Sony HT-SF150 2ch Single Soundbar with Bluetooth and S-Force
Sony HT-SF150 2ch Single Soundbar with Bluetooth and S-Force Front Surround – Black
USB
Plug in via USB to play back your favourite albums.
| Dimensions: | 8.8 x 90 x 6.4 cm; 2.4 Kilograms |
| Model: | HTSF150.CEK |
| Batteries Included: | 2 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Sony |
| Dimensions: | 8.8 x 90 x 6.4 cm; 2.4 Kilograms |
| Origin: | China |
We were having trouble with sound fluctuations on our tv. Our son recommended this soundbar and we have found an enormous difference in our sound quality. It was a good price and good quality.
Unfortunately my smart tv turned out to be not t oo smart it didn’t have the arc hdmi socket or the optical socket available it took me a while to set the unit up plus you don’t supply a hmdi lead
I like everything about this sound bar. The sound is clear and dynamic. Like the connect to mobile feature for playing music too! Great product from a trusted SONY brand.
Super easy to install! I live by a road and so when the TV was on the sound went back so had to have it SO loud to be able to hear. With this the sound os concentrated forward but it doesn’t sound like a cone, it sounds wide and has a nice bass to it. Very happy with the buy!
This product gives superb sound output and clarity for the price. Plenty of bass without need for a sub woofer. My music collection on Spotify played through the sky app sounds great on this product. Even better amazon offered this at 99 with 5 equal interest free payments. I encountered a problem with the soundbar not playing suddenly after researching and trialing a solution I found if I disconnected power supply on TV and soundbar and reconnected first TV after 10 seconds and then the soundbar it resolved the issue. The same sound connectivity problem next day again no sound so disconnected USB and connected via Optical cable to TV instead of USB arc, seems to be working okay now. Watch this space.
Was having trouble hearing dialogue in films on my Sony Tv this sound bar has made it so much easier to hear what they are actually saying
Good value especially when you see what you can pay for other makes
For sometime now our television sound has been terrible, but the picture quality very good. It did not matter what adjustments were made to the sound it was so bad we had to have subtitles on. We wondered whether to buy a new television but it seemed such a waste with a good picture quality. Our soundbar arrived yesterday and what a difference. It was easy to set up. The remote control equally easy to understand and the sound quality brilliant. Very pleased with this purchase and would recommend this Sony Soundbar.
Very easy to connect to my new smart tv. Sound is a vast improvement on the tv.
I am reminded of a childhood experience. Have you ever received a present only to discover that it requires batteries?
Great sound bar, easy to setup, nice quality, nice sound. Don’t have any downsides to report. Maybe if the optical cable was a bit longer, that would have been helpful, but tbh it’s fine as long as sound bar sits in front of tv.
Seen this and thought Sony are a great brand for audio and video so tried it out. Night and day difference. There are all sorts of port for connecting as well as bluetooth which is great. Also included their own controller. Once connected you can use you regular TV controller to control the volume providing its compatible enough.
Only downside is the design for the cables coming out of the soundbar. The cables are forced to sit in a really unnatural way. I’m never sure how products end up with such silly design flaws. All works as should but that could have been designed better for sure
The sound is nice and an improvement on the TV.
I had to go through the optical cable which needed the adaptor I’d thankfully saved since the purchase of the TV.
A good option of sound environments on the handset.
I’m not a electronic buff but recommend this sound bar for tv .
If you want it extra loud , maybe go for speakers , surround sound . But it’s great sound instead of tv sound .
I didn’t here any vibrate when Iv turned it up on music or tv .
Good value
This Sony sound bar provides a good quality sound at cheap price. Easy set up with bluetooth, recommended.
Bought for my son ,reported back to me as very good you will need both cables
I have had no issues whatsoever with this soundbar and the rich quality of the sound is great. Thanks to the HDMI ARC I get super sound from TV, Apple TV, computer and xBox.
Once configured I don’t need to use the remote as my existing remote’s control the sound level fine.
Definitely worth the money for a significant upgrade to your tv speakers.
Budget was an issue and I wasn’t looking to spend a huge amount of money. And a full Surround Sound option wasn’t really an option as I didn’t want more wires threaded around the place.
