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Enthusiast II
July 29, 2018

Sonos doesn’t really do “5.1”

Before you buy any SONOS equipment to achieve a 5.1 setup please consider this: a Denon AVRX2400 AV Amp, Elac CINEMA 5.1 speaker system, all cables professionally installed behind the walls gives you true home cinema with all the surround sound codecs you could ever want with no cables showing for way less than £1000 (see Richer Sound web site for prices). Or spend £1700 on a SONOS setup and get stereo or Dolby Digital only plus you may have to buy a new DVD player to play your UHD DVD’s, a HDMI Switch then deal with lip sync issues etc, etc.

SONOS do speakers, great speakers, but only for music. They are stealing money from people wanting 5.1 for their TV. The system I suggest costs at least £700 less, hides all the wires (what we all want) and sounds much, much better. Go mad, stick a couple of speakers in the ceiling and get real Dolby Atmos for £150 more and still save yourself £550. I have begged SONOS to tell me if they are developing a surround sound product with HDMI and more choice of listening eg DTS, Dolby X etc but they point blank refuse to discuss future products stating they are catering for the “modern listener”. That put me in my place. SONOS remind me of great companies who made world class products like Blackberry, Blockbuster, Compaq and SAAB, just a minute, they all went out of business because they didn’t produce what their customers wanted at a competitive price (no pedants please, I know there were other factors which meant these companies went bust, I am just illustrating a point). Are SONOS going down the same route? Think about it while you are watching your new laser disc.

I would be interested to hear any arguments against my proposed SONOS alternative system.
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150 replies

Contributor II
December 30, 2019

Sonos came about for those who wanted multi-room audio without the wires and with the use of online music services. 

Sonos products will never truly replace a full separates system for surround sound. They never set about doing this anyway.

However, their products are great as they provide a solution for those (like me with a wife who doesn't like the look or size of traditional speakers nor all the cables). I use to have a £5000 system for movies and a £3000 system for music. I met the wife and my mistresses had to pack their bags. The cost of these systems would never be matched unless replicated like for like. I knew this.

This led to me looking for a solution, which saw me buying a Yamaha soundbar, I forget the model but it was vastly more expensive than a Sonos setup. This sounded very poor for music and led me to purchase a Sonos Play:5. I had this for almost 4 years and was impressed by music playback and then punt I took a punt with the Beam. 

Over time my needs have changed. I have 3 lovely kids who would only trash a high-end system and for the convenience and sound quality I have expanded the Beam with 2 SL's.

I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and a few more and so far all films I have watched have been in DD5.1, so the Sonos experience fits the bill extremely well with only a few minor issues which aren't worth typing about.

I have also experienced Sonos's customer service first hand which saw my Beam get replaced under warranty due to a bizarre issue. From telling them about the issue I was contacted by a senior person within 30 mins and advised I'd get a warranty replacement.

I have never experienced this level of fine service before and has made the Sonos experience even more sweeter.

I am yet to Trueplay my setup as I am a Android user at heart and will need to borrow or acquire a iOS device but currently as things sounds I get a good sound for music and films and I am sure things will sound even better when Trueplayed.

 

Oh! Sonos, longer power cables for Sonos One SL's would be a bonus as the ones supplied are rather short.

 

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Renowned Enthusiast I
December 31, 2019

I'm of mixed views. I just purchased a Playbar with sub and two One's for surrounds. When I'm sourcing DD 5.1 from my BD player, the sound is fantastic, and I love being able to integrate the media room sound with the other rooms equipped with Sonos. Love my Sonos speakers, which is why I splurged on the Playbar.

That said, I've spent the better part of the last 3 days trying to get the Playbar to play 5.1 and have only managed to get that done if I'm using my BD player to play certain discs or the limited 5.1 content available to stream through it from Prime.

My Roku UItra? Absolutely useless with the Playbar as far as I've been able to tell, unless I want to listen to simulated surround. My DTS discs? Same thing. I'm not sure that I'd have opted for a different system if I'd have known a week ago what I know now (probably couldn't have convinced me NOT to go with Sonos since I was so utterly enamored with it), but I wish I'd have understood better the limitations. That's on me and a lack of research, I guess.

