The bottom line is it works as expected for the most part. And same is the case with the soundbar as well! It won’t take your regular, low-bit rate mp3 files and convert them into high-quality FLAC files on the fly. However, the upscaling is done well in most cases. As for the new mixer, in the words of Sony, with this, “...you can experience three-dimensional surround sound not only with surround sound format content but also with stereo content, like streaming video or music services.”
Now, audio tracks, standalone or paired with video, if mastered for surround playback, will be hands down better than the ones output by the new mixer. However, as it is with DSEE, the mixing works well, and the mimicking of a true 360-degree sound setup will be on point for the most part.
Coming to the I/O options, the HT-S2000 soundbar comes packed with just the right number of I/O options. These include - Bluetooth, HDMI, and Optical input. While I believe an added 3.5 mm AUX port would have been a cherry on top. However, given that almost everyone buying the soundbar will be hooking it up to a home entertainment system with a TV at its centre, these options should be enough.
The remote is nothing out of the ordinary and gets the job done just right! It comes with the regular control cluster along with some special hotkeys like the one you can use to toggle surround sound on and off. Sony recommends that you should turn off their “Sound field” feature (surround sound in simpler terms) when you are listening to stereo music. And I’d agree with that!
Also Read - Sony HT-A3000 Soundbar - A recipe for success
Coming to the most important part of this article which is the performance analysis of the Sony HT-S2000 soundbar. When consuming regular OTT content in formats that don’t demand much from the soundbar, it holds up pretty well. If you are someone who is into music that is very vocal heavy, listens to podcasts, or watches a LOT of movies, then you are in luck with this soundbar. The dedicated central channel of the bar does a great job at keeping the clear and crisp.
Now, this is where I have my one and only gripe with the bar. Before I say anything else, the following opinion is based on the out of box experience, without any tuning done in the Home Entertainment Connect app, which yields different results. The soundbar out of the box lacked the thump and presence of low bass frequencies, which are an essential part of action scenes in most forms of video content. I use the Top Gun: Maverick | Last Mission Sequence as a constant to gauge the presence of low bass sound from the roaring engines of the aircraft shown in the film. When watching that scene with this bar hooked to my TV, I felt a bit disconnected from the sequence. I couldn’t feel the thrill from the rumbling of the jet engines firing away.
When I pumped up the bass in the app, the story was different. The missing bass came out, and across the board, even when I played other similar sequences with sounds that make use of the subwoofers packed in the bar, I was fairly impressed. However, I would still recommend you connect a subwoofer, if not the satellite speakers, to the bar to make the most of the bar.
Being the gamers that we are here at Digit, I fired up F1 23 to put the gaming performance of the bar to the test. The latency was minimal, and with the rear satellite speakers along with the dedicated subwoofer added in, the feel was amazing! There was nothing to complain about there. And now that we are on the topic of adding the additional speakers and subwoofer to the setup, the surround experience, when I added it in, was something that I did not expect. The positioning of the sources was on point, and the emulation of the additional channels above my head and on the sides was something that I had experienced with the Sony HT-A3000 Soundbar, and I did not expect this one to match up to it!
The Sony HT-S2000 makes for a great purchase if you are in the market with a budget of about ₹50,000. The features are less but well implemented, the remote has all the controls you’d need, the connectivity strength on Bluetooth was great, and the build quality would put the competition to shame. The performance out of the box is somewhat underwhelming, but a few tweaks in the home connect app, or the addition of a dedicated subwoofer will take the experience to a whole new level! One that is hard to be matched by the competitors. But be ready to shell out some extra money, ₹29,990 if you are looking to add the subwoofer to the SA-SW3. And, if you have the funds to spare, I would highly recommend you go for the SA-RS3S satellite speakers for ₹35,990.
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