Sony has never been one to shy away from pushing the boundaries of home theater innovation, and with the Bravia Theater Quad, the company is making its latest bold statement in the world of immersive audio. The Theater Quad is a four-speaker ensemble that takes the plug-and-play simplicity of a soundbar and blends it with the spatial prowess of a traditional home theater setup, making for a system that is both physically and audibly different from anything else you can buy today.Its also more expensive than most flagship offerings on the market today. But for its gargantuan $2,500 retail price, the Quad creates a soundstage that, thanks to its Dolby Atmos capabilities, spatial sound technologies, and overall detail, is one of the best weve heard to date. Its not perfect, especially when it comes to bass. But its an experience that you truly have to hear to believe. Sony Bravia Theater Quad PhotosSony Bravia Theater Quad Design and Features First, lets address the elephant in the room. The Bravia Theater Quad is physically different from any competing soundbar system on the market today. Instead of an ensemble built around a long, hefty soundbar with most of the systems drivers tucked inside, the Quad features four distinct speakers two accompanying your TV up front, and two filling out the rear of your listening space. Each of the four speakers are wall mountable, but will otherwise work best sitting on speaker stands, so be sure to factor that into how these fit into your room.SpecsPrice: $2,499.99Channels: 4.0.4Power: 504 watts, 16 total channelsDrivers: 16 total speakersConnections: HDMI eARC 2.1, Bluetooth 5.2 Audio formats: Stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital Plus), Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (True HD), Multichannel PCM, Dolby Multichannel PCM, DTS Digital SurroundThe previous version of the Quad, Sonys HT-A9, had a cylindrical look to its quartet of speakers. With the Quad, Sony opted for a flattened-out iteration that presents a far more sleek aesthetic that blended subtly into our living room. The drivers inside the enclosures are also new and improved, moving from a two-way design to a three-way setup that includes a dedicated woofer, midrange driver, and tweeter. Plus, each of the four Quad speakers has its own upfiring driver for Dolby Atmos content and other 3D formats. There is no included subwoofer in this system, which seems like a miss at this price point (and from a performance perspective more on that later). The good news is that the Quad is compatible with either of Sonys wireless subwoofers, the SA-SW3 or the larger SA-SW5, though that will cost you an extra $400-700 depending on which model you opt for. Additionally, each speaker in the Quad communicates with the systems control box, which connects to your TV via HDMI and only HDMI. If you have an older display that needs an optical connection, you are out of luck with the Quad.Setting the Quad up was just as simple as getting a soundbar system up and running. Each speaker needs to connect to a power outlet, and the control box needs that aforementioned HDMI connection to your TV or display. From there, though, the speakers automatically sync with each other. All thats left is to download the Bravia Connect app to adjust aspects of the system to your personal tastes. The only bothersome part of the set up for some may be finding spots to place each of the Quad speakers; you wont be able to put the front speakers on your TV stand like you would a soundbar, and if you dont have speaker stands, you may have to get a bit creative with placement. As Sonys flagship home theater system, the Quad has absolutely no shortage of features in store. It uses Sonys 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology to virtually place sound around your entire listening space, something well talk more about in a moment. It supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and 360 Reality Audio, and has streaming support for Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, and Bluetooth. Plus, when paired with a compatible Sony Bravia TV, the Quad can use its Acoustic Center Sync technology to outfit the TVs speakers to act as a center channel for the system. Theres tons more to explore in the realm of features including the Quads video format support for 4K HDR, 8K HDR, and Dolby Vision but weve buried the lede long enough. Lets dive into how the Quad sounds. Sony Bravia Theater Quad PerformanceI originally unboxed and set up the Bravia Theater Quad in my office, only to realize that this system needed a lot more room to breathe. So I relocated to my living room, which afforded the ability to properly place the system in the space the front speakers to the left and right of my TV, and the rear speakers at the back of the room. I set up the Quad in the Bravia Connect app, ran the speakers through the