If Sonos comes out with a Playbar that can manage true surround signals other than DD5.1, I'll really be miffed that I didn't wait. Anyhow. A certain amount of buyer remorse coupled with tech hookup fatigue speaking here.

Apple TV works much better than Roku or just about anything else with Sonos.  Roku is as ad delivery machine that sells your usage patterns to advertisers and has inferior video quality. 

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Renowned Enthusiast I
December 31, 2019

Sonos came about for those who wanted multi-room audio without the wires and with the use of online music services. 

Sonos products will never truly replace a full separates system for surround sound. They never set about doing this anyway.

However, their products are great as they provide a solution for those (like me with a wife who doesn't like the look or size of traditional speakers nor all the cables). I use to have a £5000 system for movies and a £3000 system for music. I met the wife and my mistresses had to pack their bags. The cost of these systems would never be matched unless replicated like for like. I knew this.

This led to me looking for a solution, which saw me buying a Yamaha soundbar, I forget the model but it was vastly more expensive than a Sonos setup. This sounded very poor for music and led me to purchase a Sonos Play:5. I had this for almost 4 years and was impressed by music playback and then punt I took a punt with the Beam. 

Over time my needs have changed. I have 3 lovely kids who would only trash a high-end system and for the convenience and sound quality I have expanded the Beam with 2 SL's.

I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and a few more and so far all films I have watched have been in DD5.1, so the Sonos experience fits the bill extremely well with only a few minor issues which aren't worth typing about.

I have also experienced Sonos's customer service first hand which saw my Beam get replaced under warranty due to a bizarre issue. From telling them about the issue I was contacted by a senior person within 30 mins and advised I'd get a warranty replacement.

I have never experienced this level of fine service before and has made the Sonos experience even more sweeter.

I am yet to Trueplay my setup as I am a Android user at heart and will need to borrow or acquire a iOS device but currently as things sounds I get a good sound for music and films and I am sure things will sound even better when Trueplayed.

 

Oh! Sonos, longer power cables for Sonos One SL's would be a bonus as the ones supplied are rather short.

 

There were no online music services when Sonos came out. 

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106rallye
December 31, 2019

@lewismenzies534 Longer power cables are available, see here: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/power-cables-one.html

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Renowned Enthusiast I
December 31, 2019

Flexson One stands come with a longer power cable.

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Contributor II
December 31, 2019

Sonos came about for those who wanted multi-room audio without the wires and with the use of online music services. 

Sonos products will never truly replace a full separates system for surround sound. They never set about doing this anyway.

However, their products are great as they provide a solution for those (like me with a wife who doesn't like the look or size of traditional speakers nor all the cables). I use to have a £5000 system for movies and a £3000 system for music. I met the wife and my mistresses had to pack their bags. The cost of these systems would never be matched unless replicated like for like. I knew this.

This led to me looking for a solution, which saw me buying a Yamaha soundbar, I forget the model but it was vastly more expensive than a Sonos setup. This sounded very poor for music and led me to purchase a Sonos Play:5. I had this for almost 4 years and was impressed by music playback and then punt I took a punt with the Beam. 

Over time my needs have changed. I have 3 lovely kids who would only trash a high-end system and for the convenience and sound quality I have expanded the Beam with 2 SL's.

I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and a few more and so far all films I have watched have been in DD5.1, so the Sonos experience fits the bill extremely well with only a few minor issues which aren't worth typing about.

I have also experienced Sonos's customer service first hand which saw my Beam get replaced under warranty due to a bizarre issue. From telling them about the issue I was contacted by a senior person within 30 mins and advised I'd get a warranty replacement.

I have never experienced this level of fine service before and has made the Sonos experience even more sweeter.

I am yet to Trueplay my setup as I am a Android user at heart and will need to borrow or acquire a iOS device but currently as things sounds I get a good sound for music and films and I am sure things will sound even better when Trueplayed.

 

Oh! Sonos, longer power cables for Sonos One SL's would be a bonus as the ones supplied are rather short.

