Last week friday I've got a brand new Playbase to complement my audio setup. I already own a pair of Play5s Gen2 (I love them). I set up below my TV and my pair of Play5s I moved backwards to use them as surround speakers. Honestly speaking styling look amaizing. I was really happy.



Then, I played a couple of songs that I love playing in Play5s [Juno Reactor - Teahouse; Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Flight of the cosmic hippo; Eagles - Hotel California (Live from Hell freeze over)] and I notice that sound performance decreased a lot. Low tones were not as good as previously, sound was like the speakers were about to crash. Notice that in the past the sound was simply amaizing. EQ was around 75% BASS; 50% TREBLE.



So I realizen that Playbase was causing this issue. I adjusted EQ and sound improves overall, however Play5s didn't sound as great as before. I removed surrounds and group back as stereo and sound went back to original. (75% BASS; 50% TREBLE)



Once again I tested same songs in Playbase but I adjusted EQ to 25% BASS; 50% TREBLE to get a sound not so powerful but at least I feel speakers performing correctly.



Then I played a couple of scenes from movies I love Terminator - Rise of the machines; Matrix - Revolutions] and Playbase sound was not good. I felt all sound was coming from a FR CTR speaker, I could not identify difference between left and right. Using Play5s sounds incredible, you can really identify left / right sounds. (75% BASS; 50% TREBLE)



In addition since BASS level around 75%, mid and high tones I felt they dissapear and low tones were not accurate.



I made both with and without Trueplay. Actually I don't use it since Play5s sound really good. Using Trueplay the sound is more focused on mid/high tones so in general sounds it's kind of OK but not amaizing.



When I finished all my testing I felt a little dissapointed because my Play5s sound much more better without Playbase and I'm really thinking to return Playbase and keep my original set up.



My suggestions:



In Home theater mode with Play5s surrounds

- EQ should independient between Playbase and Surrounds.

- Music should be reproduced using surrounds, playbase should be only for TV/Movies.

- Wide range sound coming from Playbase needs to improve.



Wishlist:

- Develop a audio control module that accepts optical audio input (you already have it from Playbase/Playbar) to manage wirelessly 2.1/5.1 setup for instance: 2 Play5s + 2 Play1s + 1 Sub.



Thanks!