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Beam, Playbase or Playbar with 2 sonos ones?

  • 22 February 2020
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31 replies

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Another option would be a Sonos Amp, a good pair of conventional Right and Left speakers for the front, your Sub and your Ones as surrounds.

I considered that and alternately using a non-Sonos sub here. When it came time to decide I went with the Beam (newest hardware) One SLs and a Sub. The integration and small system size won over the other concerns.

N
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Thank you both! This was very helpful👍🏻
My setup will be: 2x ones + sub + Playbase.

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

The Playbar does NOT support Airplay 2. So skip that. 
 

Q1: Best sound quality, with support of Airplay 2, will be the Playbase. Much better sound than the Beam for music. So no 3. 
 

Q2: Yes. Significantly. There will be a huge improvement. For music, you can set the Ones to play as either surround (background) or full. I use full. 
 

Q3: Very different approach. You will have music surrounding you with the 5.1 system. Two fives will be great, but I believe a 5.1 setup with a Playbase and the Sub will be better - but that might be a matter of taste. 
 

Q4: Only multi-room. You cannot add anything more to a 5.1 setup. You can only group that system with other speakers.
 

 

N
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Thank yo both.  You know the ones support AirPlay 2 so I can use Siri with HomeKit app. So it’s not a problem for me to use playbar. The other things like mic or google assistend are not so important for me. 

I only want the best setup for the best price for playing music and watch movies. Maybe my question was not so clear. I will give you guys some examples for best music quality:

1.) 2x ones + beam +sub ? 

2.) 2x ones + playbar + sub ? 

3.) 2x ones + playbase + sub ?

which of the above settings is the best for best experience playing music? 
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question 2: if you have 2 ones and a sub, will the sound quality improve for music when I add a playbar or a playbase or a beam? 

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question 3: Is the sound quality of 2 ones + bar or beam or base equal as only 2 fives ( nothing else more) when you play music? 
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question 4: When I have 2 ones + sub+ bar or beam or base, and i want to add only one play 5. I want then play music thru al these speakers. Is there still a possibility to play STEREO music, or is only multi room possible with this kind of setting? 

Airgetlam

Sonos does not make a ‘center’ speaker, nor does their software allow a setup that uses any of their speakers to act as one. All Sonos sound bars contain the center, left, and right speakers in the same enclosure, so if you use a sound bar, then you can’t have separate left and right speakers up front, but you can use them as the surrounds. All of Sonos’ sound bars are good, each has a slightly different feature set, as they were developed at different times. You should look at the one that has the most features that match your needs. 

Bruce
T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

I might be misreading your post, but in a 5.1 setup, your ones will be rear speakers. 
 

The Beam, Playbar or Base will provide two front channels AND the center channel while the two ones should be placed behind you and will serve as rears for surround. 
 

I have all three devices. The Playbar and Playbase are rather similar and both provide louder, more filling sound than the Beam. 
 

Of the three three, the Playbar is the oldest and doesn’t support HDMI or Airplay 2 and doesn’t have a build-in mic for voice control. If you don’t need to hang the speaker on the wall, I would skip the Playbar. 
 

The Base is a bit newer and thus support Airplay 2 but still doesn’t have HDMI or a build in mic. 
 

The Beam is the newest one, with HDMI and build-in mic to control Alexa or Google Assistant. HDMI is nice as it allows for better control with various remotes, for instance you can control volume using the Apple TV remote from your phone. 
 

The sound of the Beam is a bit tiny, but combined with a sub and the two ones it will do well for tv and movies. For music, I personally find it a bit lacking. I tried switching my Beam with my Playbar in a complete 5.1 setup for a short period, but I missed the broader and more full sound from the Playbar and switched back. 

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