No new Playbar? Really Sonos?

I keep waiting for news on a Hi-Res player.

Would love to listen to Tidal on Sonos instead of the other guys.🤫

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Tidal/MQA

All this R&D on the Move which I expect to be a niche product given it's price. Meanwhile the Playbar sits at $699 with no HDMI, dated looks, no voice control, no new audio codecs. Listen to the Verge podcast where they interview the Sonos CEO. They ask him why no new Playbar and he blows it off. At the end they make fun of it only having an optical port. It's just an insult to Sonos' customers. At least lower the price. Plenty of soundbars out there that do twice as much for half as much. Get rid of the Playbase and upsize the Beam. How hard can that be instead of designing a portable bluetooth speaker?
Sonos have the sales figures and the research. If the Playbar is under featured and overpriced the market will soon let Sonos know. How can this be an insult to customers? The only reason a company should reduce a price is because it will increase profit to do so.

I have no view on whether Sonos has got its product strategy right or wrong. I simply don't have the info. But I don't take it as a personal affront.

If I had to put money on Sonos' next product it would be a Playbar gen 2. But what do I know?

All this R&D on the Move which I expect to be a niche product given it's price. Meanwhile the Playbar sits at $699 with no HDMI, dated looks, no voice control, no new audio codecs. Listen to the Verge podcast where they interview the Sonos CEO. They ask him why no new Playbar and he blows it off. At the end they make fun of it only having an optical port. It's just an insult to Sonos' customers. At least lower the price. Plenty of soundbars out there that do twice as much for half as much. Get rid of the Playbase and upsize the Beam. How hard can that be instead of designing a portable bluetooth speaker?

As owner of a Playbase (multiple speakers, better sound than Beam IMHO) I would counter that with: get rid of the over-sized Playbar and the under-powered Beam.

To each his own, I guess 😉

Perhaps it will be better to keep all three.

But you are right: an upgrade to them all is due/overdue.

All this R&D on the Move which I expect to be a niche product given it's price. Meanwhile the Playbar sits at $699 with no HDMI, dated looks, no voice control, no new audio codecs. Listen to the Verge podcast where they interview the Sonos CEO. They ask him why no new Playbar and he blows it off. At the end they make fun of it only having an optical port. It's just an insult to Sonos' customers. At least lower the price. Plenty of soundbars out there that do twice as much for half as much. Get rid of the Playbase and upsize the Beam. How hard can that be instead of designing a portable bluetooth speaker?

Agreed. Surely a replacement is on the way. The Beam is so far advanced from the Playbar now, but the sound on the Playbar is still the best. Seems like a no-brainer that this should be a priority. The Playbase is really a redundant product too with not many TVs with the middle stand anymore.

Or maybe its time to go back to Bose... 😞 If only their app wasn't so horrible.

I’m also surprised Sonos is coming out with new products, but hasn’t updated the playbar. I have a mid-sized living room. When I had to choose, I opted for a beam and sub, because I wanted hdmi/arc. I’m very pleased with the sound. Admittedly, I haven’t compared it to a playbar. I keep waiting, but I will need a playbar with advanced audio codecs, as well as hdmi/arc, for me to upgrade.

Hi,

I have a pretty good insight in what BOSE is doing in certain categories! It seems they‘re launching new Atmos models next Year.

Okay, i don‘t want to compare the more muffled but spectacular „Bose sound“ with our beloved SONOS sounding. But to be honest what SONOS did to it‘s lignup in the past few years is akward!

• no HDMI on Playbase
• no update to Playbar
• nether Atmos nor HD Sound nor DTS !...
• no dedicated remote for ~50 bugs
• no ( complete wireless) home theater receiver wehre you could find your own combination of SONOS gear to set up your livingroom with a full growen 5.1 to 13.4 soundsystem !

WHY NOT SONOS , WHY ?

I’m also surprised Sonos is coming out with new products, but hasn’t updated the playbar. I have a mid-sized living room. When I had to choose, I opted for a beam and sub, because I wanted hdmi/arc. I’m very pleased with the sound. Admittedly, I haven’t compared it to a playbar. I keep waiting, but I will need a playbar with advanced audio codecs, as well as hdmi/arc, for me to upgrade.
If a new playbar is released and it doesn’t have eARC I won’t buy it and will switch to Bose or something that does as it will solve so many problems with codecs and lip sync etc.

I wonder what the cost of an eARC component is, versus an HDMI-ARC component is. Are they being sold at "commodity" prices, or would Sonos have to price any replacement device at two or three times the current price in order to still be able to make a profit off of sales?

What percentage of the marketplace has eARC output at this moment? Say, just in the US. And the EU, as a separate number.

I'd hope that there's someone at Sonos tracking that information. I too would like the replacement device to have this, but I also would prefer not to have to pay through the nose for something I won't be able to use until my next TV purchase.

I wonder what the cost of an eARC component is, versus an HDMI-ARC component is. Are they being sold at "commodity" prices, or would Sonos have to price any replacement device at two or three times the current price in order to still be able to make a profit off of sales?

What percentage of the marketplace has eARC output at this moment? Say, just in the US. And the EU, as a separate number.

I'd hope that there's someone at Sonos tracking that information. I too would like the replacement device to have this, but I also would prefer not to have to pay through the nose for something I won't be able to use until my next TV purchase.
I dont know a ton about how much the cost would be but I dont see it being two or three times the current price as the bose sound bar 700 offers it at a cost of 799.99 So I wouldn't see how Sonos could justify a ton more? Also it's backwards compatible so while it may be a bit before every is utilizing it your not losing anything by adding it but definitely future proofing your product quite a bit especially since if Sonos releases a new playbar without it were not likely to see a playbar refresh for another 5 to 7 years after the next one lol. I'll keep my fingers crossed!