Convince me to buy Sonos Playbar over Bose 300

As we get "older" it is more important to have clear dialog and not knock pictures off the wall when a car explodes.

We mostly watch movies, sports and TV. Some music but not the priority. Harmony remote and Alexa.


After a week or two with the Playbase, I am happy. I had to go through some hoops to get 5.1 via my TV (using an HDMI switch) and add a Harmony Remote, but things are working well. Sound wise it fits the bill - I needed something that would deliver clear dialog, reasonably deep bass and integrate in my current Sonos environment. After two Trueplay tunings, the Playbase sounds full and clear. I have separate HT setup with projector for bog screen movie viewing, but for most viewing, the Playbase on my 50" plasma is prefect for someone who wants a single box solution that delivers a clear, full representation of all forms of TV content.

As an aside, the support for Sonos is a factor - forums like this help facilitate a better listening experience.

Back to your original post - yes, the Sonos store demo is terrible.

I've been using the Playbar in a 5.1 setup for about 6 months. Contrary to the 2 previous soundbars/surround setups I tried (Sony and Vizio) the Sonos system just plain works. I've never had to reset it or deal with any software glitches. With the Sony & Vizio systems this was almost a daily occurrence. I never tried the Bose system though. But I did listen to the Bose Soundtouch 300 in a store and thought it sounded as good as the Sonos.

My main gripe with the Sonos Playbar is the lack of an HDMI input and support for the newer codecs like DTS, Atmos. Do you plan on using a 4K Blu-ray player in a 5.1 configuration? If so I recommend the Bose system. With the Playbar only supporting the aging Dolby Digital 5.1, I had to spend a lot of time finding a 4K Blu-ray player that had the feature to transcode all of it's audio to DD5.1. So, I had to settle for the Samsung K8500 and couldn't get the player I really preferred.

If the DD5.1 isn't an issue for you, then I recommend the Sonos Playbar with the sub-woofer. It really sounds good and the software/firmware is very stable.

Thank you ALL for your help! The good and bad.
I have very fast wifi so that is not an issue.

Besides wanting great sound today, i want this system to work with any future equipment.
It seems like the Sonos has some limitations that concern me.

Time to make a decision! Next week, maybe.

Well, you said it right there - "I want this system to work with any future equipment". No way you can go with Sonos. They've proven with the recent release of the PlayBase that they're sticking with old tech.

On the other hand, Bose is on the third generation of their multi-room system in a little over three years, with some older features now unsupported. Whereas Sonos units going on 12 years old are still supported fully.

On the other hand, Bose is on the third generation of their multi-room system in a little over three years, with some older features now unsupported. Whereas Sonos units going on 12 years old are still supported fully.


Yes, tom12 is entitled to feel disappointed that the Playable didn't tick HIS boxes but that is NOT to conflate disappointment with lack of flexibility or expandability.

Currently I have a Sony model KDL55NX810, PS3 that is used for games as well as watching DVD/Blu Ray and streaming.
Charter HD cable box and Yamaha receiver. We do have the Alexa and would be very beneficial to control volume using that.

Everything is connected to the receiver with the TV being connected to the ARC HDMI.
That means the receiver is always on.

At some point the TV, PS3 (Maybe just get PS4) will be upgraded.
I want this soundbar to continue to function as expected.

I am sure the people at Best Buy are getting tired of me stopping buy.

I am not a big fan of anything fancier than a 2 channel amp driven speaker pair for TV so I am not affected by all the formats and the churn and the "progress" and its consequences for audio kit for TV. And Sonos may not meet all these expectations.

But for music in the home, I believe that Sonos is adequately future proofed. Voice control too will be an added feature to kit bought even ten years ago. Life is lot simpler for music lovers.

I exist in both worlds, Bose and Sonos.
I have a Sonos music system which does exactly what it says on the tin and what I bought it for, music that is.
I also have a bose soundtouch 130 which is the precursor to the 300 system.
The bose is dead easy to use and sound really good with tv, movies and such. But when it comes to music I really don't care for the bose.
Thing is, I bought the bose system over the sonos playbar because and only because of the apparent lack of connectivity in the playbar. I actually preferred the sound from the sonos playbar by a small margin.

The bose still sounds excellent and when I had owned it for a year and a half I deceided to try the soundtouch app for the first time.
Took me about 5 mins to set up.
Both systems are stable on my network but for music I prefer Sonos.
Tv and movies, it's a matter of taste. For me I'm not missing anything using the Bose.

if I were to do it again knowing what I know now I would go with the playbar.
If you intend to listen to music using either of these systems, the playbar sounds better in that regard.

I think that connectivity limitation is a lot smaller problem than I first thought.

My main use of a tv is streaming, netflix and all that so a playbar would be all I needed.
But if you are a blueray fan and want an epic home theater set up, neither of these will do.

I hope this helps.

Brg

Geiri

Currently I have a Sony model KDL55NX810, PS3 that is used for games as well as watching DVD/Blu Ray and streaming.
Charter HD cable box and Yamaha receiver. We do have the Alexa and would be very beneficial to control volume using that.

Everything is connected to the receiver with the TV being connected to the ARC HDMI.
That means the receiver is always on.

At some point the TV, PS3 (Maybe just get PS4) will be upgraded.
I want this soundbar to continue to function as expected.

I am sure the people at Best Buy are getting tired of me stopping buy.

Sonos have designed their soundbar solution with the simplest of connectivity - It connects to the audio source using an optical cable and can decode various audio formats (Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1). Given the Sonos track record we can assume that further iterations of the Sonos product line will still, at least, support those formats and inputs.

It is this simplicity of set-up that is at the very heart of much of the fiercest criticism for the Playbar - No HDMI audio input. This has 2 direct consequences - 1) The Playbar cannot support DTS nor Dolby Digital + 2) Many TVs do NOT pass through a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal OUT through their optical audio connection.

In other words Sonos rely to a large extent on how TV manufacturers deal with the audio signal that they receive via HDMI and then output via optical. Obviously in an ideal world all TVs would simply pass through what they received in terms of audio input and/or recoded to the format of the user's choice. But given that many TV manufacturer's also have TV soundbar offerings it is self evident that they would not necessarily design their hardware to function perfectly with that of a competitor - In other words there are also complicated commercial imperatives at play here.

That being said, if you take on board my first paragraph I don't think you can go far wrong.