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.
Sonos doesn’t really do “5.1”
This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.
It depends. Totally agree if you use a beam, player, etc, however, if you use the AMP to power front speakers for '5.1' then you do get a virtual centre as the amp does not support a wired centre speaker.
It depends. Totally agree if you use a beam, player, etc, however, if you use the AMP to power front speakers for '5.1' then you do get a virtual centre as the amp does not support a wired centre speaker.
I was not talking about the Amp.
I heard all I needed to hear when the rant leads to this "Think about it while you are watching your new laser disc" :?:?:?
Anyone with an ounce of modern living hasn't used a laser disc in half a decade or more! :8 Unless maybe you have a dedicated Home Cinema room in which case your not fitting Sonos in it! (unless mad as a hatter)
Also not considered is that the Playbar is actually quite old now (2013!) so will be superseded soon, no doubt with HDMI ARC just like the Beam.
The average hardwired 5.1 setups are junk. A Playbar and sub (great sub!) is usually plenty for the average listener. Add a couple rear One's with voice control and you have a very neat package with no wires and easy control, (beautiful) simplicity. Certainly family friendly, which is 98%+ of the market. Unlike a system with an AVR which then becomes super un-user-friendly and cause arguments (unless a control method introduced).
This post is a bit like test driving a Tesla and saying It's rubbish because it is not as fast as a Formula One car!
Im an AV integrator who's installed 100's of multiroom audio systems (Sonos and not Sonos). Sonos made the market and nailed the market, period
Anyone with an ounce of modern living hasn't used a laser disc in half a decade or more! :8 Unless maybe you have a dedicated Home Cinema room in which case your not fitting Sonos in it! (unless mad as a hatter)
Also not considered is that the Playbar is actually quite old now (2013!) so will be superseded soon, no doubt with HDMI ARC just like the Beam.
The average hardwired 5.1 setups are junk. A Playbar and sub (great sub!) is usually plenty for the average listener. Add a couple rear One's with voice control and you have a very neat package with no wires and easy control, (beautiful) simplicity. Certainly family friendly, which is 98%+ of the market. Unlike a system with an AVR which then becomes super un-user-friendly and cause arguments (unless a control method introduced).
This post is a bit like test driving a Tesla and saying It's rubbish because it is not as fast as a Formula One car!
Im an AV integrator who's installed 100's of multiroom audio systems (Sonos and not Sonos). Sonos made the market and nailed the market, period
Ah yes haha obvious when I reread the sentence! Skim read too quickly. Thanks 🙂
Still, the rest is relevant. We don't make much margin selling Sonos but we do it because of the value it provides our clients. One of the largest value components of any system is simplicity. Clients love it
Still, the rest is relevant. We don't make much margin selling Sonos but we do it because of the value it provides our clients. One of the largest value components of any system is simplicity. Clients love it
Still, the rest is relevant. We don't make much margin selling Sonos but we do it because of the value it provides our clients. One of the largest value components of any system is simplicity. Clients love it
+2SONOS 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.
+2I think Your wrong. I have a Playbar which gets the info from the TV thru optical. The BLU Ray and ROKU go into the TV. Any sound that is produced goes into the Playbar. I didnt have to buy a new Blu Ray Player or ROKU and everything sounds great as 5.1..... My old wired 5.1 Yamaha receiver used optical also but I didnt like wires everywhere or want to put holes in my walls. My new Sonos system sounds just as good as the old. So I guess I am not sure what you mean.
+2It plays blu ray and i can hear stuff behind me....still confused....my blu ray could have a converter.... my kids played x box and it was in surround too.
+2Both are Samsung my blu ray 3d player is set for 5.1 Dolby Surround....i have dts option ....tv is set for external speaker's....i can hear a tie fighter go by and bullets whizzing by so im happy....i notice some netflix movies are louder than other's...hulu i do not notice a volume difference so i do not have to adjust the rears....hulu seems to be the clearest when im watching hospital shows and i can hear telephones ringing and people talking behind me during front dialog.... im still learning....i didnt mean to say your wrong at all....im just happy with what i got.... DTS really isnt that much different except the audio is enhanced for the special effects....its a Lucas/ Spielberg creation so you know those things are enhanced.
Samsung BluRay Players can transcode DTS to DD5.1, that is why you are fine. Most BRPs don't and so some users find they get only stereo or silence from BluRay discs.
+2So the title to this thread is false....you can get 5.1. The person buying the equipment just needs to do research. Like anything, when you start dealing with equipment that as expensive as this.... you really need to understand the logic behind it. I dont care what anyone says....with technology nothing is plug and play and there is always a way to get the sound you need with a little work....i always think its funny when people hire someone to install music equipment....i would think you would want to understand how this stuff works or enjoy the research and accomplishment of getting this stuff to work. Alot if people complain on this site about what this stuff cant do, instead, lets work together to get this stuff to do what we need it to do by research and putting together the stuff that works....with that said....you can accomplish 5.1 with Sonos.
I am not particulsrly disagreeing with you, just explaining why you - purely by luck by the sound of things - did not have to overcome a hurdle that some other users have had to.
If you had happened to have a Panasonic BRP you would have hsd to put it on eBay and buy a Samsung one if you wanted 5.1. You were clearly unaware of that. Why should anyone else be aware?
+2+2i wouldnt say luck. I knew that samsung players worked with sonos and are the only ones that sounded good. I researched that. So when I said I was confused it was because I assumed when someone is spending 2000 dollars on a sonos surround sound system that they would 1st research which players are the best for it and if their current gear works with it. If you are not the type of person to do research then shame on that person. I didnt understand the technical reasons yesterday. But if you look all over the internet it tells you that samsung blu ray players are the ones that work. This I knew. After yesterday I now know the exact reasons why. And also if you dig deep into this forum people are saying it to. So yes I was confused, its 2000 dollars!!! why would you not research this....but lets blame Sonos. I dont. This type of hobby is like any other. Practice and research. Thanks for explaining to me the logistics as to why it works.
People assume that in today's world, research shouldn't be required, particularly with high end equipment. I would bet that the average consumer may have heard of DTS, Dolby, but have no idea what it is or that it even matters. If all the plugs connect together, than it should just work. With a lot of home theater equipment, that is definitely the case as they'll support every codec that's reasonably popular. It's really not even accurate to say people assume, because they don't know enough about the tech to really make an assumption.
I don't think blame really needs to be applied anywhere with this. People are going to get frustrated, and that's reasonable. Not every problem has to be someone's fault.
I don't think blame really needs to be applied anywhere with this. People are going to get frustrated, and that's reasonable. Not every problem has to be someone's fault.
june 2019. I just bought Denon professional DN-500BD MKII disc player (at B&H Photo in NYC) and, out of the box, plays dvd dts 5.1 over my bravia/sonos sound bar with surround speakers listening now. easy! (couldnt really tell from the online research i did, so i just went for it and it works. about $400
Note: if it is playing on a Sonos soundbar of any type, the the receiver is altering the signal to Dolby Digital, and not sending a DTS signal.
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.