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Sony's flagship soundbar kicks out room-filling audio

Engadget

CES is filled with Dolby Atmos-spitting audio equipment, but Sony's HT-ST5000 stands out. Sony has improved this model with the ability to scale audio properly no matter what your room size is. Just adjust for the height of the ceiling and where you're sitting (using its onscreen GUI), and it can provide impressive positional audio. The soundbar and wirelessly-connected subwoofer combo pack enough ins and outs (3x HDMI in, 1 HDMI-ARC out, USB-in on the side, plus optical digital and analog audio output) to make it a reasonable receiver surrogate, but support for multi-room with Google Home helps take it to the next level. With control via the "Ok Google" voice command, it can sync up with other speakers in the house, or just control playback in one room. It's always hard to judge audio quality on the CES floor, but the HT-ST5000 filled the demo room and made each effect sound like it was coming from a specific place, including overhead or from behind.