 

There were no online music services when Sonos came out. 

Hi SOCalistic

 

You are correct, but there vision was so - https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/how-it-started

I purchased my Play5 approx 4 years ago when music services were around.

 

Ta

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Contributor II
December 31, 2019

Flexson One stands come with a longer power cable.

@lewismenzies534 Longer power cables are available, see here: https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/power-cables-one.html

Hi Both

I needed a 3 meter and a 5 meter and both came via purchases from Amazon.

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Contributor II
December 31, 2019

I have now Trueplayed my setup today and noticed a massive improvement to the overall sound and better cohesion between the Beam and the 2 SL's.

I'm guessing the first part of Trueplay determines the distances, delays and volumes per channel, but what would be nice is to boost the rear channels independently from each other after Trueplay as my right rear is much quieter that the left.

The main listening/viewing position isn't equal distance from each other for the rears.

If I turn off Trueplay and set the distances manually to 0.6 to 3.0 for the left and over 3.0 for the right I get a better volume level all round but lack of cohesion with Trueplay.

Moving the right rear to an equal distance is not possible.

 

Any suggestions?

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Ken_Griffiths
December 31, 2019

I have now Trueplayed my setup today and noticed a massive improvement to the overall sound and better cohesion between the Beam and the 2 SL's.

I'm guessing the first part of Trueplay determines the distances, delays and volumes per channel, but what would be nice is to boost the rear channels independently from each other after Trueplay as my right rear is much quieter that the left.

The main listening/viewing position isn't equal distance from each other for the rears.

If I turn off Trueplay and set the distances manually to 0.6 to 3.0 for the left and over 3.0 for the right I get a better volume level all round but lack of cohesion with Trueplay.

Moving the right rear to an equal distance is not possible.

 

Any suggestions?

Because of your issues, have you perhaps considered changing your position and temporarily sitting closer to one surround speaker when doing the first stage of the TruePlay tuning process, so that the other speakers volume is then boosted and hopefully balanced for your actual ’true’ seated position ?

Hopefully a bit of trial and error may help you achieve the desired outcome and as you may already know there is a slider control in the HT ‘surround’ room settings to shift the audio between front and back channels aswell as the usual EQ ‘balance’ control to perhaps fine-tune things to maybe meet your personal taste.

 

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Contributor II
January 1, 2020

I have now Trueplayed my setup today and noticed a massive improvement to the overall sound and better cohesion between the Beam and the 2 SL's.

I'm guessing the first part of Trueplay determines the distances, delays and volumes per channel, but what would be nice is to boost the rear channels independently from each other after Trueplay as my right rear is much quieter that the left.

The main listening/viewing position isn't equal distance from each other for the rears.

If I turn off Trueplay and set the distances manually to 0.6 to 3.0 for the left and over 3.0 for the right I get a better volume level all round but lack of cohesion with Trueplay.

Moving the right rear to an equal distance is not possible.

 

Any suggestions?

Because of your issues, have you perhaps considered changing your position and temporarily sitting closer to one surround speaker when doing the first stage of the TruePlay tuning process, so that the other speakers volume is then boosted and hopefully balanced for your actual ’true’ seated position ?

Hopefully a bit of trial and error may help you achieve the desired outcome and as you may already know there is a slider control in the HT ‘surround’ room settings to shift the audio between front and back channels aswell as the usual EQ ‘balance’ control to perhaps fine-tune things to maybe meet your personal taste.

 

Hi Ken

 

Thanks for your ideas.

I had thought about doing the initial True play off to my left in an attempt to boost the right rear but decided against this as it would un-center the front 3 channels. I can boost the overall rear volume but the option to balance is removed from the EQ (can't remember seeing it there for the Beam only).

I have managed to move the rear right approx 6 inches closer, a small distance but better than nothing. 

I can live with the slight volume difference. Just maybe Sonos will implement additional adjustments in future updates.

Setup in the end was far less hassle than a full blown 7.1 (which the wife hated) and this (doesn't) give me the option to tinker all the time with delays, distances, heights etc. I threw my sound level meter away the other week and I don't miss being anal with setting it all up.

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