X

Sony HT-ST5000 sound bar joins the Atmos party at CES 2017

The Sony HT-ST500 is the company's debut Atmos sound bar which also includes three HDMI inputs and Google Cast.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury
sony-ht-st5000.jpg
Sony

With the introduction of the Yamaha YSP-5600, the world got its first glimpse at what a Dolby Atmos-capable sound bar would look and sound like. It's an impressive piece of kit, but it has its issues -- it's huge, it's expensive, it doesn't have a sub (in the US at least) and it doesn't do surround.

Along comes the Sony HT-ST5000 at CES 2017, the company's first Atmos sound bar. Given the 12-month wait, can it fix the problems of the Yamaha?

The HT-ST5000 claims to be a 7.1.2-channel sound bar, but it lacks surround speakers, so that's it's first ding. However, it does boast a lot of drivers -- 12 in all -- and it does have that all-important wireless subwoofer.

All the cool new gadgets at CES 2017

See all photos

It comes with three HDMI inputs -- which have 4K HDR support -- in addition to an HDMI ARC output, a USB input, Bluetooth, as well as digital optical and analog connections. There's a connection for all your equipment.

Like most connected Sony gear, the HT-ST5000 supports Google Cast for multiroom playback as well as voice control via the Google Home speaker.

Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.