Surprising home theater new style! "Hathaway" in Sony "HT-A9"

Achieving up to 12ch surround playback with 4 wireless speakers

For home theaters, you can use simple systems such as soundbars, as well as full-fledged systems consisting of single speakers and AV amplifiers. There are various styles up to the system. Full-fledged systems tend to be avoided because it is difficult to install multiple devices (especially rear and ceiling speakers), but sound that supports the latest stereophonic sound called immersive audio such as Dolby Atmos At the bar, there are more models that can add rear speakers as an option. It has always been the case that a full-fledged system using single component components is exaggerated, but an increasing number of people are not satisfied with an easy-to-use sound bar, and are looking for both simplicity and full-fledged stereophonic sound. .

A home theater device for you was born. That is Sony's "HT-A9" (actual sales about 220,000 yen). It is a home theater system that consists of four wireless speakers and a control box. Wireless speakers are now a popular item for easy audio, and there are full-fledged wireless speakers that support Wi-Fi, video distribution services, and high-resolution playback, including small speakers for smartphones.

Of course, even in home theaters, there is a standard "WiSA" that can transmit up to 8ch signals without compression using wireless radio waves in the 5GHz band, and compatible speakers are on sale from several manufacturers. Although it is necessary to connect a power supply to each speaker, there is no need to run wires for each speaker, so the hurdles when installing in a living room are considerably lower. Although it is still a new standard, it seems to be quite promising.

Under such circumstances, Sony developed a unique technology called "360 Spatial Sound Mapping" that reproduces virtual speakers of up to 12 channels with four wireless speakers, and installed it in the system called HT-A9. Since it is a maximum of 12ch, Atmos can play 7.1.4ch configuration. The number of channels for surround playback is also sufficient. Moreover, as a home theater system, it is commercialized as a set of four wireless speakers and a control unit, so there is no need to worry about product selection, and each speaker is already paired at the time of shipment. In other words, it has achieved a simple usability that is OK just by connecting each to a power supply. This is truly groundbreaking new technology. I decided to try it out right away.