Getting it out of the way... I have to say the Sonos system is pretty impressive.



In the past I've had a dedicated speaker/amp/preamp type of system for home theater. I've been using Martin Logan's (Vistas, Stage, Descent with Parasound amp and Anthem pre). With how the house is situated it was next to impossible to setup / run wires to rears to put on a breakfront behind the couch so it's been 3.1 for me for the last 9 years. We are moving to a much small space so knew this was not going to fit in the new space so all of it is going.



I started looking into soundbars a few months ago and from what I read thought I was going to go with a Sony ST5000 as it seemed to have all the features I wanted and the reviews were spectacular on it. Seeing they had one at BestBuy I had a demo of it. I'm not sure who is getting paid off to write reviews but it sounded nothing like the review. Tiny and thin is the way I would describe it best. Granted we were in a pretty open , but not loud space at the time but as far an immersive effect I was not finding that coming from the Sony system nor was the sound very good.



At this point I was not even really considering the Sonos as it was optical only and lack of HDMI. Just happening to walk by a display of the Sonos system I hit the demo button and literally jumped back from the sound from the playbase. This did not have the sub attached to it at the time too! I started to do some more research and after finding offers of 15% off for fathers day decided to buy the soundbar and a set of Ones for the rear. Hopefully Sonos rolls out the support for Google Assistant soon to them so I can move my Home Max to another room. BTW if you need someone to beta test firmware for that please feel free to contact me.



Next day free shipping had them waiting at my front door after work. To be honest at this point I was not expecting a lot and not expecting it to better a system that cost thousands more.



Setting up the soundbar was extremely easy. It's placed on the stand in front of the tv (Sony x900E), routed cable tv into the tv hdmi input along with a Sony x800 4k blueray player. Followed the setup on the app and it had to do a firmware update. Everything went fine and I had my sound from the soundbar playing like a champ. It did not have as wide of a soundstage as the ML speakers but they also had the benefit of being larger and physical separation between them was greater. Overall I was very pleased with what I was hearing from the soundbar alone. Compared to other soundbars (Bose, Sony, LG) that I had listened to it brought a lot of great sound to the picture My intent at this point was to supplement the sound for music with a set of KEF LS50W (extremely impressive speakers). I added the two Ones for rears with no issues outside of having to adjust the level down for the rears as they were overpowering the soundstage from the bar for music.



Roughly 30 or so minutes after they were all up and running I started getting an interference ticking sound (3 or 4 loud clicks) from the soundbar. Figuring I either had a defective soundbar or I was getting interference prior to any heavy rerouting of power I decided to unplug the soundbar and reset it (I work in IT so not the first time I've told someone with a problem to reboot haha). That cleared up the ticking noise and I've not heard it since last Friday.



The sound for movies and music was pretty impressive for the sound of the speakers. The Ones especially have a great sound to them. Once again not as wide of a front soundstage as my MLs but impressive for the size/price factor. A bit on the thin side but I could see it working out quite well for a large majority of users. From a soundbar perspective I've not heard any that came close to the Sonos system. There was a bit of a thin sound to the system but taking into account there was no sub , 3.25" speakers in the bar and the Ones in the back, there was a surprising amount of bass from the speakers.



I started thinking about adding the sub at this point to see how that would round things out soundwise and for effects. I'm sure from a home theater perspective it would add a lot (LFE) and maybe round out the sound a bit more from the bar and rears (rears alone have an impressive amount of bass to them as is). One thing I found is Sonos components have a pretty good resale factor to them and hunting around for a sub I found only two in the area (one was a bit sketchy) and price wise not far off from new. Unfortunately I waited too long and missed the end of the sale from Sonos for 15% off. I figured I could get one from BestBuy and if it didn't add a lot to the sound I could return it. BTW Sonos - BestBuy will NOT price match coupons to Sonos (even when I showed them a printout and on my phone).



Setting up the sub was a bit more temperamental to add to the existing setup. It took two attempts to link it (the flashing green never turned red - hitting the button or not on the sub). It then did a firmware update on the sub. Still would not link to the system. At that point I was on the phone (on hold) and still playing around with it. One last attempt (and unplugging again) finally it was able to link and I was able to add to the family room setup and have it functioning.



WOW! I never thought the change in sound would be so dramatic adding it. Not just from an effect (LFE) point of view but the soundstage seemed wider and more immersive. Adding the sub definitely adds a degree of presence and clarity that was lacking before, not by a small margin either! I have a feeling there is some eq'ing on the bar that is done by adding it but it took the playbar to a new level. Once you add the sub there is no going back from this. I can see why it's the same price as the bar. The bass was pretty much non localized and sounded like it was coming from everywhere. It really filled out what was missing in the system for TV and movies. I took the level down a tic to smooth it out. There's plenty of bass without cranking it up and if you want it there is tons of reserve. Watching tv and movies were fantastic. I might try some gaming on it from the PS4 tonight. Music being streamed from Google Music sounds very good - there's a lot of resolution that is capable of - the better the source the better the sound.



I need to reprogram my Harmony remote tonight and will have to try the TruePlay tuning also (from an IPAD).



Looking back on some of the reservations I had (namely lack of HDMI inputs) after putting the Sonos system into use I am not missing them now. I do not have to worry about HDMI handshaking and if a new version of HDMI comes I do not have to worry about compatibility. Only had to change the Sony TV to external speakers and make sure my cable/dvd/Roku (have to add the Roku next) were set to Dolby Digital and not DD+.



Another side benefit was my picture was even clearer bypassing the Anthem preamp I was using . I had to tone brightness down a hair on my picture.



I can see this as a system as being one I keep for a long time. So long as I have a TV that has an optical out should work out like a champ. Very happy so far with this setup.