Audio Video News

Sony this week announced pricing and availability of two new budget AV receivers and four soundbars, including the high-end HT-ST9 that will list for $1,500 when it hits stores in July.

The HT-ST9 soundbar, which Sony says has been tuned by Sony Pictures engineers, comes with a wireless subwoofer and features 800 watts of power, 7.1-channel playback from seven discrete amplifiers and nine speakers, Dolby TruHD, Bluetooth/NFC connectivity, HDCP 2.2 for playback of copy-righted 4K content, and three HDMI inputs. It also supports hi-res audio playback and Spotify Connect and Sony’s SongPal app for multiroom functionality.

The HT-CT780 and HT-CT380 soundbars will be available in May at $450 and $350, respectively. The HT-NT3 soundbar, featuring Google Cast for wireless playback of music from smartphones, tablets, and laptops and multiroom playback with the SongPal app, will be available in July for $700. All are 2.1-channel models that include a wireless subwoofer and support Bluetooth/NFC connectivity and HDCP 2.2/4K playback (except the HT-CT380).

Due out in May, the STR-DN860 ($500) and STR-DN1060 ($600) 7.2-channel AV receivers are HDCP 2.2 compliant with 4K upscaling and passthrough and support hi-res audio, Google Cast, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay, and the SongPal app. The 7 x 165-watt DN1060 provides six HDMI inputs (two with 4K) and supports Spotify Connect. The 7 x 150-watt DN860 has five HDMI inputs (one with 4K).