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Beam, Playbase or Playbar with 2 sonos ones?

  • 22 February 2020
  • 31 replies
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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

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Best answer by Airgetlam 22 February 2020, 19:09

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31 replies

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. 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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:

Airgetlam

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. 

Bruce
B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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!
N
Badge

Since you are in the Sonos-forum, I am quite confident that must users will prefer Sonos to other brands. 
 

Sonos has been making multiroom, smart speakers for a seriously long time. 

 

People call Sonos lazy, slow, ignorant...but I guess that is because they have gotten used to the fantastic development that has always been a guarantee with Sonos. 
 

They support almost any music service you can think of (for instance, they were the first manufacturer other than Apple that supported Apple Music). 
 

They are to date the only manufacturer that supports all three of Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri with built in mics. 
 

They offer such a wide range of speakers plus the AMP and the port, if you prefer passive speakers or require an advanced surround receiver for surround etc. 

 

Sure, Bluesound has some advantages, but they don’t support Atmos etc. either. I don’t think any of their products support voice commands via build-in mics yet (although it should be coming) so for now you need additional devices to enable voice control. They don’t support Apple Music (in fact they are telling customers that Apple does not allow third-parties like Sonos to add their service, despite Sonos having some just that...) and I am sure there are many other shortcomings. 

Denon is clearly better in terms of supported file formats and supports DTS, Atmos etc., but they have other shortcomings. Limited support of music services is one. In my opinion their app is less than elegant. Built in support for voice control is also said to be enabled in 2020, but still hasn’t arrived as far as I know. So not exactly front runners either.

Generally, I just believe I am better prepared for the future with Sonos. More than 10 years in and they haven’t disappointed yet. Oh - and their speakers look pretty great :)


 

 

Sure.. it’s the best looking wireless speaker. I agree with that 

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

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!
 

 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

I’m curious as to how they could afford to pay the license fee for all of the already sold devices, and In the case of the PLAYBAR, I have to wonder if there’s enough processing power or a chip to handle it. 
Would love to get DTS from Sonos, for sure. Just not sure I know enough of the needs requires to know if it’s feasible. Certainly should be on any future hardware, though. And I wonder about the Dolby Atmos market penetration. Is it enough to push Sonos into that area, as well? We’ll have to see. 

Regarding DTS other manufacturers manage to pony up the money, I just bought a player that transcodes DTS to DD saving Sonos the trouble.

I think you’re right that the Playbar is lacking necessary components but that would be why it should have been updated. 
 

I’ve got a significant amount of Sonos kit, appreciate what it can do but am deeply frustrated by what it can’t. As you rightly said we’ll have to see what Sonos plan next!

Airgetlam

I’m curious as to how they could afford to pay the license fee for all of the already sold devices, and In the case of the PLAYBAR, I have to wonder if there’s enough processing power or a chip to handle it. 
Would love to get DTS from Sonos, for sure. Just not sure I know enough of the needs requires to know if it’s feasible. Certainly should be on any future hardware, though. And I wonder about the Dolby Atmos market penetration. Is it enough to push Sonos into that area, as well? We’ll have to see. 

Bruce
B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

As I am “some people” I stand by not upgrading the Playbar to airplay 2 and hdmi after 7(!) years in production as really, really lazy. And not paying the licence fee for DTS is cheap when Sonos is anything but.

That doesn’t mean I dislike the sound quality nor do I underestimate Sonos multi room functionality.

But other manufacturers are closing the gap on what made Sonos unique. More than one company has thought they were too good to fail and rested on their laurels. They tend not to disappear overnight rather become less relevant over time. Maybe in May we’ll see what their plan is but as I’ve already said if it were me I’d wait before investing more money in their products.

 

Airgetlam

Note that Sonos sued Denon for patent infringement, and won. Details of the settlement were not disclosed, to my knowledge, at least, but I would assume that Denon is likely paying Sonos some amount for every speaker sold. 

Bruce
T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

Since you are in the Sonos-forum, I am quite confident that must users will prefer Sonos to other brands. 
 

Sonos has been making multiroom, smart speakers for a seriously long time. 

 

People call Sonos lazy, slow, ignorant...but I guess that is because they have gotten used to the fantastic development that has always been a guarantee with Sonos. 
 

They support almost any music service you can think of (for instance, they were the first manufacturer other than Apple that supported Apple Music). 
 

They are to date the only manufacturer that supports all three of Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri with built in mics. 
 

They offer such a wide range of speakers plus the AMP and the port, if you prefer passive speakers or require an advanced surround receiver for surround etc. 

 

Sure, Bluesound has some advantages, but they don’t support Atmos etc. either. I don’t think any of their products support voice commands via build-in mics yet (although it should be coming) so for now you need additional devices to enable voice control. They don’t support Apple Music (in fact they are telling customers that Apple does not allow third-parties like Sonos to add their service, despite Sonos having some just that...) and I am sure there are many other shortcomings. 

