Dolby Atmos

This: It's not ambivalence you're seeing, it's people trying to look at the matter objectively, from the perspective of the individual, overall consumers, and the company.

Would I be happy if Sonos were to consider more codecs? Absolutely. I've made that fairly clear in hundreds of posts. Does it make financial sense for Sonos, in whatever fashion it needs to? No idea. I, too, have made peace with the way things are right now, but that doesn't mean I don't expect future changes. I don't expect Sonos to stand still. Like melvimbe (shoot, he wrote pretty much exactly what I would have), I want Sonos to be financially successful moving forward, and continue to support the investment I have, and will make, in their hardware. And no, I don't expect all of the hardware to be fully upgradeable, much like I have learned to live with the fact that I needed a Sonos One for AirPlay 2, and my PLAY:1s won't function with that feature as a receiver.

The thing I keep trying to help people understand is that these decisions come at a cost to Sonos. Either in terms of new licensing agreements with people who "own" the codec, or in the requirement for new hardware...or in the simple fact that some of the "older" equipment in use by many, many people out there will have to stop being functional at some time. I'm confident that Sonos is doing everything possible to forestall that day, but it will come, just like it has with the CR100 and the Dock.

Sonos does support a 5.1 codec, that is all they have to support, and that support alone has sold lots of products. There doesn't need to be a technical reason for not supporting more, nor do they need to give consumers any reasons why they only support DD 5.1 (and they did give a reason anyway). Your conclusion that Atmos must be in the pipeline isn't based on the facts, but on your own your own personal wish that it is.


In a world of Netflix and Roku, if Sonos wishes to end up being irrelevant in home theatre, than sure!

I was asked Sonos for DTS support for the Sonos Playbar from the beginning years ago.... Now after all these years there is still no DTS support ???Sonos says add 2x Play1 and Sub for 5.1 surround its not without the DTS support?
Now Dolby Atmos is coming it would not supported too for my Sonos Playbar?
I spend 2000 euro on Sonos Equipment.
Its a shame!! We want the full surround experience!!!?

Sonos now start listening to your loyal customers like myself!
I’ve asked for DTS support for years! And many customers did that too ????
Now if you would do something back for your loyal customers give us the full
Dolby Atmos support! Its 2019 Sonos start listening !and support Dolby Atmos for the Sonos Playbar. Then we all will be happy again with our expensive Sonos Home Cinema!!! It needs to be done come on wake up!!!!

Dolby Atmos through Optical is not possible. Dolby formats are backward compatible though, the TV set should pass Atmos downsized to Dolby Digital to the Playbar.

I do believe Sonos will have to address Dolby Atmos somehow, I can't be dogmatic about that but I work in retail and sale electronics ( including Sonos ) and while it's true most don't really know about codecs you would be surprised how many people are asking about Dolby Atmos now because it's marketed so heavily.

Where is the big Boss from Sonos are you reading this ? Give us Dolby Atmos support for the Sonos Playbar!!

Start listening to your loyal customers.

Um, the Playbar only has optical input: you cannot pass Atmos over optical. "You canna defy the laws of physics Jim".

I really hope that Sonos see the light and add Atmos and DD+ to the Beam and the next version of the Playbar along with DTS. The current capability of the Sonos soundbars is hardly ‘home cinema’.

I really hope that Sonos see the light and add Atmos and DD+ to the Beam and the next version of the Playbar along with DTS. The current capability of the Sonos soundbars is hardly ‘home cinema’.

On the Atmos side of things, I don't see them adding to the Beam. A playbar 2.0 makes a lot more sense. Customers who care about Atmos are likely going to want the bigger/better playbar and want upwards firing speakers built it. Perhaps they could make separate upwards firing speakers that work with the beam and playbar 2.0, but that presuambly will put additional strain on the stability of wireless network. I'm sure there's some existing customers who will feel slightly cheated if their existing beam doesn't get upgraded but that's going to happen if playbar 2.0 has any features that the beam doesn't have.

Totally guessing here, could be completely wrong.

Where is the big Boss from Sonos are you reading this ? Give us Dolby Atmos support for the Sonos Playbar!!
Start listening to your loyal customers.
Yes, we know that you want Atmos and DTS. We know that you've spent 2000 EUR. You've mentioned it in almost all of your posts here and in the Dutch community. Since it has been pointed out to you that Atmos over optical is not possible for the Playbar, and it's abundantly clear by now that Sonos will most likely never add DTS, if you're truly this unsatisfied, sell your gear and leave this forum if you have nothing constructive to contribute. Sonos is not cheap, so you can safely assume that most of the people on this forum have invested the same, if not more, in it than you have, so how much you've paid really doesn't matter to us.

Personally, I'm not sure if I would want Sonos to introduce Atmos hardware. It seems too much of a departure from their core business to me. In my mind, Sonos is a music system. It's nice to have 5.1 HT integration, and it would be great if they were to support codecs like DTS and Atmos, albeit downmixed (preferably downmixed by the Sonos hardware itself), so the integration would be seamless, but I would not care for Sonos investing time and money in creating products for a market segment that is not theirs.
I always tell people on here and in real life that if they're passionate about HT and surround sound, they should buy a proper A/V receiver and separate speakers. Sonos is not for them. The other way around, I would tell Sonos to offer an easy solution for people who want to integrate a basic HT in their Sonos system, but not to get involved in a different niche to their own, it is not for them.

My general vision on such developments is that I agree with Bruce's post above. I use a 5.1 Sonos setup, and I've jumped through the hoops I needed to jump through to make the best use of what it offers - I've bought a HDMI audio extractor switch and converted most of my digital files to DD5.1 - and I'm very happy with the performance.
Yes, it would be convenient if Sonos supported more codecs. As mentioned somewhere above, at this pricepoint you would just "expect" your product to work under all circumstances and it would be great not having to think of downmixing audio files or not listening to upmixed stereo while you were expecting 5.1.
Is it frustrating to have to wait so long for Google Assistant integration? Of course, I'd rather have any feature upgrade sooner than later.
Does this detract from my overall satisfaction with the product? No, it's great. I can do things now with my Sonos system I couldn't do when I started with just to Play 5s to play music, and I was already very happy with it then. Also, I knew what I was buying into when I finally bought the Playbar.

I work for a multinational company that is listed on the stock exchange. I know from experience that, as Bruce pointed out above, strategic decisions do not come lightly. And sometimes, you have to forego introducing products and activities that you would want to introduce, even if your competitor is already doing it, simply because the cost outweighs the benefit.

It seems like a sign of the times to complain about these things. We want everything now, without compromise. Not so long ago, if you bought a product like this, you bought into "the state of the art" at that time. Your CD player wouldn't magically turn into a DVD player. If you bought a piece of tech just moments before its successor hit the market, that was just tough luck. Currently, people assume everything can just be fixed "with a firmware update" and get offended when it's not technically or financially feasible.
Yes, this type of evolution has become a feature of tech products, but it also means that older products will eventually be crippled because they have to deal with an evolved ecosystem they were not built for. And of course, people will complain about that, too. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Consider that Sonos has done remarkably well in this regard. I'd like to see someone successfully using smartphones that are as old as the oldest still functioning Sonos products.

So to further echo Bruce, I would like to see updates, but not at any cost. I will also accept that some updates will not be rolled out for all products and that at some point, my oldest devices will fall out of the ecosystem, because that is just the way it goes with tech nowadays. If I don't object to buying a new smartphone at almost €1000 every few years, why would I complain about this? I think I will fair better with Sonos in terms of lifespan.