This Sony sound bar connects to the HDMI ARC input on the TV and channels audio from all connected HDMI devices. If you don’t have an ARC connection, you will need a vanilla HDMI port and Optical Digital Audio, for which a cable is provided.
Audiophiles may criticise the sound quality but I find it much much better than the native TV audio. My only minor gripe is that it lacks a little bass but this isn’t a deal breaker. You will definitely notice the difference when switching between the sound bar and the TV audio. The sound is ‘fatter’.
I’ve not tested Bluetooth music streaming much yet as the connection kept dropping, even when the phone was right next to the sound bar. However this might be down to my 4-year old phone that also has trouble connecting to my car stereo.
All in all though, this is a great entry level sound bar for those on a limited budget.
Pros:
Very easy to setup with a single HDMI ARC connection.
Channels audio from all connected HDMI devices.
Excellent sound quality for a low price.
Looks great. A simple black box with no extraneous frills.
Cons:
Lacks a little bass, which is quite noticeable when playing music over Bluetooth.
Slight delay of 1-2 seconds in getting audio from power on and switching modes.
HDMI cable not supplied.
Specifically the entry level Sony soundbar :-
“Sony HT-SF150 2ch Single Soundbar with Bluetooth and S-Force, Front Surround – Black” [120w]
I didn’t want a separate active subwoofer as its only for my bedroom and I tend to watch movies as I fall asleep so this seemed ideal.
Compared to the previous two I bought this one was lacking in the connection/input side of things (RCA connection) but was far superior when it came to features namely Dolby signals/multiplex audio.
F. Surround sounds good when the soundbar receives a Dolby signal, it has DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) which makes dialog/vocals easier to hear in Dolby enabled movies in the event they sound quiet,
It has a separate vocal mode which works well, movie/music mode for a more punchy bass, The usual standard mode and an auto-select mode, which swaps it around (EQ-Modes) depending on the media you are playing.
Each one is interchangeable and the mode is highlighted by the LED.
For instance press the vocal button once and the led on the bar will light up once, press it again and it will blink twice (one blink = off, two = on)
So on a night I tend to put both nightmode and vocal on, this limits gun shots / explosions but enhances dialog.
ARC works fantastic (TV remote controls volume and standby/power) and the bar remembers your EQ settings/volume after coming out of standby unlike the cheaper bars.
(With the exception of ‘nightmode’ that disables and goes back to normal after bringing the bar out of standby).
When viewing a movie with a Dolby signal the bar can be set to play the front channels (with f.surround) / just the sub channel (both speakers dedicated to bass) or the front and sub channel, when you select the latter it will play the front channel through the left speaker and the sub channel is played through the right speaker, quite clever really. These are enabled with the remote.
Too be honest though I’ve not needed to use that, this may not be a 2.1 speaker and a lot of reviewers say it has no bass but that hasn’t been my experience at all, The reflex bass can be quite punchy especially with action movies (guns explosions) when viewing films from my PC the volume has never been higher than halfway, most of the time it’s a few steps past quarter (and a few steps below when I’m trying to sleep).
Let’s be realistic though it’s never going to be in your face bass rattling windows, vibrating under your feet… (making the neighbors hate you), You are going to need to buy a unit with an active sub for that …. and spend the extra coin to pay for it.
Movie explosions/music sequences can still be heard downstairs a lot of the time during the day (small two bed house)
Finally, in the event you have your speaker in front of your TV and it blocks the sensor, this bar has a iR repeater built into the back, when enabled it picks up your remote commands and duplicates them at the back of the soundbar, sending it to your TV sensor. I’ve not needed to use it even though the bar is in front of my TV my signal still reaches… But a very handy feature in the event you need to use it.
Plus standard features, USB for music/podcast playback, Bluetooth mobile / tablet audio streaming (prob some other odds and ends I’ve forgot to mention)
The only conclusion I can come too (in regards to some of the negative reviews) is a lot of reviewers didn’t read the included instruction book and thought they activated modes when they infact turned them off (one light blink).
