Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #37742 in Home Theater
- Color: Black
- Brand: Sony
- Model: HTCT500
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 14.70" h x
8.30" w x
14.30" l,
4.80 pounds
Features
- 5 HD inputs-3 HDMI with Active Intelligence, 2 component
- Icon-based GUI with video upscaling to 1080p from analog SD sources
- Design match with BRAVIA TVs
- Upconversion to HDMI
- S-AIR ready, multi-room listening with optional S-AIR accessories
Sony HTCT500 3.1 Speaker System with Complete Built-In A/V Receiver (Black)
Product Description
Experience surround sound with fewer speakers and wires. Add in the full functionality and connections of an A/V receiver and bring excitement to movies and video games. Featuring five HD inputs, three of those HDMI connections with Active Intelligence, S-AIR multi-room audio capability, on-screen user interface, set-up, control and connectivity of the home theater has never been easier. Its flat TV centric design allows the sound bar to blend in.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
121 of 123 people found the following review helpful.
By Bearcat
This is one slick little soundbar/subwoofer combination. A significant improvement over the previous offering, the CT100. The sound bar is bigger than that model and feels like it is better constructed. The subwoofer is a solid piece of work as well.Now for the important part, sound quality. The sound quality is much better than the old model and I would say it approaches the quality of the more expensive Yamaha YSP sound bars. You will probably have to do a little tweaking with it to get it set up properly but once you do this baby will shine. Sound is strong from both the soundbar and the subwoofer. The subwoofer is where your connections are located. You can run your dvd/blu ray player and your cable box (among others) to the sub and then the sub will run an HDMI cable to the tv. You can pretty much plug anything into the back of the sub as there are three HDMI inputs, two component inputs and a composite input along with the normal cable tv coax.One thing to keep in mind. This will not surpass the surround quality of a good quality seperate sound system with multiple speakers. But then again most buyers should know that from the start. This is an option for people who don't want speakers all over the place or who have space issues which make a soundbar solution the best option. I rated this item 5 stars in comparison to other soundbar solutions, not compared to a surround system with multiple speakers. While there are some better sounding soundbars they are at least twice as much if not more expensive. For the quality and price this is an excellent soundbar option.
61 of 65 people found the following review helpful.
By Antonio M. Cuevas
As many know, I was a big fan of the CT100. CNET loved it and so did many other reviewers, and others noticed it as well due to its extremely low price that it was the best bang for your buck you could get at the time. That's when critics and users had a mixed result on, some liked it and some didn't with varying reviews from the user/consumer base. Even though I didn't have as many issues as others, It most likely had to do with where it was located (small room), tweaking the CT100 (which I'm famous for), and what I primarily used my CT100 for (Blurays and PS3 gaming). With that in mind, people had either horrible results due to the opposite; Using the CT100 in large or very large rooms, not tweaking the CT100 at all (expecting it to sound good right out the box), and using the CT100 for cable/Satellite/broadcasted channels or DVD's only.Well I did have problems with the CT100 as well and some are in accordance to what others were having problem with. DVD's were hurting my CT100 often as some production companies of those dvd's recorded their audio in very low volume. Due to this, with the CT100 only pushing out "250 watts", often times the CT100 still wouldn't be able to push out the volume needed to even enjoy the movie, even at max volume and Tweaks. Some dvd's were fine but some were a different story, unsurprisingly though I never had problems with Blurays as those use uncompressed audio(higher quality) which output in LPCM unlike compressed audio (lower quality) in DVD's which output in Dolby Digital or DTS.This problem in regards to sound didn't stop at movies, games were effected as well. With me being a PS3 owner (currently), I am given the option to enjoy my games in uncompressed audio fashion but the CT100 forced my hand with the "other audio formats". Often with the CT100 outputting uncompressed audio in my games, I would either be missing my rear sound and surround effects as well. For example, playing games like Resistance 2 or Ratchet and Clank Future: ToD would often have the CT100 mute the rears and it felt like there was no surround at all, which sucked. Only switching to Dolby Digital fixed the problem but if I wanted to enjoy Dolby Digital or DTS in my games, I would have either just waited for something better to come along in regards to soundbars or got a 360 over my PS3 (plan to get a 360 soon but not at this time).Other than those two things, I didn't really have any other beef with the CT100. I grew to love it despite its few shortcomings andd found ways to tweak it to sound good in the room I placed it in (small room). Soon though, rumors flew around that Sony was going to pop