Sony Theatre U review: can you really get surround sound with this shoulder speaker?

Luca Fontana

21/2/2025

Translation: Megan Cornish

Video: Aline Piazza

Sony’s Theatre U aims to reinvent surround sound – on your shoulders. No headphones, no soundbar, just you and your own sound bubble. I tested out whether it really works or whether it’s just a smart marketing claim.

There are speakers. There are headphones. And then there are devices that are somewhere in between – or at least try to invent their own category.

The Sony Theatre U is the latter – it’s a speaker you wear on your shoulders. It’s designed to provide surround sound without filling the whole room with speakers. And it’s positioned as an alternative to uncomfortable headphones that’s still close to your ears.

The idea sounds futuristic. Almost too good to be true. But how exactly does it work in practice?

Theatre U: a close-up look at the shoulder speaker

At first glance, the Sony Theatre U looks like an oversized Bluetooth headset combined with a sci-fi neck pillow. Two long speaker arms nestle around your shoulders, joined together by a flexible, slightly curved bridge. If you want, you can bend this a little so the speakers fit more snugly. The whole thing is covered with a matt fabric that not only looks high-quality but feels nice.

At 268 grammes, the Theatre U is light enough to be comfortable, but heavy enough to feel high quality – not just some flimsy plastic thing. And Sony’s going for understated: no obtrusive LED gimmicks, no eye-catching branding, just a subtle Sony logo on the side. It wants to fit into your setup rather than taking all the attention.

The controls are just as minimalistic: there are a few tactile buttons on the side to adjust the volume, pause and mute the microphone. They’re easy to find, even without looking. There are no touch-activated gimmicks and no unnecessary complexity – and that’s a good thing.

I can connect the Theatre U to the TV, computer or smartphone via Bluetooth. The multipoint connection means the shoulder speaker can be connected to up to two devices at the same time - if I want to use the Theatre U to answer calls on my smartphone while watching TV, for example. Speaking of which: the battery lasts for 12 hours. And, thanks to the fast charge function, you get one hour of battery life for every ten minutes of charging.

Let’s move onto the sound – and Sony’s ominous «sound bubble».

What exactly is this «bubble»?

To get the best audio, I took a photo of my ears using the 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer from the Play Store or App Store, as recommended by Sony, then had the app analyse them. This is supposed to create an audio profile perfectly tailored to your ears and promises the best possible sound.

According to Sony, it offers something very special. On its product page, the Japanese manufacturer repeatedly shows photos of people in a «sound bubble» – a kind of invisible dome that sends sound directly to your ears via two hidden broadband speakers. The photos suggest this works so well that people around it don’t hear a thing – or barely anything. Apparently, they can even sleep peacefully right next to it.

And yes – I still want it to sound like I’m sitting in the cinema.

This sounds familiar. Manufacturers never stop talking about great, room-filling sound that doesn’t require any additional speakers in the room. This is down to sophisticated 3D sound effects, but the sound has to be digitally manipulated. In other words, complicated calculations and algorithms are supposed to ensure you hear a sound behind or above you, even though there are no speakers there. Here, the only sound source is the shoulder speaker.

It’s maths for your ears, so to speak. Does it really work?

Sound quality: between «wow» and «meh»

Yes and no. The bubble isn’t really a bubble; it’s more of a cloud – it doesn’t limit the sound as much as Sony would have us believe. When you’re listening to music, everyone around you can hear it, and when you’re listening to TV, the sound’s still perceptible to others, albeit much quieter. So, would someone be sleeping next to you while you watch an action scene with explosions? Possibly, but only if they’re a very deep sleeper.

However, the «bubble effect» – the feeling of being in your own world of sound – works much better. Scratch that. The sound’s impressively full and amazingly detailed with surprisingly good bass. Sony boasts that the Theatre U plays formats such as Dolby Atmos thanks to 360 Reality Audio and 360 Spatial Sound and also upscales stereo sound to multiple channels.

That may be true, and it does sound really good. But the Theatre U still doesn’t rationalise away a physical home cinema system – in my case a Sonos Arc with a subwoofer (Sonos Sub 4) and two surround speakers (Sonos Era 300). Digital sound manipulation is just that: manipulation.

With a proper system, for example, I can feel explosions reverberating through the room, voices coming right from the centre and ambient noises really enveloping me. With the Theatre U, on the other hand, it often sounds like a clever algorithm’s trying to trick me – and while it often succeeds surprisingly well, it doesn’t always.

However, if you can’t afford or don’t want to buy a similar system and have only watched TV through the speakers built into your TV, a Theatre U is a much cheaper alternative that still fills the room amazingly well. Everyone who tested the Theatre U in the office – myself included – unconsciously started speaking louder. It was a bit like being in a club and wanting to talk to other people – that’s how well the illusion of sound in the room worked.

The Sony catch: you need a Bravia TV for the full effect

Now for the potential dealbreaker: many of the advertised features only work with certain Sony Bravia TVs from 2024 (Bravia 9, Bravia 8 and Bravia 7) and the QD-OLED TV A95L from 2023. This is apparently because only these have the hardware for the required Bluetooth version. According to Sony, other Bluetooth versions don’t have the necessary bandwidth.

This doesn’t mean that the Theatre U can’t be paired with other TVs or brands – it works just fine. What doesn’t work is the following:

• Dolby Atmos (you only get stereo)
• Sound from shoulder and TV speakers simultaneously (TV speakers are automatically muted)
• Pair more than one Theatre U with the TV at the same time (with Bravia TVs, you can connect two Theatre Us at the same time)

Sony claims that stereo sound is also digitally manipulated and extrapolated by the Theatre U. But in my test with a Philips OLED TV, I could already hear the difference compared to «real» Dolby Atmos.

There is a workaround, though. With the WLA-NS7 adapter – connected to power via USB-C and the TV via an optical cable – it should at least be possible to play sound from other manufacturers simultaneously through TV speakers and a Theatre U. To do this, the Theatre U is paired with the adapter rather than the TV. However, due to the bandwidth of the optical cable, the sound’s still stereo.

Well…it sounds doable. But it’s also a bit like connecting AirPods to an Android device: it works, but it’s rubbish.

In a nutshell

Cool sound, but only really complete with Bravia TV

The Sony Theatre U’s a fascinating idea: a speaker that sits on your shoulders, promises surround sound and is versatile – you can watch TV, game or make phone calls. It’s comfortable to wear and the sound is actually surprisingly full, detailed and three-dimensional.

But the so-called «sound bubble» isn’t as isolated as Sony suggests in its advertising, and many of the coolest features – Dolby Atmos for one – are only available with current Bravia TVs. If you don’t have a Sony TV, you have to manage with stereo sound and can’t even use the TV speakers at the same time. Unless you use the NS7 adapter. But then you still only get stereo sound on the Theatre U.

So, who’s it for? Anyone looking for a compact, versatile and affordable alternative to a soundbar – especially if they already have a Bravia TV. But it loses one star because it all feels a bit half-finished without Sony hardware.

Pro

• Surprisingly good, three-dimensional sound
• Comfortable to wear, even over longer periods of time
• Versatile: TV, music, phone calls, gaming

Contra

• Many features only available with the latest Sony Bravia TVs
• No real «sound bubble» – other people can hear it
• Only stereo and limited functions without Bravia TV

Hi-fi + Home cinema speakers

EUR269,–

Sony Theatre U

12

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more

These articles might also interest you