I tried both the :-
AZATOM 2.1 180W
TOPVISION 2.1 120W
The latter being in the top ten Amazon rank for soundbars (due to a sly free gift offer)
Both of those offered big claims in regards to performance but they are greatly inferior to this soundbar in more ways then I’ve mentioned here.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this bar is perfect, but for the money it is a lot better than my previous purchases and I’m happy with it overall. (It’s fit for purpose).
I paid 87.97 for this bar and it’s worth every penny, A much better sound presence then the standard downward facing speakers built into my LG-SmartTV.
> July 2021 edit:
This review was originally written with my LG smart TV paired to the Sony bar.
I thought it was only fair to add, I have just linked it to my Philips ambilight smart TV via arc input and the audio is very low compared to the LG and the volume does not display on screen as was the case with the LG setup.
(After playing around with this problem further, I can restore volume levels by going into the TV settings and selecting, Settings|All settings|sound|advanced|delta volume -and moving the slider up, As for the volume being displayed on the screen I’ve still not figured that out)
Just wanted to add this information for full transparency.
I hope this review helps.
Getting straight to the point – this is a great sound bar for the money.
There are lots of mixed reviews from various people depending on their own criteria, but for me this is a real positive addition to the tv plus some.
I bought another brand of soundbar prior to this which had 5 star reviews on amazon but lacked clarity and quality of sound for me so I sent it back and got this for 75 half price at Christmas.
My experience of this sony bar is very good so far. It doesn’t come with a built in sub, nor does it have an output for one unfortunately, which is where it falls down very slightly. The sound is good and clear, lots of volume and controllable through hdmi arc but does lack a little bit of boom. There is good punch though. We listen to music on it as well as films and only a couple of times I’ve though it needs an extra bit of bass.
The remote is good but once set up and in the sound mode you like, you don’t need it as you can control it via the tv remote. It also fits perfectly below my 55″ tv.
For the price I’d highly recommend it to anyone.
For reference, my tv is set approx 5/6ft from my sofa which is square on. Soundbar on top of a tv unit almost in line at head level (slightly below).
Another minor update. So I’ve recently purchased a new TV, since my old LG had unfortunately broke (cracked screen).
That means it is now residing on my wall, directly under my Samsung 55 7500 curved TV. Gone have the soundbar mounting arms, that hanged above my TV. I found my old Sony wall guide, marked the holes and drilled it with my Ryobi impact driver. Still works perfect and is working with no hitches on my 7500 Samsung using the arc function. Smart remote fluidly controls the volume +- and mute and the nifty feature when my TV wakes up the soundbar is not far behind with the ARC function.
So a 2019 small update and this soundbar is still going strong, I wasn’t going to come back and edit this review but the overall thumbs ups persuaded me. I initially payed 150 for this and now the price has dropped to around 81 on Amazon and to me that is a stellar bargain for anyone wanting a simple but effective upgrade to their sound. Straight off the bat this will never be a 5.1 or complete surround sound killer. I’ve recently installed mine above my 43 inch 4K TV with a soundbar vesa mount, keep in mind this needs a mount that allows for wall mountable bolts/screws for the TV VESA Mount and you will be golden. Many mounts come with black little bolts but some strong bolts with nuts can solve this as well.
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I can actually hear my movies! Using this in ARC mode on my 43inch 4K LG tv and it has saved me so much hassle in controlling the volume and not searching for a plethora of boxes. Bluetooth works perfectly so I can listen to my music/audiobook playlist.
The first film I watched when I set this up was Jurassic Park on Blu-Ray and the sound was so much better than my 43 inch 4K TV speakers by miles. You are in that moment, it’s late but you can’t hear anything being said, you turn it up and you go much better; then WHAM, bomb goes off and your heart drops. No more of that with voice/night mode. Plus the games also benefit and too I can hear the actual voices.
Even low sounding films like Dark was the night was vastly improved. I had an old Bose solo tv base and sadly the sound has been lacking for years and one of the worst purchases I made, so I set myself a budget and wanted the bass inside the speaker as I didn’t want a sub woofer on the floor to be kicked around or annoy my neighbours as they make a right racket.
This just fits me perfectly, it will never beat a true surround setup, but it’s easy to use. Simple setup and no long wires for 5.1/7.1 setups.