out another Soundbar, which later became known as the CT500. It pumped out "400 watts" and supposedly fixed all the issues the CT100 had complaints about (low volume, not enough settings to tweak, etc.) With a few people being the first to try, my thoughts of getting it were dwindling as it looked like Sony tried to rush out the product in the beginning of the CT500's life and caused many units came out to be defective. So despite my rough times I was having, I steered clear of the CT500 until the bugs were ironed out or until full production of the unit came to be standard (equaling less defective units). Finally, after doing my taxes, my wife gave the go ahead for me to purchase the CT500. Didn't have to ask me twice, I ordered it with next day delivery so I could try it out before V-day weekend.Now here we are with my CT500 being delivered to my doorstep, I'd have to say the first thing that came out my mouth was... "WOW! That box is HUGE!" In all seriousness, the box was pretty big, larger than the CT100 was but pretty well built with a blue lining instead of a red (CT100). Pretty much gave all the information of what the CT500 can do, output, and specs, though I will say some consumers will be a bit confused over the 400w and 280w being displayed at the same time unless you read the fine print beside those numbers. After I sorted that out I immediately cut the box open to find small foam boxes laid out to keep the CT500 safe in its travel to me. Two small foam boxes included brackets to attach to XBR(top tier) or W (120hz) models of Sony's Bravia TV's, which is a bit of a downer as I wanted to mount the CT500 to my Bravia TV which it doesn't support or able to be attached to (yep, tried to attach it but couldn't). Wish Sony placed a universal mounting kit or just not have bothered with the brackets at all in all honesty but whatever. Last things left when it comes to accessories included with the CT500 purchase were located in a small cardboard box where manuals and additional cables lay, well get into the cables later.What was most important in the box was obviously the CT500 soundbar and its subwoofer. Going to tell you right now that the new models look nothing like their younger siblings. The CT100 was about the length of a 32in. (or maybe bigger) screen TV with a girth of 2in. As for the subwoofer that companioned with the CT100, it was tall and pretty slender, with mesh on the right side for the speaker. The CT500 on the other hand is about the length of a 40in. (or maybe bigger) screen TV with a girth of 1in. As for the Subwoofer that came with the CT500 soundbar, it's pretty short and in a lack of better words, chubby compared to the CT100's subwoofer. Now the two subwoofer do have one thing in common and that is they both house the connections for your devices. Both have three HDMI IN's and one HDMI out along with a coaxial input, three optical ports, an RCA Audio IN (Red and White), along with Sony's proprietary DM Port. That's where the comparison stops as the CT500 has many more connections than the CT100 has. Along with what was mentioned above, you now get with the CT500 analog ports like component ports (blue, green, and red), RCA Video port (Yellow, Red and white), and AM/FM ports (what?).It also includes an S-Air port which confuses the heck out of a ton of people as some believe this allows you to use external rear speakers. I understood it didn't as it is a soundbar after all (a soundbar by definition is suppose to eliminate the need for additional speakers to be hooked up to it as it is suppose to push the surround around the room, even rears), but alot of people just don't understand what a soundbar really is meant for or what S-Air is when it comes to Sony's Soundbars at least. Stated by the CT500's manual and website, it only uses S-Air to allow you to hear the same sound in another room with connectable S-Air components/speakers in another room (wirelessly). Hopefully that clears things up but I doubt it (rolling eyes)...Anyway, two probing things that have changed with the CT500's Sub is its cable that connects the soundbar to it and settings display. Now with the CT100, the cord that was used to connect the soundbar to the Subwoofer was a PC-Serial cable that you could easily find/buy to extend the length of the original to give you better distance between the subwoofer and the soundbar. For some odd reasoning, Sony decided to go with a proprietary cable on the CT500 that is neither able to be extended or able to bought from any store whatsoever to add length. [Correction, CT500 manual states on page 26 that you can extend the speaker cord but seems too complicated for the novice audio user.] I was first upset about it but then my worries ceased when I saw how freakin long the cable was! I know some have mentioned that it doesn't have enough length but I have no clue where people get this notion. 