HT-CT550W
3.5
5
22
22
The Best Sony Sound Bar yet!
I heard the Sony HT-CT550W in the store the other day and I was amazed. To me, the HTCT550W Sony Sound Bar is a technological marvel. It's a slim 2.1 sound bar that behaves like a 5.1 system. It processes all the latest multichannel sound fields and has a wireless sub woofer that I can move around my room as I please.
Not only does it produce very strong volume and deep bass--the sub woofer really woofs. Also, I was really impressed at how this sound bar produces surround sound from my favorite bluray movies.
I can't believe how much better this system is than my old CT350 Sound Bar ( I thought the CT350 was very good) Well I ended up giving my CT350 to my kids and I kept the HT-CT550W for myself.
September 3, 2011
Just what we wanted
This sound bar was ideal for our needs. It replaced an older sony sound bar that just didn't cut it in our great room.
May 22, 2013
Powerful Sound Bar - Put Subwoofer in Corner!
I replaced my Sony 5.1 Sound System (HTSS360) with this sound bar and love it! I never quite got the rear satellite speakers setup on the old system (I'm no audiophile) so I decided a simpler setup would be better. Didn't want to run the wires. This sound bar doesn't disappoint. I had to experiment with the location of the subwoofer to get the most "thump." Thank you Sony for making this wireless! Made placement a snap. I found the corner of the room gave me the most bass. I like the Bravia Sync feature with the TV and Blu-Ray, but I found the navigating the sound bar's menu annoying...you'd think they could send something up to the TV or have an app to configure instead of clicking around on the little 1 line LED screen, but after I got everything setup the way I thought sounded best I don't think I'll have to go in there again. I'm using both 1.4 and 1.3 HDMI cables and don't notice a difference in the sound from the connected devices. I also like how it has an FM Radio built in, some other sound bars I looked at didn't have that feature. The build quality is great and it feels solid...they ship it well protected too!
May 5, 2013
Sounds ok but
I purchased this unit hoping it would replace a home theater receiver, but found the limitations too great.
I was pairing this with a Sony Bravia TV, using the HDMI interfaces.
I found the HDMI audio to be 1 second delayed with only 1 adjustment option on the amplifier for 'Sync Video'. Setting this option to 1 caused the audio to be 2 seconds out of sync, instead of 1.
When using the HDMI and ARC #Audio Return Channel# feature of the HDMI, this was more prevalent. If I was using the TOS interface, I did not notice the delay problem, but lost the auto switching ability, and have extra cables.
In addition, when using the ARC, almost all the audio options are disabled in the TV, relying on the audio controls of the AV system, which are sub-par in the the CT550W. They're ok, but not great. According to the manual, the system would choose the correct sound field automatically, but all I saw was 'standard', and rarely liked the sound field. #IE: Playing Pandora should be 2Ch Stereo, while Netflix should Probably be movie, but if using ARC, this is not changeable by the user#
Using TOS, the TV provides the options, but disables the auto speaker disable, resulting in a very poor audio echo if the TV speakers were not muted.
February 10, 2013
