Sharp HT-SBW55121 review: A little too sharp

Not every soundbar needs to try to take up as little space as possible. The Sharp HT-SBW55121 is a mid-range home theatre package for those who want to go beyond an all-in-one soundbar solution.

It’s a 5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos-ready system comprising a lengthy soundbar and large wireless subwoofer, and its size means it’s ideally paired with a TV of 55in or above. Those wanting a more enveloping surround sound experience can purchase a pair of rear speakers separately, but this pushes the RRP up from £530 to £750.

I’m reviewing the base package here, which avoids some of the pitfalls common among soundbars and delivers powerful, deep bass that’s ideal for movies, but isn’t the most relaxed listen due to rather sharp-sounding higher frequency reproduction.

What do you get for the money?

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 is a one-box home cinema audio system. It is sold either with additional rear surround units or as simply a soundbar plus subwoofer, as reviewed here.

Both the bar and subwoofer are relatively large. The soundbar is 127cm long, and taller than many alternatives, thanks to a pair of elegant slanted plastic feet. Meanwhile, the 45cm tall subwoofer is almost cajon-like, the shape and scale of a small, blocky stool. I’d recommend getting the tape measure out before buying the Sharp HT-SBW55121 to ensure you can comfortably accommodate it in your living space.

Sharp justifies the scale of the thing with a solid array of drivers. The soundbar has both Dolby Atmos height channels and side-firing width speakers to improve the sense of scale, making this a 5.1.2 system before even adding the optional rears.

This is not a truly feature-complete surround setup, though, as it does not have Wi-Fi. It’s fairly common to omit this form of wireless in packages at the price, though, and the Sharp HT-SBW55121 does have Bluetooth for audio streaming from a phone. No Wi-Fi means no Spotify Connect and no multi-room capabilities. There’s no dedicated app either, and all control is performed using the remote or on-bar buttons.

A set of six buttons sits on the top panel. These control volume, the source used, Bluetooth pairing and power. The current source is also relayed through a simple display that sits behind the speaker grille fabric.

For anything more complicated, you use the remote. And while the screen can only display a single line of text, there is a rudimentary menu system here. It feels a little fiddly to navigate, but you should not have to dig into it often.

The primary way to hook up the Sharp HT-SBW55121 is using the eARC-enabled HDMI connector. There’s virtually no setup involved, and as the wireless subwoofer comes pre-paired, you can just plug it in using the figure-of-eight power connector and it starts rumbling away. 

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 also has two additional HDMI inputs, which allow sources to feed audio to the soundbar directly. Their video signal is then passed through to the TV over the eARC HDMI connector, although it is limited to 4K/60Hz transmission thanks to the HDMI spec, of note to those who plan on plugging in high-end gaming hardware.

Other connection options include a 3.5mm aux input, optical, and a USB-A port, which can be used to play MP3 (and OGG/FLAC/WAV/AAC/M4A) files off a memory stick if you’re among the few still maintaining a local digital audio library.

Consistent with Sharp’s approach of trying to offer quite a lot at a sensible outlay, the Sharp HT-SBW55121 build is largely ordinary. The angled feet and fabric cover give it a certain sense of style, but the speaker housing is plastic, including the more metallic-looking grilles at each side.

A little warning: compared to its peers, the Sharp HT-SBW55121 is less forgiving of the dirty hands of small wandering children. The fabric will hold onto dust and muck more than a wipe-clean friendly plastic or metal grille. Bear this in mind if you have small kids, although thankfully, the surface is rigid. There’s no chance of small fingers pushing at the fabric and damaging a driver underneath in the process. 

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 is also a fairly socially-conscious soundbar. It has a Night mode that alters the tuning and zaps most of the subwoofer’s output, to stop the audio from travelling through walls and floors too much, without making everything sound too thin and weak.

What does it do well?

Quite a lot of surround sound systems have slightly juvenile subwoofers, ones designed to cater to a ground truth: people like bass. But these are often fairly poorly integrated, and sound quite obviously boomy when playing music.

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 has a relatively sophisticated-sounding subwoofer that doesn’t advertise itself too overtly, which is surprising given that it looks like a tower of power. It’s impressively powerful in the lowest sub-bass registers, giving Hollywood action movie effects gravitas. This may be the influence of Devialet. Sharp advertises this system as tuned by the premium French brand, which is renowned for its wireless speakers with forceful bass.

I have found very occasionally the sub-bass can pull focus a little too much, such as when YouTubers slot in sound effects that have an incongruous amount of low-bass you wouldn’t hear through your TV’s own speakers. But the bass profile is otherwise refreshingly deliberate and considered, shedding soundstage-clouding mid-bass.

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 also has fairly good imaging. Tested with Dolby Atmos content, the side-firing drivers do a solid job of expanding out the soundfield beyond the soundbar’s own dimensions and into the corners of rooms.

Dolby Atmos height channels are a little less persuasive than those of much more expensive soundbar kits, but the overall three-dimensional effect of Atmos would likely to improved by adding the optional surround units, which also include upwards-firing drivers.

What could be improved?

Bass is one of the cornerstones of what I appreciate most about the Sharp HT-SBW55121 sound, but many folks may wish its influence were more obvious a lot of the time. While the subwoofer very effectively extends the bass floor of this combo, to a claimed (and tested) 20Hz, it doesn’t actually add the kind of richness and fullness that is, for example, a Sonos staple. Too much mid-bass can fog up sound, but it can also act as an ear-charming glaze that most people will like. And the Sharp does not have it.

This exacerbates the main sound issue of the Sharp HT-SBW55121. Its upper mids and lower treble are pronounced but not particularly refined. It leads to them becoming hard, fibrous or even harsh-sounding with some content.

Voices sound clear, but take on the character of an over-sharpened photo. A slightly smoother-sounding approach would have been preferable. And as this tonal make-up is fairly fundamental to the Sharp HT-SBW55121, it is not fixed by skipping between the basic sound EQ/mode presets.

I spent a few hours fiddling around with the soundbar’s various modes and EQ settings to see what yields the best result. What has the greatest effect is turning off the surround sound mode.

This does not actually make the Sharp HT-SBW55121 unable to handle surround audio. It simply means the soundbar won’t try to dynamically splice stereo content across all the system’s other channels. This leads to a more natural, if still sharp sound.

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 does have very basic EQ to help out as well, accessible through the remote. You can set the treble and bass to +/-5. Lowering the treble can take the edge off the higher frequencies, but going down by more than a notch or two ends up dulling detail in vocals a little too much. The Sharp HT-SBW55121 relies significantly on its upper mids and treble for giving voices texture, lacking definition in the more meaty part of the mids.

There’s better news on the bass front. Thanks to Sharp’s focus on the lower-bass region, you can pump up the bass to +5 if you like, without having it completely trample over the rest of the audio. I’m not the kind of person who would usually recommend upping the bass using any of these sorts of controls. But when it effectively functions as a sub-bass thrills dial, there’s nothing wrong with cranking it up for movies. Heck, higher settings don’t even upset music too dramatically.

Should you buy the Sharp HT-SBW55121?

The Sharp HT-SBW55121 gets you plenty of soundbar for the money. It’s physically large, for one, and includes a wireless subwoofer big enough to double as a stool. This plays out in the sound too, with a wide and expansive soundfield blessed with confident and punchy sub-bass, which works wonders for action movies.

Sharp does not deliver the immediately engaging sound you get with a Sonos or Sony alternative, though. Pronounced and not entirely refined treble and upper mids lead to a relatively sibilant and tiring tone, and it can only be partially tamed through audio tweaks.

If you’re not game for a brighter sound, look elsewhere.