8FT isn't enough? I know each person's needs are different (some need the sub woofer somewhere else instead of being next to/near the soundbar), but for me my soundbar can easily sit on top of my TV with no problem with cord length. If anything, the subwoofer of the CT500 is lighter and is easily able to be set on top of a TV stand (as it's not nearly as big as the CT100's sub) if you want the cord to be a bit "more flexible" when it comes to its length. I will also mention that the cable of the CT500 includes a cord that allows you to be able to point your remote to the Subwoofer AND soundbar. Prior CT100 owners [and current] often pointed the remote to the subwoofer when the IR port was in the soundbar itself actually, thus resulting in what some called a "lag" or unresponsive as they pointed at the subwoofer for a response. Along with this cord change, the settings display has changed as well.Now the CT100 and the CT500 have a small display on the front of their subwoofer that display information for users to what audio is being pumped out of the soundbar and volume level. The CT100's display was also used for changing settings within the CT100 itself but this has changed with the CT500. Whenever you want to go to the CT500's settings menu, you press the GUI Menu button on the remote and instead of popping up settings on the CT500's display on the subwoofer (like the CT100), it pops the menu On-Screen on your TV. With a slight pause/black screen, it pops a Sony Bravia like menu which is a bit more intuitive and easy to use unlike the [cumbersome] CT100 subwoofer menu. The CT500 also gives you a chance to play with some settings not available on the CT100, like Treble and Bass along various other things like HDMI Video Direct (OFF outputs the video through a video processor while ON Pass-tru's the video with no video processor).Of course you still can control your DRC, Subwoofer level, Center Level, along with various other things to accommodate to various room types and peoples tastes but my CT500 for some reason sounded great right out the box. This is a first as with my CT100, it didn't sound that good until I tweaked it a bit to make it sound better. This gave me what some called me the CT100 guru as I posted my settings and they worked well for alot of people. Sadly, if anyone is hoping I have some tweaks for the CT500... I can't help you this time around (at this time at least). The CT500 just sounds fantastic right out the box and I'm thoroughly surprised over this fact! Besides Bravia Syncing and adjusting the Standby mode, I haven't touched a single thing because the CT500 sounds so much better than the CT100. Sony pretty much fixed all the complaints I had.No longer do I get low volume on my DVD's, this thing is pretty loud now when it comes to the dialog (which had the most problem on the CT100), I have yet to max the volume on the CT500 (unlike the CT100 which I often had to sometimes). I often had a remote in my hand with the CT100 so I could raise the volume so I could hear the dialog and lower it so I wouldn't kill my ears when action scenes or loud noises popped up. This is no longer the case with the CT500, It's now at a level sound field where everything can be heard (dialog, music, sound effects) and I no long need to play the lower/raise volume game. If dialog is ever low, all I have to do is adjust the treble and/or center and a fix is achieved. This is a big improvement over the CT100 (which alot of people hated with the CT100, low dialogue), the CT500 pretty much allows me to enjoy my DVD's again and TV broadcasts are so much better, it's really a great relief that Sony really put some effort in listening and improving their soundbar line. Heck, I don't even touch the remote anymore unless I want to feel my subwoofer more.Speaking of which, this subwoofer sounds alot different than the CT100. I don't know if I can explain it well enough but I'll try. Both Subwoofers produce that boom you expect in theatres with the explosions, loud noises, or presence of instruments that use bass. Problem with the CT100's subwoofer was that no matter what setting you put it at [even at -6db], it would still "vibrate" the loud sound to the floor (which is not a good thing if you live in apartments). The CT500's Subwoofer gives you the freedom to fix this problem with the subwoofer AND bass settings so that the vibration is nearly not there anymore. I also do notice that he CT500's subwoofer is a bit punchier than the CT100's subwoofer but not nearly as loud (CT100's subwoofer seemed louder than the CT500's) but with the CT500's subwoofer being a bit deeper in regards to Bass, It's an easy tradeoff.What also sounds different on the CT500 is the surround compared to the CT100. To my ears, it seems like the CT100 was meant for small to medium sized rooms (but failed at larger rooms) while the CT500 seems to fit medium to large rooms (small rooms extremely benefit from the CT500). Not easy to define I'm sure but the surround field on the CT500 seems to be alot wider/larger than its younger brother. This mostly is due to the TWO Center channels that are only on the CT500 compared the CT100's single Center channel speaker. Not only this but it seems that the Surround fields available to the user has been doubled and each settings sounds the best when matched with its proper output device. In other words for example- when playing games, you obviously would want the surround field to be set at Games and when watching DVD's or Blurays, you may want to switch to the Movies sound field. You can also now switch the surround field on the fly with the new Universal CT500 remote (yep, the CT500 includes a universal remote but you have to set it up yourself if you don't own a Sony TV or component, PS3 excluded).Oh the surround doesn't stop there, many will remember that I mentioned in my settings that Dolby Digital sounded best for games and for good reason when it came to the CT100. As mentioned before, the