Convince me to buy Sonos Playbar over Bose 300

Sonos' traffic is solely handled by the router

lol.

Router speedtested at 480mbs and 2ms latency.
Sonos is the problem, not my router
The real point is that it was working OK, I have changed NOTHING and now it isn't.
I cannot, however, check the guts of Sonos programming to see what "tweaks" they have mad to "improve" performance

As a software engineer most Issues are with other people's software. Sonosnet just works faultlessly. If you can I would recommend hardwiring the first Sonos and going on from there. Powerline or other tech could be used here and feed the tv with a solid feed too. Stanard wifi issues abound are there any channel overloads, wall construction, range etc. Sonosnet is brilliant at fixing wirless notspots Added a play3 to my setup and my cr100 worked faultlessly in the bath.

I have owned Sonos products for several years now and it is absolutely bulletproof. It always does what you want it to. The idea about using PowerLine where WiFi is sketchy is a great suggestion. I have powerline for my playbar and use that ethernet for the other network connected devices there. VERY happy customer. Zero problems ever.

I'd say if you want your TV sound system to last and work with the latest DD what ever that might be, go with Bose. I know everyone says sonos is great at supporting old features and connectivity but in the end the current playbar/playbase are outdated in terms of connectivity. Anything higher than standard DD 5.1 seems to be converted down to 2.1. I'm sure or at least hope the next gen of playbar/playbase will come with a HDMI port but right now you're paying a premium for an outdated piece of equipment which should really be good for the next 5 years. Having said that, if you're only looking for 2.1 - you should be fine.

Sonos vs Bose 300. I have a recording studio in my basement. I've traveled and have been in front of a console/mixing board mixing for so many bands and on different equipment. So I'll give you my opinion and hear me out. I bought the Bose because quite frankly the technology and engineering is incredible. I get the system home and the overall sound is beyond belief....for the most part. I compare it to buying a brand new vehicle. You spend all of this money and it doesn't have Bluetooth. You are amazed because there can be no reason for NOT having a Bluetooth! Ha! The deep frequency response from the sub is everything you could want. It's thunderous and tight. The sound bar has all of this sound dispersing from everywhere and it's full of energy! After sitting the system up, my wife and I were watching everything we could in order to enjoy the full dynamic sound of the Bose 300 system. As we continued watching and listening, we both were having extreme difficulty hearing the voices with clarity. For me, it seemed like the voices were missing something from 4k-8k. In my mixes, I boost around 10-12k in order to provide some shimmering high end. Regardless, the bar was a little boxy which led my wife and I to cup our hands around our ears (like you are leaning in to hear something). We ended up taking the Bose back.

We bought the Sonos Playbar with the sub. The Sonos is much clearer than the Bose 300 bar. However, that's really the only thing better. The Bose has more energy, much better sub response, more dynamic and disperses wider than the Sonos. I spent quite a while moving the Sonos sub around to find where it sounded best. The Bose sub, I really didn't have to anything.

As far as features....It's nice to have features as these products do and you want them as well. But it really is crazy that I am sticking with a product like Sonos when in general the Bose is a great product because there isn't any way to really get that edge on the 300. I've not had any issues with the Sonos and many of the issues I read prior have been fixed with the updates. Just one guys humble opinion.

Hi IBGMiGuy,

I have both Sonos and Bose in my home for several years. For clarity and ease of use, I choose Bose hands down. I bought three Sonos Play:5 speakers in 2010 to have wireless music throughout my home. Never had to call for help but do have to reboot the computer sometimes to clear up issues. Before I bought the Bose for surround sound, I did alot of research on various sytems, including Sonos. I liked the thought of being able to use the soundbar with the rest of the Sonos system. Then I found out about not being able to get true surround sound with it and that changed my mind. I went with the Bose and am very happy with it. I hope you get it worked out.

"and if the Playbar/Playbase decoded DTS then things would undoubtebly be very, very much simpler for pretty much everybody"

I just don't agree with this statement. And clearly neither do Sonos as they have stated that their research shows that the vast majority of video sources watched via Sonos do NOT have DTS or at least DTS exclusively.
For me, I used to have a Blu-Ray DVD player and now have an Xbox. Even though I do have Blu-rays I have NEVER once either wanted or needed to be able to decode a DTS soundtrack.

If the inability of the Playbar to decode DTS were a significant downward pressure on sales you can bet Sonos would address it.

I think that Sonos not supporting DTS is a major downside. Heck, they don't even support LPCM 5.1, which wouldn't entail a licensing fee.

If I knew that getting 5.1 to work well with sonos would be a constant headache, then I would have went with a different surround system. Yes, some streaming apps like Dolby, but some now are leaning toward dolby plus, which Sonos doesn't support.

Having to get a specific and sometimes hard to identify blueray player isn't a superb solution. I know sonos has stated they don't care about non-streaming sources, but I just kind of expected it to work for the high cost. It's not like their marketing material makes the distinction.

I paid £50 for our Samsung Blu-ray player, no big deal in the grand scheme of things.. Found it within 30 seconds.of logging onto the "bay"..

Router speedtested at 480mbs and 2ms latency.
Sonos is the problem, not my router
The real point is that it was working OK, I have changed NOTHING and now it isn't.

Things good IT people don't do.

1. Confuse Internet bandwidth and LAN congestion.
2. EVER, EVER bring up the whole "I didn't change it, so there's been no changes" argument. It's irrelevant to the functionality, and you're hardly the master of all variables.