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Beam, Playbase or Playbar with 2 sonos ones?

  • 22 February 2020
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31 replies

N
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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.
 

 

Doesn’t matter if the playbar does not support airplay2. If ones support AirPlay 2 it wil also go to playbar 

B
Userlevel 3
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Releasing updated speakers with new functionality to replace the old ones will always be a difficult balance. One of the reasons why the resale value of Sonos is so good is that they keep their products alive and relevant as long as possible. 
 

If they had released a new Playbar with DTS support just a few years after releasing the first Playbar, the community would have gone crazy. 

 

Just look at the companies who push new versions of their products with new functionality each year. Sure, they stay relevant - if you keep upgrading every year and accept that your old products are being pushed into obsolescence too early with little to no user base supporting the older products. No user base will grow for products which are replaced every year or every second year for that matter. 
 

So in a way, I am happy with Sonos not releasing new and better hardware all the time. It makes it a bit more “safe” to buy Sonos you could say. The longer a product is on the market, the bigger the user base will be and that will help find solutions to whatever issues that arise in the lifetime of the products  

 

Of course, now that the Playbar is 8 years old soon and the Beam is clearly a more advanced product in many ways, the time for an updated Playbar seems near  

 

But if the Playbar v2 comes with Atmos, DTS and what have you - and the same functionality doesn’t arrive for at least the Beam and the AMP which are both fairly new products - we should all put on our helmets and goggles because there will be a mayhem in the forums!

Outstanding spin - you must be on the Sonos payroll!
B
Userlevel 3
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Sonos has repeatedly said that all Sonos employees in this forum are marked as such. Since Tejs Dyrvig Ernst is not marked as such, he must not be an employee, no matter how much his perspective is different than yours. 

You are quite right. I should have said “friend”! :wink:

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? 

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

@Beagle 
 

I assure you that I am not on Sonos’ payroll and if you scavenge the forum, you will find my fair share of complaining - in particular on the stubbornness in terms of limiting surround to DD 5.1 which has been around since the time when non-HD DVDs were a thing.

 

In my view, it was a huge letdown to release the Playbar as a premium product in 2012 without DTS support. Surely, people (like me) who would spent the kind of money on a soundbar as the Playbar costs would also likely have invested in a Blu-ray player (as I had..). 

 

But despite this issue, I still can’t point to any valid alternative. I recently sold my Playbar and a couple of other speakers (3x Play:3s and a 1st gen Play:5) because I have temporarily moved to a smaller flat while we are having a new house build. So my current setup fully supports Airplay 2 and I am in a situation where I could relatively smoothly transition to another brand.

 

Consequently, I have looked into the competition but I honestly can’t find any preferable alternative. 

N
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Hello,

I have few questions. Right now I have 2 ones and a sub. I want to add beam or playbase or playbar. Which of these do you recommend for a 5.1 setting and playing music? I have a 30m2 living room. The center speaker is only for vocal right? So it’s not important how the sound quality of this center is? I also want to use the center and 2 ones for playing stereo music. Do you recommend that, and so which center speaker? 
 

is 2 ones and a center speaker more powerful for playing stereo music instead of 2 ones only?

 

2 ones and a center is like 2 fives only for sound quality ? I doubted between 2 ones + center and only 2 fives for playing music. 
 

thnx so far

If you can I’d wait until May to see if anything new is being released soon. Sonos are clearly considering their options which quite honestly are being forced upon them by the increasing sophistication of the audio from the streaming services such as Atmos and DD+. They really are quite a lazy company who like to put as much of the responsibility onto the user as they can, they’re not going to get away with hiding behind poor excuses over DTS again as their customer questionnaire shows.

 

I like my Playbase 5.1 system but there can’t be any excuses for both the Playbar and Playbase not being updated so they both offer the same spec as the Beam so I’m pretty sure something’s going to be released soon.

So you think we will get new Sonos stuff in may? So maybe i have 2 wait then. Is this update every may? 
you’re talking about specs between beam and base. The only thing that the base doesn’t support is voice commands. I can do that with Siri/AirPlay2. You can even connect googles nest to add voice control. So that’s not a huge problem right? 

I don’t know when Sonos will bring out new products. But given the Atmos survey and their intention to concentrate new features on their newer gear, and an announcement in May I’d wait if you can.

Optical connections can’t support much more than compressed DD & DTS, for anything else you need hdmi. They could get away with just supporting Atmos music streaming and high res audio but that would stretch their home cinema claims beyond credibility. I’ve always maintained that Sonos are lazy and try and push as much onto the user as possible for instance making you use the tv as a hub rather than having ports on the playbar/base/beam. I don’t think that will change but support for high bandwidth audio formats is inevitable and certainly the playbar/base will not be able benefit from anything via your tv.

In the end it’ll be down to what features you want and when you want to buy.

Thank you for your comment. So the Sonos does not support high def music? Only until 16 bit? Ok I will rerun my ones en sub tomorrow. So it doesn’t support high def, dts, Atmos , HDMI and etc… I will return it for sure. I will wait until end of may and maybe I will buy demon home 150. It has hd sound and maybe later 5.1 and Atmos. Other brand is blue sound. These are better then Sonos. What do you guys think? 

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