rears were muted and general surround was flat when setting your games to LPCM (aka uncompressed audio). What is a shame was that PS3 owners are given the option to enjoy their games in Uncompressed audio form but the CT100 made the decision for the user as alot of games just didn't sound right with that audio format and as a result you had to switch to Dolby Digital or DTS. Which in no means is a problem as you have to go to that setting for your DVD's but if you have a device that's capable of something, why should you let it go to waste (my opinion of course). Well I guess Sony found this out and fixed whatever the problem was that caused games to sound like crap in the Uncompressed Audio format as now games like Uncharted 2 and Ratchet and Clank Future:CiT sound SO MUCH better in LPCM mode (7.1 Channel FTW Finally!) Rears are heard fine now and have a better presence unlike ever before and the surround is just fantastic, the CT500 shines in this aspect especially! It's unexplainable but the CT500 just has a better surround and sound quality is pretty crisp overall, whether you are playing games, DVD's, Blurays, or watching your favorite show, the CT500 could very much shock you into what you are hearing!So there you have it people, If you haven't noticed, just like my first love, I absolutely adore my CT500 and I'm pretty happy with the purchase. I'd say it's worth every penny I spent on it and it was a pretty great price already! My advice is to anyone thinking about purchasing this to not bother comparing apples to oranges, you know what I'm talking about. Soundbars are in a totally different league compared to full fledge [separated] sound systems, it's just as bad as people comparing softball to baseball, they are nearly the same but are also entirely different. If you are sic of the aweful wires from seperate speakers [hidden or not], having to find ways to place speakers in certain places of the room, and just would prefer a great sounding sound system with less clutter and more convenience than maybe a soundbar is for you. It may not be on par as a full fledge sound system but it still produces a good "envelope" of surround and is pretty loud with great sound quality. Surround is surround in my book and the CT500 is still a great purchase anyone could make if you are taking the first plunge in sound systems or wanting to move unto something more simpler. If anyone is on the fence, just hop over already and make the purchase, I'm glad I did!P.S. Don't let anyone "smart" fool you, some people just can't fathom the reasoning for anyone wanting to purchase a soundbar , don't worry Gaming Desktop owners are the same with Gaming Laptop owners, convenience never crosses their minds whatsoever. Even if the CT500 produces great sound and semi-believable surround, doesn't warrant it being any less than a full fledge system. Also the CT500, like the CT100, can accept 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 channel surround and can output the audio despite the soundbar being labeled as a 3.1 sound system. A better understanding would be is if you ever used Dolby Headphones, which can surprisingly convince your ears into thinking something is on the sides or behind you. The technology used to produce surround from soundbars is something that tricks our ears and mind into thinking sound is coming from someplace around the room or behind us despite the soundbar being in front of us. Even if it is "faux" surround does that mean it's better or worse than the real deal, well as stated before, surround is surround in my book no matter what is supposedly producing it. Bear that in mind and don't let someone persuade you otherwise. The only person who can tell you if the CT500 or any soundbar sounds great is yourself. So give it a try...P.P.S Would like to point out to anyone that currently I have no tweaks at this time for the CT500 as the CT500 sounds great out of the box IMO. Give me a bit of time though as I might pop something up down the road (just like the CT100)...
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful.
By Ryan M. Teague
I really wish this product was around 5 years ago. I had just purchased a HDTV and found out I needed to upgrade to a receiver with HDMI and Component inputs to implement a surround sound setup. I absolutely loathe hooking up Home Theatre equipment whether it's contorting my body to get to the back of the receiver, organizing the web of wires, running of speaker wire under carpet/behind walls... Not to mention the receiver/speaker setup we when with was 5 years ago was 2-3 times more than this product and I have never been happy with it.Fast forward to the CT 500 Soundbar. The setup was ridiculously easy, took 30 minutes tops and most of that was unhooking all of the old equipment. 3 simple HD connection to the back of the sub (easy access) and Blue Ray, Xbox 360 and Satellite were up and running. I tested movies, Rockband for the Xbox 360 and just regular Satellite TV. I was blown away by all three, couldn't believe this setup could pack such a punch.My biggest complaint with 5.1 systems is usually the voice audio is drowned out. Not with this unit, voice in both movies and regular TV was crisp and clear. The sub was deep and rich whether it was thunder or the thump of a base drum.Product has completely changed my viewing/playing experience for entire family.
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