Sony HT-CT100 Soundbar

 

It is no surprise that people are paying thousands of dollars for the best viewing experience which can be delivered by a top of the line HDTV. Watching a movie in high quality is a great method of relaxation, but the audio part is also important. TV sets will focus the attention on high quality video, but a full HD movie has a lot of audio potential. If you want to enjoy surround sound while watching a movie, you should consider getting a small, but powerful sound bar: the Sony HT-CT100.

With this particular sound bar, you will only get one piece of equipment and you will enjoy sound coming from all directions.

This type of unit has been around for some years now, but recent advancements in technology have increased the sound quality of sound bars dramatically. The Sony HT-CT100 is a small and affordable system; it only costs $299 and you might find it at a lower price if you get lucky.

Setting up the Sony HT-CT100
There are three HDMI inputs, one COAX connection and one audio input. This is more than enough for anyone who is planning on watching movies, listening to music or even playing games. The unit is quite small compared to other systems around. The subwoofer is 6.3 inches wide, 19.7 inches tall and 14.2 inches deep. It weighs around 22 pounds and contains a 6.5 inch woofer on its right side. The sound bar is 31.5 inches wide, 2.7 inches tall and 2.6 inches deep. Both of these unites are magnetically shielded. The sound bar contains three drivers which measure 1.6 by 2.6 inches. If you want to place it on your wall, you can easily do it because it only weighs 4.4 pounds. The only disadvantage of doing this is the cable which will hang loose. The distance between the sound bar and the subwoofer can’t be longer than 10 feet.

A remote is included in the package. This piece of equipment can control the sound bar, but it can also be used on many other components which are manufactured by Sony, such as TVs or Blu-ray players.

The Sony HT-CT100 contains two units; the sound bar and the subwoofer. You will have to aim your remote control at the sound bar, but the sub woofer is the control center. It has a couple of buttons along its top side. They control the volume, input and power. A small LCD panel can be seen on the subwoofer, but it only shows you the type of audio connection which is in use. The sound bar contains three speakers and it can be connected to the subwoofer through a cable which is included in the package. All the connections are placed on the back of the units, where you will also notice a cooling fan which is extremely quiet.

Sony HT-CT100 Soundbar

 

Features
The Sony HT-CTT100 can send video and audio signals through the HDMI cable with the help of the Sony HDMI Active Intelligence feature. High resolution audio is also available through the LPCM Playback feature. This means that the sound quality won’t disappoint you, no matter what you’re listening to.

An important feature of the HT-CTT100 is that is offers surround sound. This can be done through the Digital Signal Processing technology and most people will be surprised when hearing surround sounds coming from a simple sound bar. Other similar products can offer the illusion of surround sound. In that case, you will only hear noise coming from your left and right side. With the HT-CTT100, you will get a better experience because the system can make sound bounce from the back wall of your room. It won’t be the same as listening to a 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio system, but it will be better than having any other 2.1 channel product.

The Bravia Sync feature is perfect for those who have the right Bravia TV set. You just have to press the play button on your remote and the sound bar and your TV will start working together. The TV set will automatically turn on, detect the sound system and you won’t have to go through the settings or pick up the other remote.

The digital media port is a great interface which offers a lot of connectivity options to this system. You can connect your PC, Bluetooth adapters and many other devices, such as iPods.

Video and sound quality
The Sony HT-CT100 is capable of offering 1080/24p video quality. It can take uncompressed PCM soundtracks, but the unit doesn’t have the power to decode Dobly TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus. This means that your Blu-Ray player has to decode those soundtracks itself and pass them through the Sony HT-CT100, which won’t be a problem for most people.

The audio can reach 250w of power, 100 of them coming from the subwoofer. There are 3 modes which can be used for cinema, sports and game and two modes which you can try when listening to music or personal audio. A great feature of this system is that you can control the volume of the sound bar individually from that of the subwoofer. This feature is sometimes missing from other systems and it can affect the overall sound quality.

Pros and cons
The price is certainly a great reason for buying this system. You will get much more than what you pay for; the system is easy to use, it doesn’t take much space and you will get a high quality product. The remote is easy to use and it responds properly. Even if the Sony HT-CT100 has a lot of inputs and outputs, setting it up is not that difficult and anyone can do it. The design is attractive and the sound bar can easily be mounted on a wall.

As for the disadvantages, there aren’t that many. The remote could have been a universal one instead of one which just controls Sony products and the surround sound is not exceptional, but reasonable for its price.

Conclusion
If you are looking for a high quality sound system, but don’t want to pay thousands of dollars or waste a lot of space, you should definitely buy the Sony HT-CT100. At just $300 dollars, you will get a complete system which can accept connections from most of your equipment pieces. The sound and video quality are above average and there aren’t many things that this system can’t do.

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