Upgraded to Sony HT-A5000 and SA-RS5 Surround Speakers

[vishalyadav1984]

My very first post here, requesting some professional advice, please Read.

I used to own the most entry level home theater set up from Sony, HT-RT40 which had a soundbar, a Subwoofer powerful enough to shake my partially open living room which is on the larger side along with those great Tall Boy speakers for surround which you could simply place right next to your couch and enjoy all kinds of content. It recently broke down, was sent to the service centre and could not be repaired so they gave me an exchange offer for HT-S40R, for which I would have had to pay only around 6K but I wanted to upgrade, get an Atmos system, have great surround and what not, so I opted to purchase to HT-5000 and the top end surround speakers SA-RS5 (No Subwoofer for now), which costs around 1,32,000 including soundar and surround speakers (though I got a deal due to the exchange).

I was so excited to start watching Atmos content but I am so disappointed with the performance of both the soundbar as well as the surround speakers (not sure if it's due to the missing Sub-woofer), both the soundbar and surround speakers have upfiring speakers and apparently create phantom speakers in the ceiling for a 360 degree experience. It happens only in their demo, I tried watching some good dolby atmos content from Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ but in vain, the surround is not impressive, infact I feel the RT-40 did a decent enough job, I thought it's gonna blow my mind with it's price point and latest technology. The system is not even 1 week old and I have kept away the surround speakers, don't even feel like keeping them next to my couch while I was anticipating that I am gonna be binging for weeks enjoying my new home theater set up.

The biggest con, in HT-RT40 you could simply change the audio output in settings to PCM and your surround tall boy speakers would become stereo channels and you could get clear voice/music right next to your ears, there is simply no option to do this in SA-RS5 speakers. 90% of the television consumption is watching regular content, without those high packed action movie scenes so the surround speakers are like sitting ducks.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a software upgrade expected from Sony to change these settings for surround speakers? Is my bad experience solely because of the missing sub-woofer? I was planning to buy SA-SW5 in a month or so to complete the set up but now very confused whether to sell what I already have with a little loss than to make it a bigger loss.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, Thanks in advance

 

[efernand1]

My very first post here, requesting some professional advice, please Read.

I used to own the most entry level home theater set up from Sony, HT-RT40 which had a soundbar, a Subwoofer powerful enough to shake my partially open living room which is on the larger side along with those great Tall Boy speakers for surround which you could simply place right next to your couch and enjoy all kinds of content. It recently broke down, was sent to the service centre and could not be repaired so they gave me an exchange offer for HT-S40R, for which I would have had to pay only around 6K but I wanted to upgrade, get an Atmos system, have great surround and what not, so I opted to purchase to HT-5000 and the top end surround speakers SA-RS5 (No Subwoofer for now), which costs around 1,32,000 including soundar and surround speakers (though I got a deal due to the exchange).

I was so excited to start watching Atmos content but I am so disappointed with the performance of both the soundbar as well as the surround speakers (not sure if it's due to the missing Sub-woofer), both the soundbar and surround speakers have upfiring speakers and apparently create phantom speakers in the ceiling for a 360 degree experience. It happens only in their demo, I tried watching some good dolby atmos content from Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ but in vain, the surround is not impressive, infact I feel the RT-40 did a decent enough job, I thought it's gonna blow my mind with it's price point and latest technology. The system is not even 1 week old and I have kept away the surround speakers, don't even feel like keeping them next to my couch while I was anticipating that I am gonna be binging for weeks enjoying my new home theater set up.

The biggest con, in HT-RT40 you could simply change the audio output in settings to PCM and your surround tall boy speakers would become stereo channels and you could get clear voice/music right next to your ears, there is simply no option to do this in SA-RS5 speakers. 90% of the television consumption is watching regular content, without those high packed action movie scenes so the surround speakers are like sitting ducks.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a software upgrade expected from Sony to change these settings for surround speakers? Is my bad experience solely because of the missing sub-woofer? I was planning to buy SA-SW5 in a month or so to complete the set up but now very confused whether to sell what I already have with a little loss than to make it a bigger loss.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, Thanks in advance

Hi,

Welcome to HFV.

I am sure you will find your experience here very enriching and enjoyable.

Make sure to visit the countless posts which is based on direct experience, technical knowledge and honest feedback.

With respect to the challenge you are facing, IMHO a soundbar cannot do justice to a proper 5.1 or 7.1 or Dolby Atmos setup. While I do understand for some, space is limited and hence Soundbar would be the obvious choice, but it has its limitations.

I would suggest to audition various kinds of systems which meet your budget, feature and performance requirements, most importantly it needs to fit in the dedicated space where you use your existing setup.

Once you are convinced of pros and cons of what you auditioned and what you have then you can decide to head for that upgrade in system and sell the existing one locally.

