Sony HTX8500 2.1ch Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar with Built-in subwoofer, Black

The Sony HT-X8500 is a great choice for a small room.
I bought a Sony OLED TV and a Yamaha 4K Dolby Atmos receiver. Surround sound worked with the cable box but wouldn’t work when streaming. I could not get the TV to pair with the receiver while streaming. My son gave me a Toshiba sound bar and I couldn’t get that sound bar to pair with the TV either. I couldn’t stand the poor sound quality of the TV so I decided to get a Sony sound bar and hope that I could get the TV to pair with the sound bar. I have a small fortune invested in the Yamaha receiver and Bose speakers. I was looking for a sound bar that gave me value for my money so I selected the Sony HT-X8500. I read some good reviews on Amazon. I have a small TV room and the sound quality is excellent. It was very easy to install. In ten minutes I had it hooked up and paired to the TV. The sound bar has the sub woofers built in so there is no need to find a location for a sub woofer. The remote is great. I like the news and voice function when I’m not using the cinema function. The only thing that I didn’t like was that it takes about 15 seconds for the speaker to switch from streaming to cable. If you want a sound bar for a small room you can’t go wrong with the Sony HT- X85OO.

Not surround sound, but better than TV, so 👍
Our both our surround sound theater and our TV have “aged out”, the equipment is fine, but the software cannot upgrade any longer, as the chips are too old and no longer supported by our streaming subscriptions. Therefore neither can work as our streaming source with our TV 😫. Since the industry is “stuck” with the chip shortages yada yada, it is not a good time to be replacing the entire system, so we need to limp along until the industry gets their act together. A new Roku box solved the streaming issue, but it won’t send the sound through to the theater – again, age-compatibility issues – so, we needed something better for sound than the TV sound, which is pretty awful. The “promises” for sound bars is that they produce Surround Sound, without the wires and speakers everywhere, so this seemed a reasonable priced option to test that claim, and to get us by until the new system we plan to purchase is available.This came as expected, easy to install, and works. On installation, it claims that you only need the HDMI it comes with if you have an ARC HDMI on the TV. Ours did not work that way, possibly because the Roku is a separate box. If you have built in streaming on the TV, it may work, but with our configuration, even with the ARC port on the TV, it was necessary to install both the HDMI and the optic cable from the TV and HDMI from the Roku box to the speaker to get the streaming sound to the speaker. Since this only came with 1 HDMI cable, we needed to obtain an additional HDMI and an optic cable to make this work, but this configuration was shown in the instructions, and once we acquired the additional cables, it works as promised.The sound is better than the TV sound, specifically, with the TV, speech was difficult to hear and understand speech at low levels, but when we turned the sound up enough to hear the speech, the background sound was unbearably loud. The sound bar fixed that. We were able to tinker with the sound settings and now we can hear the speech without going deaf from the background sound, Yea!Is it surround sound? No. Not even close. If you are sitting VERY close, it tries, but in a normal living room setting, if you are used to 5-1 or 7-1/2 surround sound, you will be disappointed if you expect the same from this sound bar. I did not really expect that it would, so I am happy with this. It is better than the TV sound, and provides additional control for custom sound settings that the TV alone did not have, so it is a step up, which is a realistic expectation. I would buy this again.

Incredible Sound in a Sleek Design!
The Sony HTX8500 soundbar has completely transformed my home theater experience. The Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatibility deliver an immersive, cinematic sound that fills the room. The built-in subwoofer eliminates the need for additional speakers, yet it still provides deep, punchy bass that truly enhances movies, music, and games.Setup was a breeze, and the compact design fits perfectly under my TV without taking up much space. Despite its size, it packs a powerful punch. Whether it’s action-packed scenes or subtle dialogue, the sound quality is crystal clear and balanced.If you’re looking for an affordable, all-in-one soundbar solution with premium features, the Sony HTX8500 is a fantastic choice. Highly recommend!

Phenomenal sound without separate speakers and sub woofer. Do need to keep the manual nearby to interpret the LED’s on settings, but not a problem.

We bought this to replace our old SONY sound bar that had a separate sub-woofer. Eliminating the sub-woofer gave us more floor space and a cleaner look. The built-in sub-woofer on this sound bar delivers excellent sound for watching TV. Set-up was simple and quick. We also use it to play music from our phones and computers via Bluetooth. We’re very happy with it.