Skip to main content
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.
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.

150 replies

djsgrantAuthor
Enthusiast II
December 10, 2018


When I started this thread the Beam hadn’t been announced so there was no HDMI.


First post in this thread - 4 months ago, at max that means August 2018,

Beam released - June 6th, 2018.

Care to try again?

How about your claim "They are late to the market with Alexa, Siri etc"? When they are the very first to the market, exactly how late is that?


Wow, pedant city!!! My apologies I got my months mixed up, Makes no blooming difference, the HDMI that came out of the back of the Beam was as much use as a one legged man at a backside kicking contest. The entire discussion was build around the Base and Bar as part of 5.1. Not many people were using the Beam for that at the time. You will no doubt provide a figure?

As for late to the party with Alexa and Siri (not that I remember mentioning SIRI though I’m sure you will correct me if I am wrong) that is a matter of fact. I’ve had my SONOS kit for years and it still doesn’t have google home compatibility without a workaround with 3rd party apps and it was an age before it was Alexa ready.

Typical SONOS owners, have to keep justifying their purchases and never acknowledging any weaknesses in the product. How will that ever see things improved?

For the rest of the bandwagon jumpers on this series of comments may I politely suggest you read the first question posed back at the beginning of August which was only asking what fellow SONOS owners thought of SONOS’s 5.1 claims which were grossly over exaggerated and their poor attitude to their customer base.
Translate
David
jgatie
December 10, 2018
I think we all know who the one legged man at the backside kicking contest is in this thread. 😃
Translate
djsgrantAuthor
Enthusiast II
December 10, 2018
I think we all know who the one legged man at the backside kicking contest is in this thread. :D

Nice of you to take responsibility...
Translate
David
djsgrantAuthor
Enthusiast II
December 11, 2018


When I started this thread the Beam hadn’t been announced so there was no HDMI.


First post in this thread - 4 months ago, at max that means August 2018,

Beam released - June 6th, 2018.

Care to try again?

How about your claim "They are late to the market with Alexa, Siri etc"? When they are the very first to the market, exactly how late is that?


PS If you live in some parts of the world like Denmark there still isn’t Alexa integration never mind google play so yes, late to the market.

Look all I am saying is that SONOS has issues. They are fantastic for music but they have not nailed the TV stuff and there is no reason for that other than shear bloody mindedness from SONOS i.e. refusing point blank to adopt fully functioning HDMI. You can get that in a £80 soundbar from Currys. I don’t want wires all over my living room either but paying £200 to have them concealed and having the flexibility of an AV Amp with all the codecs etc I want is a better and much cheaper alternative. It also delivers better TV sound and proper 5.1. Not for everyone I know, you might want to move house etc although I would argue it adds value.

Sonos TV Speakers are for rich people for use in kitchens, bedrooms and play rooms and their products are great for that. To use it as a primary “proper” 5.1 system is just not possible. Let’s not even go into 7.1 or Atmos etc etc.
Translate
David
Enthusiast I
December 28, 2018
I just bought that and it sounded terrible till I:
1. Tru tuned it
2. changed the surrounds to full audio in the app
I had a Marantz 5.1 with Paradigm speakers before and they were amazing, however, after tuning and tweaking the Sonos, it gives great surround, with Netflix- that sounds almost as good
I love my Blu-rays, but more and more people need their audio from Netlfix or some other streaming service these days and the Sonos Beam with two Play 1 surrounds more than adequately provide 5.0 sound with enough bass, and the cost isnt too bad. If you must have more bass or if your room is larger than my 20x15, a subwoofer might be great, but costs a lot more
Try the 5.0 first and hear how it sounds.
So, I don't think Sonos is "stealing" anyones money
Their 5.1 solution works just fine for most people, IMO
Translate
djsgrantAuthor
Enthusiast II
December 28, 2018
I just bought that and it sounded terrible till I:
1. Tru tuned it
2. changed the surrounds to full audio in the app
I had a Marantz 5.1 with Paradigm speakers before and they were amazing, however, after tuning and tweaking the Sonos, it gives great surround, with Netflix- that sounds almost as good
I love my Blu-rays, but more and more people need their audio from Netlfix or some other streaming service these days and the Sonos Beam with two Play 1 surrounds more than adequately provide 5.0 sound with enough bass, and the cost isnt too bad. If you must have more bass or if your room is larger than my 20x15, a subwoofer might be great, but costs a lot more
Try the 5.0 first and hear how it sounds.
So, I don't think Sonos is "stealing" anyones money
Their 5.1 solution works just fine for most people, IMO


Hi,

It’s great that you are happy with your sound, that’s all that matters. If you read my original post however my point is that it does not do 5.1 or 5.0 with most of your DVDs and blu-rays, it just can’t do it. I can’t stream Netflix where I live as the is no fibre broadband also, I like collecting DVD’s. When it works, SONOS speakers are a thing of beauty, sadly it doesn’t work for all the people all of the time. It is meant to be plug in and play not something that requires workarounds etc. Have a great new year and keep enjoying your SONOS kit, as will I but for me unfortunately, only for music.
Translate
David
Lyricist III
December 31, 2018
I would argue that what constitutes true 5.1 is less limited than you make it out to be. For YOU 5.1 is DTS, ATMOS, DD 5.1/+ and whatever sound codecs are out there, and of course discreet front L R and Center.

