Sony HT-S400 Soundbar Review: Great bass and great value!

Meet Sony’s HT-S400 soundbar, which promises a great sound experience at a relatively low price of ₹21,990. On paper, It seems like a good deal, especially if you’ve spent a fair amount on that new TV, and don’t exactly have a lakh to spend on a surround sound setup. But just how good does it sound, and is this the right fit for your home theatre system?

Design

So, the HT-S400 unit is made up of the soundbar, and an accompanying subwoofer. The soundbar is a simple black design that’s mostly made of plastic. There is a metal grille that wraps around the sides as well. There’s a row of touch-sensitive buttons on the top, which can switch between Bluetooth and TV modes and control volume and power. On the front you get a simple OLED display which can display status information.

The subwoofer is a similarly simple-looking unit that’s made out of wood and plastic. It’s entirely black, and has a sound port on the front, and a metal grille protects the speaker above it.

The design is simple, but classy. It won’t call attention to itself and will blend in quite nicely in your room’s entertainment setup. Build quality is also sturdy and solid on both the bar and the sub. 

Dimensions wise, the soundbar is around 35.5-inches wide, which means that it should fit reasonably well under most large TVs. The subwoofer is 15 inches tall and 15 inches in depth, so it should be easy to fit also.

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Utility

One thing to note about the S400 is that the subwoofer is wireless, so there’s no wire connecting the two units. The setup process is completely seamless - when you power up both units, the soundbar and subwoofer will immediately find each other and work as one. There is no pairing process whatsoever, which is extremely convenient. If you have a Sony Bravia TV, the entire soundbar unit will also connect wirelessly with your TV using Bluetooth, making this a really clutter-free setup.

For inputs, the soundbar accepts HDMI ARC, Optical Audio In, and Bluetooth 5.0. Basically, you should be able to connect it with any reasonably modern TV without any issues, and your smartphones or laptops for music playback as well. 

The HT-S400 does support the Dolby Digital surround sound format through ARC or Audio Return Channel. It has to downmix the content into a stereo channel anyway, which has middling results, but I'll talk more about that in the performance section. Also, the S400 does not support lossless formats for surround sound like Dolby Atmos.

There is a USB-A port at the back, but it’s used only for software updates, and you can’t plug in a flash drive and play songs off that.

You do get an optical audio cable in the box, but no HDMI cable, which I would have liked to see, though most people will have a spare one lying around. Also, if you want to wall-mount this product, do note that while it does have holes for screws at the back, you will have to purchase the screws separately.

Sony also packs in a remote, which is pretty small and has a rounded back to help you hold it easily. There are buttons for power & switching input, volume control, and for fine-tuning the amount of bass in the sound. There are also specific buttons for the Sound Field and Voice features, which we’ll get to in a bit, and a Night mode which will tune down extreme volumes so as to not disturb other members of your house.

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Performance

There are two main ways to describe the performance of the HT-S400 soundbar - it’s fun, and it’s great value for money. This is a 2.1 channel speaker, which means that the soundbar is stereo with left and right channels, and then you do of course get bass from the subwoofer.

Let’s talk about music playback quality. The soundbar has balanced mids, which offer clear and detailed vocals and lead instruments. The bass is fantastic - I found it to be really punchy and super tight with the kicks and snares in drums, or even drops and basslines in EDM.

For movies, the great bass from the subwoofer really helps with sound effects in Hollywood blockbusters, like engines or guns or magic effects - they all sound fantastic. The excellent clarity in the upper range also helps with the effects. If you’re watching a movie which has really low-mixed dialogue, like anything directed by Christopher Nolan, the soundbar has a specific Voice mode which will boost human voices to help make them more audible. 

Also this soundbar gets really loud. It puts out a combined 330W of sound, which is a powerful punch, and you can really feel it. It filled up my reasonably sized room at about 50% volume, and at higher volumes it has enough sound to fill out just about any room. Audio quality remains clean with no distortion even when you crank up the volume.

There’s also an S-Force Pro virtual surround feature, which will simulate a surround sound feel with stereo speakers. This has mixed results. It’s not the same as a fully immersive 5.1 setup, of course, but it can add to the soundstage and make movies sound better. It does make music sound a little tinny and hollow, so I preferred to turn it off for that purpose. 

Verdict

Sony’s HT-S400 Soundbar is great value for money. It sounds really fun, has great clarity even at high volumes, and has extremely punchy and booming bass. And while it may not deliver immersive surround sound, it does manage to offer an incredible upgrade over TV speakers for both music and movies.