Sharp HT-SBW320 Review

Design

• Compact looks
• Mostly plastic design
• Physical controls plus a remote handset

The soundbar portion of the HT-SWB320 is so usefully compact (just 36 x 651 x 73mm, HWD) that it should have no problem accompanying even those TVs that sit low on their feet – and it’s one of the very few soundbars currently available that won’t look overgrown when positioned beneath a screen of, say, 43-inches.

The subwoofer is a similarly handy 258 x 105 x 370mm, HWD, and when both it and its soundbar partner are powered up they quickly form a wireless connection that proves very difficult to disrupt. Unless you’re thinking of putting the subwoofer in an entirely different room to the soundbar, the connection between the two should never be an issue.

There’s nothing special about the materials that are used in the construction, naturally – the soundbar is mostly plastic with some fabric wrap, while the subwoofer is almost entirely MDF. But the standard of build and finish is perfectly adequate – with the HT-SWB320, Sharp has demonstrated that shopping at the entry level doesn’t automatically mean you have to compromise where stuff like this is concerned.

There are a few physical controls on the top of the soundbar – they cover volume up/down, power on/off and input selection/Bluetooth pairing. All of those functions are duplicated on the little remote control handset that’s supplied – and in addition, the remote gives you mute, play/pause, surround on/off, individual bass and treble adjustment, and the ability to scroll through a selection of EQ presets (Voice, Movie, Sport, Music, Game, Night plus one user-defined Custom setting).

Just like the system it controls, it’s nothing special in terms of design or tactility – but it does exactly what it’s here to do.

Features

• HDMI eARC, digital optical, USB-A, 3.5mm analogue and Bluetooth 5.3 inputs
• 120 watts of  Class D power (RMS)

First things first: Sharp would like you to think there are 360 watts of power available to drive this system. That may well be the case as a peak measurement, for a split-second before the HT-SWB320 bursts into flames – but a far more accurate measure is RMS, and when totted up this way the Sharp has 120 watts of power. Which is plenty – it hardly seems worth trying to pretend it is more powerful than it actually is.

Those watts drive a speaker array that consists of a pair of 32mm neodymium tweeters and a couple of 30 x 104mm racetrack drivers in the soundbar, plus a 133mm bass driver in the subwoofer. The drivers in the soundbar all face forwards – so while the Sharp is capable of dealing with Dolby Atmos soundtrack information, any hint of spatial audio comes via Dolby Speaker Virtualiser or DTS Virtual:X processing.

Getting the audio information on board in the first place can be done using a selection of physical inputs or wirelessly via Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility.

Physical inputs are concealed in a little recess at the rear of the soundbar – HDMI eARC is the obvious choice, but there’s also digital optical for older TVs. In addition, there’s a 3.5mm analogue input and a USB-A slot that can be used for updates, for audio playback (it is compatible with drives up to 64Gb and can deal with WAV, FLAC and MP3 content), and even for charging external devices.

Confirmation of what the Sharp is up to comes via a little scrolling LED alphanumeric segment display on the front of the soundbar. The HT-SWB920 is also Roku TV Ready – which promises a shorter set-up process when it’s connected to one of Sharp’s Roku TVs.

Sound Quality

• Punchy, quite dynamic presentation
• Good integration between soundbar and subwoofer
• Coarse high-frequency response

It’s pleasing to note the Sharp HT-SWB320 maintains an admirably consistent balance no matter the standard of the content it’s given to deal with.

The soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto V via a Sony PlayStation 5, a Bluetooth stream of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, a Dolby Atmos-enhanced stream of F1: The Movie on Apple TV or the blaring, droning soundtrack to Dune II via 4K UHD Blu-ray – it’s all the same to the HT-SWB320. Its character is its character, and it seems unwilling in the extreme to shift.

This is good news, up to a point, for those who want to make an upgrade on their TV’s (almost inevitably) terrible sound. The Sharp has way more low-frequency presence than a television can muster and, as well as being able to hit hard and dig fairly deep, the subwoofer packs in plenty of tonal variation and controls its activity well. There’s got a sprightly attitude to the low end here, and none of the dragging that less accomplished devices at the sort of money can indulge in.

The Sharp projects its midrange well too, so dialogue is always distinct – and, again, there’s a decent amount of detail involved. When the surround mode is switched off there’s good focus to the presentation, and the sort of sonic scale that eludes all but the most accomplished TVs.

There’s a fair amount of dynamic headroom available, too – so when the action really kicks off during Dune II the HT-SWB320 has no difficulty in making the ramping up of the intensity or the volume apparent.

Integration between the subwoofer and the soundbar is good, too. There’s no sensation of hand-over, no impression that there are two separate entities working to create the complete frequency range. Again, the Sharp has the advantage of any number of nominal rivals in this respect.

The biggest issue in terms of performance concerns tonality. From the bottom of the frequency range to quite near the top of the midrange, the HT-SWB320 is even and consistent, and actually quite neutral. Above here, though, it gets quite hard and jagged – and the higher up the frequency range you go, the coarser and more abrasive the tonal response gets.

It’s like this even at modest volumes, and if you decide to explore bigger volumes it gets compounded to the point the treble frequencies are approaching unpleasant.

It’s possible to quite comprehensively spoil the Sharp’s ability with focus by activating the surround mode. The increase in scale is minimal – it’s certainly nowhere near a surround effect as you might understand it – but it causes what was previously quite a direct and confident presentation to become cloudy and vague. A lot of definition goes astray, a lot of previously straight edges lose their positivity.

Should you buy it?