Sony HT-S2000 soundbar review: Boombastic sound

Sony HT-S2000 soundbar review (as reviewed): Rs 42,990

Sound formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Virtual: X, AAC, SBC | Video support: 4K HDR/Dolby Vision passthrough | Wired connection: One HDMI eARC/ARC, one HDMI input, one digital optical input, one 3.5mm auxiliary input, one 3.5mm stereo input, one USB input | Wireless connection: Bluetooth 5.2 | Speakers/drivers: Two tweeters, two midrange woofers, two built-in subwoofers, two passive radiators | Height x Width x Depth: 2.63 x 31.5 x 5 inches | Weight: 3.76 kg

How I tested the Sony HT-S2000 soundbar?

I hooked up the Sony HT-S2000 soundbar to multiple TVs across the house—the living room, my parent’s room and my own—and watched a range of TV shows and streamed movies to feel the immersive sound. I wanted to test the soundbar’s features and audio capabilities in different room sizes—whether it works best in a small room or a large one where your family and friends catch a movie together.

A major caveat is the lack of built-in Wi-Fi as well as a microphone. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Design and build

The HT-S2000 borrows the same sleek design of other Sony-made soundbars, but in a smaller frame with rectangular corners and a metallic grille that wraps around those corners. Even though the HT-S2000 isn’t a top-of-the-line soundbar, it still has premium looks. The controls are minimal. You have got five touch-enabled buttons on the top of the speaker for pause, play, volume controls, Bluetooth, and change inputs. A small display on the front grille shows what input it’s playing (HDMI 1, TV or Bluetooth).

The soundbar doesn’t have a microphone button—it isn’t voice-compatible, so there’s no Alexa or Google Assistant integration. On the back, you’ve got a power outlet but no ethernet port. Yes, it does have HDMI-ARC/eARC, optical, and a USB port for local music playback but those optical and HDMI ports can’t be used for different devices as they are limited for TV audio.

In terms of wireless connectivity, you can connect via Bluetooth but I was surprised to see the lack of support for Wi-Fi. The soundbar doesn’t support AirPlay 2 and Chromecast, as well as Spotify Connect. Thankfully, it supports pretty much every home theatre audio codec, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The soundbar comes with a remote control, power cable, HDMI cable, and a wall-mount template (yes, it can be wall mounted).

The Sony-made soundbar blows away in terms of depth and soundstage. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Setup and ease of use

I set up the HT-S2000 soundbar all by myself without looking at the manual or asking for help from Sony. I connected the soundbar to my 55-inch Xiaomi 4K TV. It was easy. I plugged the soundbar into power, then into your TV with a HDMI cable. I then downloaded the Sony app from the Apple App Store on my iPhone, and permitted it to find the soundbar. Once it did, the soundbar was connected.

With the app, you can control the bass level, toggle the volume up or down, and change settings. The soundbar does work with an infrared remote, so I was able to control the volume with the bundled remote.

Although the HT-S2000 will be good enough to get surround sound effects, the soundbar is compatible with Sony’s SA-RS3S wireless rear speakers as well as the 200-watt SA-SW3 subwoofers. Sony was generous to send the add-on speakers for testing, but the complete surround system won’t come cheap. Agreed, more speakers are always better to make a high-performance, surround-sound system. But I don’t recommend everyone to spend an additional Rs 65,980 unless you have a big space and want a home-theatre-like experience.

There are touch-sensitive buttons at the top. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Sound

The audio has depth, scale, and weight as soon as you watch a movie or play a game. I saw Bhediya and was blown away. I have seen the movie previously, but when I watched it during the weekend, it was a completely different experience. The voice stayed crisp and every scene felt like you were in a theatre.

The dual-subwoofer delivers deep bass, something TV’s built-in speakers don’t deliver. It just shows that having a soundbar uplifts the sound when you’re watching movies like Bhediya or The Dark Knight. Sony packs in a lot of engineering into this compact soundbar to make it sound so go. I was impressed with the voice clarity and I could hear dialogues precisely that I never needed to turn on the captions.

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Should you buy the Sony HT-S2000 soundbar?

The Sony HT-S2000 is ideal to use with a TV in a living room, smaller room or perhaps the bedroom. It offers clear and crisp dialogue, balanced surround sound, and nice bass. Honestly, I didn’t know a sound bar would be the perfect middle ground between a full-blown surround sound system and my TV’s terrible audio.