apps Sound Field Optimization feature (which adjusts the speakers to the environment theyre in), and went to work.Cards on the table: the Quad beats every soundbar system Ive ever heard. The three-way speakers are incredibly balanced and extremely detailed, and the soundstage that the system creates is absolutely unmatched. Part of it chalks up to being able to space out those front speakers to foster a wide, encompassing front stage, a feat that has proven far harder to achieve with soundbar systems. Perhaps the ace up the Quads sleeve, though, is the masterful way it virtually places sound. I watched The Worlds Greatest Beer Run which is starting to become a favorite for testing Dolby Atmos, both for its compelling audio mix and because Apple TV is one of the few remaining streaming services that doesnt reserve Atmos content for its highest-paying subscribers and was blown away by how the Quad adds three-dimensional sound to Chickie Donohues travels through the heart of the Vietnam War. Atmos aside, the Quad handles standard surround sound far better than every soundbar Ive tested. With four speakers and Sonys 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology, it uses the entire space to virtually send sound from movies like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire all around you with powerful precision, with the sounds of the mega monsters brawling it out perfectly matching their path across the screen. Its hard to quantify with words, but its an experience that will change the way you think about surround sound.On the music side of things, I employed Spotify Connect, my wife, and a living room that now fully resembles a demo space to do a bit of a blind listening taste. Using Spotify, I asked Mrs. Woodard to close her eyes as I swapped between the Quad, the Sonos Arc Ultra, and my personal home theater system consisting of Fluance towers, a Yamaha receiver and a JL Audio subwoofer. I didnt tell her which was which, but instead auditioned tracks like Chris Stapletons Joy of My Life, Macklemores Good Old Days, and Jelly Rolls I Am Not Okay among other songs on all three systems in succession until she felt confident to try and identify each sound source. She got the Arc Ultra right, since its great, but more centralized sound sticks out compared to the other two. But she mistook the detailed, full sound of the Quads for our bulky tower speakers, and ultimately said that the Quads sound signature was above and away her favorite of the three.I tend to agree, with one caveat. The Quads big missing puzzle piece is bass. It tries, and earnestly so, but it falls significantly behind in the bass department to both the Sonos Arc Ultra and my personal home theater. A dedicated subwoofer would definitely fill the gap here, and the Quad is compatible with both Sonys SA-SW5 subwoofer and its smaller SA-SW3 counterpart. But that would mean a substantial added cost to a system thats already one of the most expensive routes you can take, leaving me to wonder why such a high-end option is notably incomplete.Purchasing GuideThe Sony Bravia Theater Quad retails for $2499.99 and can be found at Amazon and Best Buy.Sony Bravia Theater Quad The CompetitionFor as unique of a product as the Quad is, its a bit difficult to pin down who, exactly, this powerful lineup of speakers is standing against. Sony almost undoubtedly built the Quad to be a soundbar killer, and it wears that hat extremely well. I prefer the sound of the Quad to both the Sonos Arc Ultra and Samsung HW-Q990D, although the bars themselves are punching out of their weight class in this instance. I would wager to say that pairing a Sonos Sub 4 ($800) and a pair of Sonos Era 100 speakers ($470) to the $1000 Ultra would create a system that rivals the sound quality of the Quad and easily eclipse it in terms of bass. But for the sake of standalone systems? Its the Quad, and its not close.Sony may have another, slightly more unintended competitor in this space: the traditional home theater system. As a longtime fan of the old school home theater, complete with dedicated speakers, a receiver, and a subwoofer, I came into testing the Quad skeptical of its ability to justify its price, which (give or take) rivals the total cost of my own system. I left testing having told my wife that if we could commit to the Quad, I would happily sell off my theater system and get rid of the towers that may not be the most aesthetically pleasing part of our home decor. The Quad is that good, from the way it blends detailed vocals and impeccable instrumentals in music to the unmatched way it places sound in your space for movies and TV. Dont get me wrong, I love the sound of my system. But it simply cannot do what the Quad is capable of. If Sony added a subwoofer output to its control box to allow folks to use their own subwoofer, I would be selling my speakers as we speak.