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That's too bad, because the Playbase is the best home theater component Sonos has created. With gorgeous looks and vista-like sound, it's the kind of do-everything all-in-one speaker the Playbar never was. While the sound bar really needs the optional Sonos Sub, the Playbase does perfectly well without it. Apple TV finally supports 7.1 surround, and iTunes content is starting to go 7.1.
Apart from the optical cable, the only other connections are Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Unlike most competitors, the Sonos lacks a Bluetooth connection, but due to the number of music services Sonos supports, we don't think you'll miss it. A sound base is a flat box of a speaker designed to sit underneath a TV's stand.
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But is the Beam as “Sonos simple” as the company’s prior products? I must admit, I was quite confused as to what Sonos is trying to accomplish with this new product. Yes, it has more power than the Connect Amp and I know it’s aimed at custom installers , but what else does it offer and is there a wow factor for homeowners? I did an A-B comparison of the new Amp and the old Connect Amp to see if I could hear the differences. Let’s see if the new Amp is worth the $100 premium over the old Connect Amp. It’s time to check out another new Sonos product, this time it’s the all new Sonos Amp.
About a year after I bought it — and after the warranty expired — it started vomiting bogus high-definition copy protection errors and refusing to play any content from my Apple TV or Blu-Ray player. I spent a few weeks cursing and telling Hollywood where they could go shove their consumer hostility. But it's a shame the set-up can't handle DTS or any of the higher quality soundtracks such as Dolby TrueHD – the latter due to the limitations of the bandwith of the optical connection. The Playbar is capable of going pretty darn deep for a product of its type, too, although it does struggle with the very lowest bass note on the track.
Setup
The Duran Duran live album "Arena" conjured up an impressive soundstage that wasn't apparent with a single speaker. Bass was surprisingly deep and the occasionally-challenging keyboard stings were held in check. Sonos' stereo mode works a lot better now than it used to, with none of the phasing effects of the past.
Also, while the Sonos system supports Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM, it doesn't support 7.1, DTS, Dolby Atmos, or other technologies an independent receiver might. Now, that's two wires in what a lot of people say is a "wireless" setup, but neither of them are speaker wires. Like I said, I have a large, open, octagonal living room, so eliminating the speaker wires is a huge plus. You can spend millions of dollars on it if you have the obsession and the bank to back it up with. Sonos, for what it delivers, didn't feel exorbitant to me in the least. It's not budget priced, and for a lot of people, that'll be a deal breaker.
HDMI at last, kind of
In the meantime the Sonos One offers the best combination of versatility, sound quality and affordability in any speaker you can buy, period. With excellent sound and the choice of Alexa or Google Assistant, the Sonos One reaffirms its place as the best smart speaker for the money. Finishing up with CDs and other two-channel music recordings from Radiohead and Drive-By Truckers, the Playbase didn't disappoint. David Bowie's final album, "Blackstar," sounded absolutely terrific, with pitch-perfect tight bass, lively dynamics and Bowie's vocal that all rang true.
The difference is that the Playbar also connects to your TV. Disappointingly, there’s just one way to do this, and that’s via digital optical cable. Hidden behind the Beam’s seamlessly wrapped cloth grill is a center-mounted tweeter, four full-range woofers, and three passive bass radiators, all of which have been custom-designed by Sonos specifically for the Beam. Sitting atop its smooth surface are the same touch-sensitive controls from the Sonos One, plus the microphone array needed to pick up voice commands. Hilmar Lehnert, a senior director of audio at Sonos, told Digital Trends that getting a mic array to discern voices from music is a lot harder when you’ve got five drivers all pumping out sound, instead of just two, like on the Sonos One.
Voice performance: Very good
Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks. The ability to choose between the two major voice systems further ups the One's appeal, especially to Google households. Shop your favorite products and we’ll find the best deal with a single click. I love Sonos and it works great for TV based Home Cinema but if you are using a projector or a TV that doesn't have an Optical out then you are in trouble.
As much as we love Sonos, the Riva Concert recently forced us to reconsider our expectations of a compact, connected smart speaker. With full Alexa support and fantastic sound, plus Bluetooth, aux-in, a USB port, and an identical price to the Sonos One, well, what can we say? It’s the first speaker to give Sonos some serious competition, and you owe it to yourself to check it out before making your decision. Just over 2 inches tall, it's squat enough to nestle beneath larger splayed-leg TV sets.
Don’t buy it if you are super picky about sound quality and need audiophile-grade performance. We in the tech biz toss the term “wireless multiroom audio” around a lot, but what Sonos really does is put great-sounding music in every corner of your home or business — while making it dead simple. We like to think of Sonos as the audio company Apple wishes it could be — one that gives you amazing sound that “just works.” So what could possibly raise our enthusiasm about the company and its wares?
Thanks to Sonos’ microphone implementation, you can issue these voice commands from just about anywhere within earshot of the speaker. We were also impressed with how music could be blaring at full volume, but the microphones still caught us when we said, “Alexa,” to bring the speaker to attention. With great sound, a compact size and the option of either Google Assistant or Alexa, the Sonos One reaffirms its place as the best smart speaker for the money.
Many mainstream customers may not care, but given the cost, flexibility of the system, and how many enthusiasts like both Sonos and higher speaker numbers, it feels like a major missing feature. The Playbar has six mid-woofers to cover the low frequencies and three tweeters to cover the high, all driven by nine class-D amplifiers. The left and right tweeters are angled out to project sound as widely as possible.More importantly, it's a "smart" component. According to Sonos, the Playbar makes 24 million calculations per second, adding, subtracting, equalizing, and otherwise intelligently adjusting each element to keep the system in balance. Prior to Sonos I had a 7.1 surround sound system based off of a Pioneer receiver.
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