Denon is clearly better in terms of supported file formats and supports DTS, Atmos etc., but they have other shortcomings. Limited support of music services is one. In my opinion their app is less than elegant. Built in support for voice control is also said to be enabled in 2020, but still hasn’t arrived as far as I know. So not exactly front runners either.

Generally, I just believe I am better prepared for the future with Sonos. More than 10 years in and they haven’t disappointed yet. Oh - and their speakers look pretty great :)


 

 

N
Badge

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? 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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.

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.
 

 

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


That is unfortunately not the case. When the ones are connected to the Playbar as rear speakers for surround, the Playbar will control that group and will be the only speaker showing up in your apps etc. You will not be able to airplay to the ones connected to the Playbar as rears. 
 

Have a look at this previous post:

 

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-228993/will-airplay-2-ever-be-supported-via-surround-with-playbar-and-ones-6809385

N
Badge

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 

N
Badge

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? 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

How will you transmit DTS over an optical connection? I’ve never seen anything that indicates that is possible, but admit I haven’t looked extensively. 

How will you transmit DTS over an optical connection? I’ve never seen anything that indicates that is possible, but admit I haven’t looked extensively. 

DTS can be transmitted over optical no problem, but Sonos have to pay the licence fee. They always said it wasn’t offered as they were all about streaming, not disc based systems. This made anyone wanting a decent surround experience buy a player that could transcode DTS to DD if the Blu Ray was a DTS only sound track. I knew this when buying my Playbase but am not about to thank Sonos for having to buy a new Blu Ray player. These days you’d probably have to buy an Xbox. I don’t think Sonos will ever offer it although some speculate they might when the DTS patent expires.

DD+ can be sent over optical, anything else needs hdmi And this is where I think Sonos are going with greater band width needed for movies and even Atmos music. Only guessing, perhaps we’ll know more in May!

T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

How will you transmit DTS over an optical connection? I’ve never seen anything that indicates that is possible, but admit I haven’t looked extensively. 

By  “update” I think Beagle means release of new, updated hardware to replace the Playbase/Playbar. 

Airgetlam

How will you transmit DTS over an optical connection? I’ve never seen anything that indicates that is possible, but admit I haven’t looked extensively. 

Bruce
B
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

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.

Airgetlam

Remember, it actually is AirPlay 2, which replaced AirPlay. Sonos didn’t work with AirPlay directly, but does with AirPlay 2. 

Bruce
T
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

It is really all down to personal preference. 
 

I had the luxury of having all of the Beam, Playbase and Playbar at the same time and was able to test them closely together. 
 

There is no doubt that the sound of the Playbase/Playbar is more satisfying than the Beam, especially for music.

 

The Beam is smaller and smarter which are also important factors. 

 

For pure sound quality, I believe the author has made a great choice. The fact that the Playbase supports AirPlay 2 also gives some comfort as to future use. Airplay will surely be around for many years to come. 

Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

The only downside of Sonos products is that they are expensive. For example you buy for 1800 euro a 5.1 set and after 8 till 10 years you have 2 change it or it’s broken. 

------

Mine is also 2 one sl’s with sub. I just need a playbase. So you are satisfied with your beam? Do you have room filling sound when you play music? Enough bass and volume? 

Why do you say that my Sonos gear from 2006 is still working just fine?

Have you been reading the click-bait scary articles about the coming Sonos Legacy modern device split and not the real info from Sonos?

I’m so satisfied with my Beam 5.1 that I bought two more after auditioning it for a few days. I have one in a 10x10 foot office, about 3 meters, another is in a 15x20 bedroom and the last in a big L shaped room about 20 wide and 30 down the arms. All do an excellent job of filling the room with music at reasonable levels, too old for party levels.

With the Amp you get a 4.1 system with a virtual center channel so you only need 2 front speakers.

The Amp advantage is the huge selection of speakers you can get, some make the Sonos speakers look like they only need an added strap to be headphones! My favorites at 105 dB: 1w/M https://www.klipsch.com/products/la-scala-al-5

 

N
Badge

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.

Mine is also 2 one sl’s with sub. I just need a playbase. So you are satisfied with your beam? Do you have room filling sound when you play music? Enough bass and volume? 
 

Sorry for my English. It’s not my native language and I’m from The Netherlands. 

N
Badge

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.

That’s indeed a good solution to use the amp but it will be more expensive. If I buy playbase then I’m finished. If I buy a Sonos amp then I have to buy at least 3 more speakers to get 5.1. But you are right… that’s another solution. 
 

The only downside of Sonos products is that they are expensive. For example you buy for 1800 euro a 5.1 set and after 8 till 10 years you have 2 change it or it’s broken. 

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