Sony Bravia Theatre U

Introduction

The Sony Bravia Theatre U is a wireless neckband speaker, and it’s more interesting than you might think.

It sits atop shoulders and lives in some in-between world of a headphone and a speaker. This site reviewed a previous model from Sony before but it wasn’t as good as hoped.

So here’s hoping the Bravia Theatre U can execute a concept that’s becoming more commonplace. Not everyone wants to be cut off from the world around them, and the Theatre U aims to keep you engaged with what you’re watching without losing that link.

It is a contradiction, to be immersed in one thing but still want awareness of where you are, but let’s see how well the Bravia Theatre U navigates it.

Availability

The Bravia Theatre U is available now and depending on where you are it’ll cost £279 / $299 / €249 / CA$399 / AUD$399.

That’s more than the WH-1000XM4, though less expensive than the WH-1000XM5 currently is. And if the WH-1000XM6 launch this year, the Theatre U will be less expensive than that headphone too. But the Theatre U carries fewer features and isn’t as convenient. It’s a speaker for the home – you won’t be taking it outdoors.

It’s much less expensive than the HT-AX7 that I reviewed, though that’s intended more for mobile devices than being paired with a TV.

Design

• Wearable TV speaker
• Good build quality

It takes a short while to get use to the Bravia Theatre U. At first it feels not unlike those braces/clamps that come down on your shoulders at a theme park ride. Despite knowing the sound is coming from around my neck, I’m still surprised the first time audio blares from around my neck.

Weirdly though, wearing this speaker is a comfortable experience. I don’t feel its presence much after I put it on, at least not in the same way you would with a pair of over-ear headphones. At about 268g, it weighs around the same as the WH-1000XM5.

I also realised that I lean when watching TV, and of course the speaker tilts as your body moves. Despite the promotional shots on Sony’s website showing the speaker perfectly lined up, the Theatre U does move about. It won’t fall off but it doesn’t stay exactly where it is either.

The placement of the controls (power, playback, volume, microphone) are not the easiest to access considering you can’t see the speaker, which leads to a few fumbles to find the playback and volume buttons.

Nevertheless, the build quality of the Theatre U is robust and, the materials used, including the fabric covering, are of good quality. The band that connects the two speakers has some flex to it, while IPX4 rating protects against splashes of water.

Could you sit for hours with this speaker on your neck? I have, and I’ve not found it arduous, and you’re not detached from what’s around you like you would with an over-ear pair of headphones such as the Sonos Ace.

Features

• LDAC streaming
• 360 Spatial Sound
• Bluetooth multipoint

Connect to your smartphone and the Theatre Bravia U syncs up with the Sound Connect app.

There’s not much as far as features go. You can monitor the battery life, there’s an EQ section, you can set Bluetooth to prioritise sound or the connection, activate Bluetooth multipoint, and set-up the 360 Reality Audio function – luckily I’ve already analysed my ears so I don’t have to go through that awkward process again.

I connected the Theatre U to a Bravia 8 and Sony A80L OLED, as well as an Android smartphone, and you can jump between the two seamlessly. The primary connection seems to use LDAC (the other settles for SBC) and that switches depending on which is the primary device. The wireless performance is strong, the signal only started to cut out when I went upstairs.

You’ll want to turn your smartphone (or mobile device) to silent as messages or notifications cause the Theatre U to switch to the smartphone and pause the other device. It’s distracting and I can’t see a setting in the Sound Connect app to stop this.

You can also connect two Theatre U speakers to a single TV, so you can share the sound between them. There’s also a simultaneous playback option, so if someone is watching the TV, you can hear the same sound through the Theatre U.

There’s 360 Spatial Sound support, which claims to create a bubble of sound around your head. There is also a cable provided in the box, which you can plug into a gaming controller to reduce latency. You can even take calls with the Theatre U as it uses an AI algorithm that focuses on your voice, making it a convenient choice for the WFH crew.

Sony says the battery life is approximately 12 hours before it’s depleted. I’m less sure of that figure, or at least, I think it depends on what you’re doing.

12 hours is around the ballpark for TV usage. A three hour session resulted in the speaker still at 100% battery and it often took a while for the ‘low battery’ notification to pop up. On the other hand, an hour of listening to music and the Theatre U dropped to 80%. Overall, 12 hours is less than the SRS-NB10’s 20.

Sound Quality

• Flat bass
• Excellent dialogue reproduction
• Warm sound

There are positives and there are drawbacks but overall the Bravia Theatre U surprised me – with some caveats.

It can’t do bass.

And to be fair to the Theatre U, I don’t think there’s a universe where it would be able to. Perched on your shoulders, a big blast of bass might make the Theatre U jump around or give you a massage, which might be nice…

The bass performance of the Theatre U is a light, mild ripple at best. But what that means is there’s a lack of energy and attack to the Theatre U’s low frequency performance that, when required for action and scares in Alien: Romulus, means the speaker falls flat.

There’s no real sense of scale – the speaker is around your neck after all and despite Sony’s impressive processing, there’s so only so far the speakers can push sound away from you. Sony’s promotional photos suggest sounds appear above your head but that isn’t the case. If you’re after for a true spatial cinematic experience, the Theatre U isn’t for you.

It doesn’t boast outright clarity and detail either. The warmth of the speaker’s sound means it’s not the sharpest or the clearest. In scenes where a lot is going on, like several in Civil War, it sounds like there’s a hubbub of things happening rather than being able to pick out individual sounds.

But as long as these compromises are acceptable, the Theatre U is likable. With quiet scenes it sets the ambience very well – even subtle cues that could be lost in the background are picked up nicely by the speaker.

Its reproduction of dialogue is impressively natural. Dialogue is always the priority, sounds clear and hasn’t once come across as thin or weedy. You lose out on dialogue being attached to the screen, naturally, but the synchronisation between the speaker and TV means that, for me at least, voices never felt dislocated from what was happening.

I’ve mentioned there isn’t much scale and that the soundstage isn’t as wide or as tall as a surround system, but watching Romulus and the Theatre U does a good job in places of ‘throwing’ sounds away from the speaker to establish a relationship between sounds near and far, quiet and loud. Music scores expand the width of the soundstage and there is some height too – sounds don’t mill around the neck but reach my ear with Dolby Atmos tracks.

With music the Theatre U sports the warm, smooth sound reminiscent of Sony’s headphones but without that rich bass performance. Bass tickles in College and Electric Youth’s A Real Hero but neither Maye’s La Cancion or Easy Life’s skeletons feature much weight or depth.

Like with TV use, it’s the vocal clarity and naturalism of vocals that stands out. The soundstage doesn’t feel compact or congested as the Theatre U’s processing does a good job of making you believe that vocals are in the middle (despite there being no centre speaker) with instruments sprayed out wide.

Highs are clear enough, and levels of detail and definition are decent depending on the track. What treble lacks is sparkle and brightness, and with a song requires that, those highs can sound dulled.

Jump into the app and the EQ settings have little effect – the tone changes slightly but boosting the treble or bass is neither here nor there. Another niggle about the Theatre U is that it’s louder than you think. The idea that someone next to you couldn’t hear what you’re watching or listening to is fanciful.

Should you buy it?