But for most people SONOS. Delivers exactly what they want. A 1st class multi room audio system that also doubles as wireless 5.1 surround sound with support for the most used surround codec for tv and streaming services, DD 5.1. If you are an audiophile or movie perfectionist with massive LD or Blue-ray collections you probably won’t settle for 5.1 at all but go for a 7.1 or better system, right? Maybe gold plated thick cables? Thirèn vinyl player and good knows what speakers with analogue receiver.


The SONOS crowd aren’t into all that. They want nice looking and sounding speakers that like Apple used to, just works. Cable free and modern app driven.

The SONOS playbase/bar/beam does have L R and Center albeit not with the spatial separation you’d get with separate front speakers, but it’s still a home theater speaker. Coupled with 2 satellites and Sub it constitutes a true 5.1 system limited to DD 5.1 without the extra bells and whistles of your setup. But for most it’s good enough. Especiallly when invested in the rest of the echo system. I already ripped all my movies to 1080p/4K with DD 5.1 + a Stereo 2.0 track for portable devices so my SONOS setup does exactly what I want.


As a side note Apple will most likely also let you choose DD 5.1 in the future when movies are upgraded to Atmos
Translate
jgatie
December 31, 2018
Well stated Driver28. Expectations would be severely curtailed if one shopped according to what a product is, instead of what they wished it would be. Regardless of how they are marketed, Sonos' surround sound offerings are not cutting edge, nor are they cinephile worthy. Expecting them to be in the future is setting oneself up for disappointment.
Translate
djsgrantAuthor
Enthusiast II
December 31, 2018
I would argue that what constitutes true 5.1 is less limited than you make it out to be. For YOU 5.1 is DTS, ATMOS, DD 5.1/+ and whatever sound codecs are out there, and of course discreet front L R and Center.

But for most people SONOS. Delivers exactly what they want. A 1st class multi room audio system that also doubles as wireless 5.1 surround sound with support for the most used surround codec for tv and streaming services, DD 5.1. If you are an audiophile or movie perfectionist with massive LD or Blue-ray collections you probably won’t settle for 5.1 at all but go for a 7.1 or better system, right? Maybe gold plated thick cables? Thirèn vinyl player and good knows what speakers with analogue receiver.


The SONOS crowd aren’t into all that. They want nice looking and sounding speakers that like Apple used to, just works. Cable free and modern app driven.

The SONOS playbase/bar/beam does have L R and Center albeit not with the spatial separation you’d get with separate front speakers, but it’s still a home theater speaker. Coupled with 2 satellites and Sub it constitutes a true 5.1 system limited to DD 5.1 without the extra bells and whistles of your setup. But for most it’s good enough. Especiallly when invested in the rest of the echo system. I already ripped all my movies to 1080p/4K with DD 5.1 + a Stereo 2.0 track for portable devices so my SONOS setup does exactly what I want.


As a side note Apple will most likely also let you choose DD 5.1 in the future when movies are upgraded to Atmos


What I want more than anything is for SONOS to give me the beautiful sounding system that gives me 5.1, proper 5.1 not limited to DD. It is hardly beyond their technical abilities. I hate having a wired system and I don’t have Atomos or 7.1 or any vinyl or any HiFi separates does that mean I have to compromise on my film and TV watching. I have said throughout this thread that if the SONOS system rocks your boat then great and there is no doubt that covers many SONOS users. I have also invested heavily in SONOS for music and I am perfectly happy with it so I am not knocking the brand. They did however promise me 5.1, look at the ads, the still do it, and I maintain they don’t deliver and I think that is a great pity as this would be the Holly Grail of TV for me.

As for Apple changing to DD? They may, but not because of SONOS. Companies like SONOS need to follow Apple’s lead not the other way about.

Have a happy and prosperous New Year whenever it arrives where you are.
Translate
David
jgatie
December 31, 2018
In what way are you not getting 5.1 as promised? Dolby Digital 5.1 is 5.1. Sonos plays it. End of story.
Translate