Sony HT-CT370 Review - Soundbar - Tom's Guide
Our Verdict
With HDMI, Bluetooth and a wireless subwoofer, Sony's HT-CT370 delivers enough of features and very good sound.
For
- Extensive connectivity options, including Bluetooth
- Impressive music playback
- Free app to control settings from mobile devices
Against
- Lacks resonance in dialogue
Tom's Guide Verdict
With HDMI, Bluetooth and a wireless subwoofer, Sony's HT-CT370 delivers plenty of features and very good sound.
Pros
- +
Extensive connectivity options, including Bluetooth
- +
Impressive music playback
- +
Free app to control settings from mobile devices
Cons
- -
Lacks resonance in dialogue
In guild to maintain their sleek profiles, some soundbars take the idea of simplicity in home theater audio too far: They strip out all the extras that an audio-video receiver offers, such every bit a way to consolidate your HDMI connections or stream music via Bluetooth. Sony's HT-CT370 preserves those features and notwithstanding packs them in a streamlined design. Thanks in office to its wireless subwoofer, this soundbar also delivers improved sound for movies and Television set.
Editor'south Annotation: Sony has discontinued the Sony HT-CT370. Every bit an alternative, we suggest either the Sony HT-S350 or the Yamaha YAS-209 . Be sure to bank check out all our meridian picks on our best soundbars page.
Design
The Sony HT-CT370 differentiates itself from other rectangular soundbars by opting for a diamond shape, thickest in the middle and thinner at the acme and bottom. This means you can run across and hear both the front and the top when you lot place the soundbar on a surface. The slim, 35.5 ten 4.5 x 2-inch soundbar, wrapped in back fabric, looked great with a 42-inch Telly, but it appeared a chip undersized when placed on a shelf below my 55-inch Panasonic P55ST60. You tin can also mount the soundbar on the wall above or below the Goggle box.
Sony placed three HDMI inputs on the dorsum of the soundbar, along with an HDMI output to connect to your Boob tube. If yous don't take HDMI, you lot can connect to your Boob tube through an optical digital audio or a 3.5mm analog audio input. You lot select your input source using the button on pinnacle of the soundbar, via the remote control or Sony's costless SongPal app for Android and iOS.
The display on the front, beneath the textile but still easily readable, indicates which input is active. The readout is a big improvement over the limited feedback provided by other soundbars, such as the JBL Cinema SB100. Yous also rely on the display if you're using the remote control to adapt tone and level.
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Unfortunately, even if yous've connected the soundbar to your TV by HDMI, the HT-CT370 doesn't offer an onscreen display, something JBL'southward Cinema SB400 does offering. If yous observe the brandish limiting, the SongPal app provides a more than visual approach to tweaking the settings, via Bluetooth.
Remote and Subwoofer
The bundled remote offers plenty of functions. In addition to power and volume, you tin can switch chop-chop amidst sound modes to aid improve the sound quality. The remote tin can exist programmed to plough your Goggle box on or off and change channels, and can control music playback on a device you've connected to the soundbar through Bluetooth.
To boost low-stop frequencies, Sony includes a narrow wireless subwoofer. At but 15.6 inches tall x xiv.three inches deep x 5.4 inches wide, it'due south easy to hibernate in a corner. The subwoofer doesn't have any controls; you manage the volume through the remote command.
Setup and Apply
You can employ the Sony HT-CT370 every bit a hub for 3 HDMI devices. For case, I plugged in my cable box, Blu-ray player and Roku into the soundbar, then connected the soundbar to my Television set.
To pair with the wireless subwoofer, press "amp menu" on the remote, toggle to the "WS" setting and start the link process. On the back of the subwoofer, press the "link" push button, and the two should connect.
The HT-CT370 tin pair with a mobile device or computer via Bluetooth for music playback. I quickly paired it with both Android and iOS devices. An NFC-equipped Android device offers the fastest pairing option; just place the mobile device on acme of the speaker to initiate the procedure. To pair with an iOS device, press "pairing" on the remote and find SONY:HT-CT370 in your Bluetooth card under Other Devices.
Once I connected everything, I needed to conform the tone settings to become the best audio from the system. The defaults produced sound that was too brilliant and didn't accept advantage of the actress bass the subwoofer could provide. I increased the volume of the subwoofer to 10 out of a max 13 and reduced the treble to -three. I too found that the ClearAudio+ sound field worked best for nearly TV shows, movies and music, even though the unit offers dissever settings for movies, music, sports and more.
Audio Functioning
Once I made some adjustments, the HT-CT370 delivered very good sound, with ane quirk. The soundbar boosts dialogue well, making it easy to empathise people speaking on screen. But, dialogue lacks resonance that other systems with subwoofers like Vizio's S4251wB4 add. For case, Peter Coyote's narration to Ken Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate Story sounded tinny instead of robust.
In activeness scenes during Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.Due east.L.D., the subwoofer kicked in to fill up the room with depth and vibration. The trouble probable lies in the crossover setting between the primary soundbar and the subwoofer, just the unit doesn't characteristic an aligning for that.
When the subwoofer engaged, the system delivered solid bass and low-end furnishings as well equally well-baked treble tones, especially during activity sequences. As Barbossa'southward cursed pirates marched underwater to attack the British in Pirates of the Caribbean area: Curse of the Black Pearl, the background music swelled as swords clanked crisply, creating an engaging audio accompaniment to the visuals.
Though the organisation doesn't have rear speakers, it imitated surroundings sound well enough that I could hear the subtle clicking foreshadowing the arrival of the spiders of Murkwood in The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug.
The HT-CT370 besides performs well for music listening. The two channels in the chief soundbar created excellent stereo separation on Jimmy Page's swirling guitar during Led Zeppelin'south "What Is and What Should Never Exist," while the subwoofer boomed out the beat on Aphex Twins' "CIRCLONT6A[141.98][syrobonkus mix]."
With 300 total watts of power, the Sony unit gets loud; compare that to the 60 watts delivered by Vizio's S4251wB4. I found that half-volume was more than than loud enough to fill my living room with audio.
Lesser Line
Sony's HT-CT370 delivers what you want from a soundbar: It improves the sound quality of movies, Boob tube and music without requiring the infinite of a dedicated habitation theater system. With its integrated HDMI inputs and Bluetooth, if offers more connectivity options than nigh soundbars, especially at this price. If you don't need HDMI, Vizio's $300 S4251wB4 may exist a ameliorate pick. Sony's soundbar delivers marginally ameliorate audio than the Vizio, but the latter offers true 5.i surround sound for less money. Still, if you're looking to stay under $400/£350, the Sony HT-CT370 is a solid pick.
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