Please dont make any hasty decisions or further purchases until you are convinced! We as Fellow Members (FMs) can advise you, but you being the end user need to take the final decision. What is good for my ears and wallet may be the opposite for you!

Use familiar content of music and movie clips when auditioning so that you can draw a reference when you check different systems and shorten the list of liked systems to arrive at a good informed decsion.

All the best!

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Hi vishal

Iam not familiar with this exact sony system. But I seriously think something is amiss in the setup and the placement. Especially of the wireless surround speakers with regards to their height and distance from your listening position. Ideally the sony manual should mentioned the most optimum placement. Have you checked it in the manual by any chance.

Secondly, there should be some sort of calibration after installing the surround wireless speakers with a supplied microphone to adjust the levels and time delays. Have you done this too.

As regards getting 2 channel music from your surround speakers ( which you were previously enabling by opting for PCM ), do check if you have dolby surround option in the sony. It must be there. Dolby surround brings out the music from all speakers. And if you have an option for Nueral-X, that will also bring out the music from the atmos speakers.

As regards the performance of top firing atmos speakers, the end result will greatly depend on the size, shape and material of your ceiling. As the speakers depend on the ceiling reflections to add their sense of envelopment. So the end result is usually hit and miss.

Despite your initial disappointment, Iam sure that a subwoofer will add greatly to the listening pleasure. A sub is the heart of any HT system, both for movies as well as music. So please dont rule it out at the moment.

Will post further once you have replied. And ideally it will be easier for the others to chip in if you can post a pic of the setup, covering the TV+ sound bar, The wireless surround speakers and your main seating position. Even a rough sketch with distances and importantly heights will also actually suffice. Thanks and all the best.

 

[vishalyadav1984]

Hi vishal

Iam not familiar with this exact sony system. But I seriously think something is amiss in the setup and the placement. Especially of the wireless surround speakers with regards to their height and distance from your listening position. Ideally the sony manual should mentioned the most optimum placement. Have you checked it in the manual by any chance.

Secondly, there should be some sort of calibration after installing the surround wireless speakers with a supplied microphone to adjust the levels and time delays. Have you done this too.

As regards getting 2 channel music from your surround speakers ( which you were previously enabling by opting for PCM ), do check if you have dolby surround option in the sony. It must be there. Dolby surround brings out the music from all speakers. And if you have an option for Nueral-X, that will also bring out the music from the atmos speakers.

As regards the performance of top firing atmos speakers, the end result will greatly depend on the size, shape and material of your ceiling. As the speakers depend on the ceiling reflections to add their sense of envelopment. So the end result is usually hit and miss.

Despite your initial disappointment, Iam sure that a subwoofer will add greatly to the listening pleasure. A sub is the heart of any HT system, both for movies as well as music. So please dont rule it out at the moment.

Will post further once you have replied. And ideally it will be easier for the others to chip in if you can post a pic of the setup, covering the TV+ sound bar, The wireless surround speakers and your main seating position. Even a rough sketch with distances and importantly heights will also actually suffice. Thanks and all the best.

Hey Man,

Thank you so much for taking out time to respond, I really appreciate it.

So here are some images of the set up for you:

Image 1: This is how the soundbar is placed, with a Sony 65' 4K Full Aray LED TV so it should ideally go well with the Sony System


Image 2: This is the ideal placement I prefer of the Surround speakers


Image 3: This is how the ceiling looks like, since you mentioned it was important, it approx 9.5 Ft


Image 4: The complete set up from side, with the surround speakers pretty close to the couch


Image 5: Set up with the surround speakers a little behind the couch



I have tried multiple variations of placement of the rear speakers, and every time I do, I make sure to do the sound field optimization, which is pretty easy with the click of a button, have also adjusted manual settings in the system regarding the distance from the soundbar, placement, etc.

While doing the sound field optimization or listening to the Atmos demo built in, I can clearly hear sounds overhead but unfortunately this is the only time I can. Searched for the best scenes to test atmos, played most of them but nothing, especially this scene from "Sweet Girl" on Netflix which was recommended by someone to test overhead sounds, there is this helicopter hovering over for good 3 minutes in this scene and should be heard overhead but I could simply hear it from the side, exactly as it was in my RT-40 system.

Hope the images help you to assess and give further suggestions.

Once again, Thanks for the help. I posted this on 2-3 forums and you are the only one who bothered to respond.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Hey Man,

Thank you so much for taking out time to respond, I really appreciate it.

