Contributor I

Playbase: Sonos no longer recommandable for home theater

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
March 7, 2017
47 replies
42144 views

Hello,

today I read the specifications of the brand new Playbase. What have I waited for a new gen2 Playbar, supporting DTS, DD+, maybe having HDMI or (now I am getting really crazy) supporting Dolby Atmos. There are even soundbars providing Dolby Atmos sound! Really, you can search for yourself, these things are possible in 2017...

And now the brand new Sonos Playbase is out... The only difference between the Playbar (based on the first test and specifications I read): It's flat and, oh yes, it will support Alexa.

Sonos, did you even listen to your customers? To the complaints about your old product, the Playbar? Did you recognize that the home theater world is moving into a future where you have 4k, HDR movies, losless audio formats, dolby atmos?

We (your beloved customers) should pay $700+ for a piece of hardware that supports only stereo if you use e.g. Netflix (Netflix uses DD+, the same for Maxdome in Germany). Not to mention that you could end up with no sound at all if you use 4k Bluerays (search the Sonos community).

Sorry, Sonos. That is not the way to go in my opinion.

I cannot further recommend you. You want to listen to plain music? You will be happy with the Play 1, 3 or 5 from Sonos, but there are cheaper and equally good products around. You want to integrate your living room in your sound setup, with your TV as a central element? Avoid Sonos at any costs, You will not be happy, there are better products around.

A very disappointed customer.

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VicT

Contributor I

I fully agree with the first poster; I am deeply disappointed too. The feature list of the "new" Playbar is the icing on the cake: You do not only refuse to communicate properly with your customers (say with a roadmap of future products), you simply ignore them. What a shame that I mis-invested into my first three Sonos speakers as I will need to replace them with a decently modern system.

If you do not want to properly integrate with modern streaming providers - fine. Just tell us so beforehand so we can adjust our purchasing behaviour, and remain in your market niche. The path you're following results in losing consumer's trust that you built up in the past.

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AbigailWW

Lyricist III

My sentiments exactly.

U

upstatemike

Another article that sheds some light on Sonos strategy around the Playbase:

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/sonos-playbase-smart-home/

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

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EtherealMind

Trending Lyricist I

Who cares about Alexa ? People who pay for Sonos are much more likely to be Apple customers and where is the Homekit integration. I want to integrate my lights and thermostats and create a "movie mode" in my lounge/theatre.

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jinker

Lyricist I

Just received an email from Sonos about this Playbase hardware and on closer inspection they have to be kidding. £699.00 is way overpriced for what this is. I didn't check out the dimensions so don't even know if it will sit under my TV but regardless I wouldn't even consider buying something like this without looking at reviews or even checking it out in a local audio store so pre-ordering. What a joke? Add, SUB and two PLAY:1 rear speakers for wireless 5.1 surround sound. Are they serious? There are much more cost effective options out there, so this is a definite no, no. Sonos, recently announced a price hike for their equipment and I'm saying they need to get real if they think this is worth £699.00
Two cables. That’s it.
One power cable. And one optical cable for your TV. You don’t even have to read a manual; the Sonos app guides you through every step of set up. Great, I'll take two. No I won't. An 'Optical cable'........ what year is this?

jgatie

Who cares about Alexa ? People who pay for Sonos are much more likely to be Apple customers and where is the Homekit integration. I want to integrate my lights and thermostats and create a "movie mode" in my lounge/theatre.

1) Alexa integration is the only Sonos announcement to ever have people requesting admission to the private beta, hundreds of them in several threads. No other beta has ever had this type of overwhelming response of volunteers. I'd say that is the answer to "Who cares about Alexa?"

2) If you'd have read the article you are critiquing, you'd have seen the following:

When Spence talks about voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, he’s still talking about music.

. . .

Rather than build its own voice assistant or pick a one to work with, Sonos wants to work with all of them. That’s how the company has always operated. It didn’t build a music service, because the 80 that it supports wouldn’t be on the platform. Music services love Sonos because it provides millions of users and no competition. Spence thinks he can get Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and others to do the same thing for precisely the same reason.

B

BoredofBalham

Prodigy II

There are much more cost effective options out there, so this is a definite no, no.

Can you name any?

I

I_want_coffeeAuthor

Contributor I

Another article that sheds some light on Sonos strategy around the Playbase:

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/sonos-playbase-smart-home/

Thank you for the link, very interesting and I like the idea a lot. Sonos to be the center of my smart home; the connection to the intelligence offerend by Alexa, Google, Siri and whatever assistant to show up in the future. Sonos to focus on what they are good at: playing music.

The problem is we are talking about the Playbase. It's not focussing on music, it brings sound to your TV. Here you typically do not play music, you watch TV-Shows, movies and play Bluerays. Whereas music comes in stereo, the sound from TV-Shows and movies is not.

It feels like they decided to support only Spotify, and telling their customers: Hey, the majority is using Spotify, just do not use Google Music. It is not supported, but we will tell you anyway how great and integrative our product is. Nevertheless, we are simultaneously compiling a recommendation megathread in our community where we collect alle the cumbersome combinations of hardware if you really want to use Google Music or Deezer, or Apple Music...

I

I_want_coffeeAuthor

Contributor I

There are much more cost effective options out there, so this is a definite no, no.

Can you name any?

For example Samsung: $1,300.00 for the soundbar, two rear speaker and a sub.
http://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/home-theater/sound-bars/hw-k950-za-hw-k950-za/

Equally expensive: The Bose soundbar (support DTS)
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/speakers/home_theater/soundtouch-300-soundbar.html#v=soundtouch_300_pkg_st_300

T

tom12

Enthusiast II

There are much more cost effective options out there, so this is a definite no, no.

Can you name any?

For example Samsung: $1,300.00 for the soundbar, two rear speaker and a sub.
http://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/home-theater/sound-bars/hw-k950-za-hw-k950-za/

Equally expensive: The Bose soundbar (support DTS)
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/speakers/home_theater/soundtouch-300-soundbar.html#v=soundtouch_300_pkg_st_300

It's obvious that Bose's Soundtouch 300 is aimed squarely at the Sonos system. Exact same pricing. In addition the reviews of the Soundtouch are very good - on par with the Sonos. Of course Bose wasn't going to cripple it with omitting an HDMI port and DTS support. They aren't stupid. I think I'm switching over to the Bose Soundtouch

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