DENVER — Sony will display a new premium soundbar, its first high-resolution Walkman portable audio player for the U.S. market, and an over-ear headphone pair capable of reproducing the resolution of high-res music files.
Also new will be new ES series A/V receivers, which will be Sony’s first AVRs with HDCP2.2 copy protection on HDMI 2.0 outputs. The new AVRs will also offer more custom-installation features than before. AVR details were unavailable.
The new soundbar is the $999-unilateral HT-ST5, which ships in September to bolster the company’s presence in premium soundbars. It joins the $1,299-unliateral HT-ST7 launched a year ago to push the soundbar line above the then-current top price of $449.
It fetaures HDMI 2.0 inputs and output.
Both soundbars feature nine speakers, a wireless subwoofer, and 7.1 discrete channels. The configuration combines with proprietary S Force Pro Front Surround technology to expand the sound stage horizontally and vertically and deliver discrete surround effects without surround speakers.
The new model is slightly smaller with slightly smaller drivers and 380 watts of total power instead of 450 watts.
Both models feature three HDMI inputs, one HDMI output with audio return channel, two optical inputs, one analog in, Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master decoding, Bluetooth with NFC, and Bluetooth standby, which lets a user open the Bluetooth app on their already paired smartphone, press the soundbar’s name appearing on the device screen, and wake up the soundbar and switch it to Bluetooth input.