So here are some images of the set up for you:

Image 1: This is how the soundbar is placed, with a Sony 65' 4K Full Aray LED TV so it should ideally go well with the Sony System
View attachment 78583

Image 2: This is the ideal placement I prefer of the Surround speakers
View attachment 78584

Image 3: This is how the ceiling looks like, since you mentioned it was important, it approx 9.5 Ft
View attachment 78585

Image 4: The complete set up from side, with the surround speakers pretty close to the couch
View attachment 78586

Image 5: Set up with the surround speakers a little behind the couch
View attachment 78587


I have tried multiple variations of placement of the rear speakers, and every time I do, I make sure to do the sound field optimization, which is pretty easy with the click of a button, have also adjusted manual settings in the system regarding the distance from the soundbar, placement, etc.

While doing the sound field optimization or listening to the Atmos demo built in, I can clearly hear sounds overhead but unfortunately this is the only time I can. Searched for the best scenes to test atmos, played most of them but nothing, especially this scene from "Sweet Girl" on Netflix which was recommended by someone to test overhead sounds, there is this helicopter hovering over for good 3 minutes in this scene and should be heard overhead but I could simply hear it from the side, exactly as it was in my RT-40 system.

Hope the images help you to assess and give further suggestions.

Once again, Thanks for the help. I posted this on 2-3 forums and you are the only one who bothered to respond.

Hi again Vishal

Sorry for my delayed response. Was busy at work all day

The last pic where you placed the speakers further back seems to be the optimum position considering that they are designed as rear speakers and not surround speakers. However, You can please try tweaking it a little by trying the below 2 things :
1) Rotate the speakers such that the tweeters are angled at your ears when you are in the center of the sofa.
2) Increase the height of the speakers so that the tweeter is at ear level. I know this is difficult with the side stands, but you can try temporarily increasing the height by placing some books underneath. Tweeters are directional, and have a narrow horizontal and vertical angle of sound dispersion. so it is important to the get both the height and angle right. Imagine them being torch lights and they have to shoot exactly at your ears. Increasing the height should also increase the effect of the up firing atmos speakers due to reduced distance from the ceiling.
3) Try pulling the sound bar till it is slightly forward of the edge of the wooden cabinet. This will avoid early reflections from the top of the cabinet.

After the above adjustments, there should be an option to manually increase the volume of the rear speakers, play with the volume till you get a seamless transition from sound bar to the rear speakers. And please post back how you are finding things

 

[MaSh]

Hey Man,

Thank you so much for taking out time to respond, I really appreciate it.

So here are some images of the set up for you:

Image 1: This is how the soundbar is placed, with a Sony 65' 4K Full Aray LED TV so it should ideally go well with the Sony System
View attachment 78583

Image 2: This is the ideal placement I prefer of the Surround speakers
View attachment 78584

Image 3: This is how the ceiling looks like, since you mentioned it was important, it approx 9.5 Ft
View attachment 78585

Image 4: The complete set up from side, with the surround speakers pretty close to the couch
View attachment 78586

Image 5: Set up with the surround speakers a little behind the couch
View attachment 78587


I have tried multiple variations of placement of the rear speakers, and every time I do, I make sure to do the sound field optimization, which is pretty easy with the click of a button, have also adjusted manual settings in the system regarding the distance from the soundbar, placement, etc.

While doing the sound field optimization or listening to the Atmos demo built in, I can clearly hear sounds overhead but unfortunately this is the only time I can. Searched for the best scenes to test atmos, played most of them but nothing, especially this scene from "Sweet Girl" on Netflix which was recommended by someone to test overhead sounds, there is this helicopter hovering over for good 3 minutes in this scene and should be heard overhead but I could simply hear it from the side, exactly as it was in my RT-40 system.

Hope the images help you to assess and give further suggestions.

Once again, Thanks for the help. I posted this on 2-3 forums and you are the only one who bothered to respond.

The setup looks great. Rear surrounds slightly behind is fine. Moreover since the built in demo sounds perfect, there is nothing to doubt the system.

How is the tv connected to the soundbar? Hdmi arc? Does the sound bar and tv support eArc? If both support eArc then make sure it's enabled and active. Next the actual movie. I usually validate a system using Mad Max - Fury Road, Top Gun - Maverick, Saving Private Ryan , Life of Pi. There are various scenes in these movies that can check every aspect of a system. Starting scenes of mad Max and top gun , beach fighting scene in saving private Ryan and the storm scene from life of pi are some of my favourite.


MaSh

 

[vishalyadav1984]

Have tried watching numerous content, having rear atmos speakers and expensive ones at that for a one off scene in a one off movie and that too just sounds from the side, no overhead or mostly to just watch the inbuilt Atmos demo to console yourself of the purchase, it is not making sense to me. Unless Sony is planning a firmwave update when the rear speakers could be changed to get voice/music similar to front channels, it is waste for me since that is what 90% of the television consumption is for most people... Damnnnn I was so happy with my RT-40