Looking for a soundbase to boost your TV's sound and get to grips with your music needs? Look here, says Mark Craven
The HT-XT3 is a soundbase with a Smart heart. Sony's £450 newbie flaunts Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, app control, multiroom support, screen mirroring and media streaming, while its conservative rivals off er little more than an optical audio socket. And it does all this remembering that sound quality still matters.
As a 2.1 design the HT-XT3 doesn't make any bold claims about virtual surround sound. The driver array mixes a pair of underside 4.5in woofers with coaxial mid/highs on the front fascia. These suspend an 18mm dome tweeter atop a 65mm Magnetic Fluid midrange unit. Total power is rated at 350W, with 120W going to the woofers.
Tasked with bringing some sonic fl air to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Sky HD), the HT-XT3 performs admirably and displays healthy dynamism; big audio events sound like big audio events. When a grizzly bear makes a sudden appearance during the opening forest hunt sequence, I almost jumped.
Its low-frequency punch is good. Not trouser-flappingly fantastic, but meaty enough to cherish the bass throbs that modern movie soundtracks are littered with – and nuanced too. The sequence in Godzilla (2014, Blu-ray) where the soldiers encounter the M.U.T.O. by the railway bridge is resplendent with distinctive low grunts and thumps. And with music, it rolls along nicely with the basslines in Mudcrutch's Scare Easy. The HT-XT3 has an inviting, slightly warm tone that will suit most tastes.
A button on the handset offers a subwoofer level adjustment. I found the default a little shy, so nudged it up to maximum. This had the effect of swamping the soundstage entirely. Go too far the other way and bass completely disappears. Be careful.
There are other user tweaks on off er, including preset 'soundfi elds' for Movies, Music, Sports, Game Studio, Standard and Clear Audio+. The latter claims to automatically adjust the sound settings 'for an enriching listening experience' from your music collection. I found any difference between it and the Music preset was negligible – both sounded nicely balanced. The same can't be said of the Sports mode, which attempts to create some stadium ambience by mushing up the soundstage. Weird.
The HT-XT3 has a crisp, high-frequency performance, which makes soundtrack details, such as the cocked hammer of a handgun in Transporter: The Series (Sky HD), stand out. Compared to my flatscreen, the difference is as clear as night and day – even Coronation Street becomes more dramatic.
My main issue with the Sony's audio performance is that its soundstage is rather narrow. It could do with widening out. Tomtom drum rolls shows the limits to its range. W.A.S.P. drummer Frankie Banali's kit sounds small as opposed to the glam rock excess it should be. With movies, this tight soundstage limits the impact of kinetic onscreen action – Transporter's Marseille car chase doesn't feel as broadly staged as it probably should. However, it's still engrossing, with snarling engines thrust forwards.
Connectivity is generous, with a trio of HDMI inputs tethered to an HDMI output (with ARC). Much of the soundbase competition doesn't off er any HDMI switching at all. The specification is 2.0, with passthrough of 4K up to 60Hz. HDCP 2.2 compatibility is off ered on the HDMI 1 input and the output.
The 'base is supplied with an optical cable. All very welcome, but I quickly discovered that to get the slickest user experience from the HT-XT3 you need to hook up via HDMI, as that way you can access the PS-style XMB onscreen display. Go here and you can make the initial Bluetooth activation. Hitting the 'Pairing' button on the remote won't get you anywhere until you've done this.
Many (but not all) of the functions accessible from the onscreen menus are mirrored on the app controller. This proves better in terms of operation than using the standard remote. With the latter, changing inputs is a case of scrolling through the options on the soundbase's tiny front display; the app offers graphical icons and is pretty responsive. On the other hand, simple volume tweaks are quicker on the zapper. I ended up operating the HT-XT3 with a combination of both.
The style options for soundbase speakers are quite limited, and the HT-XT3 is, in essence, a black oblong. Sony adds some glamour with a shiny glass top plate, although this is quite reflective, and will in all likelihood be directly below your TV screen. Build quality seems very good, and the unit is much heavier (10.5kg) than I imagined. Screens up to 65in and 50kg are supported.
Crisp and balanced audio, a barrage of features and an unobtrusive design – Sony's HT-XT3 delivers where it matters. Operation can be complex the more you want to do with it, but that's a minor concern. I like it.
Specifications
DRIVE UNITS: 2 x 4.5in woofers; 2 x coaxial mid/high drivers
AMPLIFICATION: 350W
CONNECTIONS: 3 x HDMI inputs; 1 x HDMI output (ARC); Ethernet; optical digital audio input; USB; 3.5mm analogue audio input
DOLBY TRUEHD/DTS-HD MA: Yes
SEPARATE SUB: No
REMOTE CONTROL: Yes
DIMENSIONS: 750(w) x 83(h) x 358(d)mm
WEIGHT: 10.5kg
FEATURES: Bluetooth 3.0; NFC; built-in Wi-Fi; Google Cast; compatible with Song Pal app; Sony multiroom support; ClearAudio+, Clear Voice, Movie, Music, Night, Sports, Standard modes; S-Master HX digital amplifi er; DSEE HX compressed audio upscaler; 4K passthrough; HDCP 2.2