The Sony HT-ST5 offers good looks and performance

If you're looking for an easy way to upgrade the sound on your TV, adding a sound bar is almost a no brainer. It's just a matter of how much you want to spend. Hi, I'm Ty Pendlebury, and the Sony HTST 5 is on the high end of the spectrum with a retail price of 999 dollars. As you'd expect from a high-end soundbar. This is a well-built speaker, with luxurious touches, such as a real metal finish. The SD5 is a 7.1 channel soundbar with a separate wireless sub-woofer. Like most soundbars of it's type, it's a virtual surround bubble and it's not as convincing as models from Yamaha or even Sonar. This is a tall sound bar at almost five inches. And if it blocks your IR port, then this IR repeater on the back will help make sure your TV remote still works. While most sound bars only offer digital optical connections, the Sony also offers three HDMI ports, including one with HDMI ARC. For streaming your TV's audio. The ports are also 4k compatible and will decode Dolby True HD, as well as DTS master audio. Unfortunately, there's no onscreen display and most menu changes are done with the LED on the device, as well as with this tiny Pez dispenser-like remote. The Sony is Blue Tooth compatible,. And you can also control the unit by the song pal app on your smart phone. As far as sound quality is concerned, it's better than most mid level sound bars certainly, but it's not the best we've heard near the price. While it's decent with music, it's best at movies where it's clear voice feature can enhance dialogue and the sub woofer can really dig in. While not an essential piece of kit, the HD-SD5 looks and sounds just as luxurious as its price tag would indicate. This is Ty Pendlebury, CNET.com