Contributor I

Playbar vs. Playbase in an AirPlay 2 compatible Home Theatre setup

13 replies
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Hi everyone!

I'm quite new to Sonos having bought a pair of Sonos Ones about a week ago. Being absolutely amazed by the sound quality, my next plan is to complement these either with a Playbase or a Playbar so as to setup a home theatre in my living room. I would like this setup to be AirPlay 2 compatible (once it is supported) and knowing that Playbar is not as likely to support AirPlay 2 as the Playbase, I wonder if I can still get away with it by having the two Ones as rear speakers connected to the Playbar as part of the home theatre setup.

In other words, if I had a Playbar (hypothetically not supporting AirPlay 2) and two Ones connected to the former as rear speakers, would I be able to stream music through AirPlay 2 to the whole Home Theatre or will I only be able to stream over AirPlay 2 to the pair of Ones?

I know any discussions on AirPlay 2 are still speculation, but I suppose the answer to my question should be predictable based on another currently possible setup: a Playbar with a pair of Play:5, one of the latter connected to an Airport Express and accesible through AirPlay. How does this work?

Looking forward to your comments.

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Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

I'll pass it along for you Mark.

When it's out in stores, you might want to check out the sound on Beam. It's quite impressive for the size, and though the Playbar can outshine it, I think it'll depend on your room a lot. Neither one is lacking.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

M

mark@scan

Trending Lyricist I

Thanks Ryan, i'll be sure to check one out or try and take advantage of the 100 day return period as I suspect this is something I'm going to need to compare in my own environment.

craftytony

Trending Lyricist I

So the Sonos official message is https://blog.sonos.com/en/airplay2-coming/. Which says that grouping old and one of the new devices will allow AirPlay for the group. I'm really hoping this works well. I want to group a PlayBar and two Sonos One's. I'm really hoping that the group will be exposed together in Airplay 2. Does anyone have any insight to confirm this or not?

Grouping does work, but when you have a system configured in surround sound setups the home theater device is the one determines Airplay 2 compatibility. Using Sonos One or the Play:5 gen2 as surround speakers with the Playbar won’t bring Airplay 2 to the setup.

This is really disappointing, effectively owners of a playbar have no upgrade path, I was considering a Beam but reading it would appear the playbar is still the more powerful option. However it's lack of HDMI and touch controls means owners of these devices myself included miss out on newer features like airplay2 and alexa integration in the living room. More frustrating I purchased 2x play ones hoping to avoid this but it would seem per your comments above not to be the case.

I'm sure your product team are aware of this already but if you could please pass on my feedback and I'm sure that our many other playbar owners as appears to be the case reading the forum that we would like a playbar "gen 2" perhaps. Something that does not force us to make a compromise as is currently the case.

All I can say is "wow". After returning from a 3 month deployment with a little extra cash in hand, I also foolishly invested in a playbar and 2 sonos ones being led to believe my setup would be airplay 2 compatible since I had the "ones". Now we're being asked to look at the beam which will not sound as good as the playbar as a solution!? Freaking ridiculous, not all of us are made of money and to have dropped a pretty penny already on these speakers pisses me off. I almost bought the subwoofer to add to my system but now I'm seriously going to look at alternatives. How hard can it be to make the play ones selectable in iOS as standalone speakers?

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