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bromberg
Avid Contributor I
May 1, 2018

Sonos S14 thoughts and wishes

Hi. I actually enlisted all my Sonos for sale, as I think Sonos isn't up to date and actually doesn't have the visions to be (for us surround users) updated, only for multiroom purpose.

BUT, now s14 is in the horizon which is rumored to have hdmi. For at start I think its nice, since I will be able to control Sonos sound on my Apple TV remote app.
In this scenario, it would be nice and some kind of a must if this S14 has at least one hdmi input.I use all my hdmi inputs on my old b6 and would have to skip one unit in order to make place for at Sonos soundbar with hdmi. I think many Sonos users use all of their hdmi inputs on tv as its kind of the thoughts - the tv is the hub.
BUT isn't this against Sonos´s "bulletproof" philosophy?. im thinking on handshake issues, personally I could think Sonos only supports sound on hdmi, in order to avoid handshake issues.
Well it may have a hdmi 2.1 socket which have the capacity to potentially fix many of these hdmi issues.
Which brings me to my next thought - atmosphere is the shi... right now and is quite common, is it really realistic to think Sonos AND atmos.
Well hardwarewise I could think a Sonos connect for atmosphere or play one/1.

How about the design? The blueprints shows a square?

What are your thoughts and wishes for this new home theater unit?
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79 replies

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melvimbe
melvimbe
May 31, 2018
Wildbomber, what are you thinking the 2nd (or more) hdmi is needed for? Not doubting you, just curious what you're thinking. I can see where it could be useful for older tvs that perhaps don't have eArc. If there are multiple hdmi inputs, are you thinking that that cable, Blu-ray etc sources would route to the S14 first, then to the tv, as many receivers are designed to do today.

Personally, I'd like it to have an hdmi output, to pass audio and video to another tv, but I'm pretty sure my use case is not that common.
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Danny
WildBomber
Trending Lyricist I
May 31, 2018
ARC only supports PCM (2 channel),
Dolby Digital (up to 5.1 channels) and Dolby Digital Plus (up to 5.1 channels) with Dolby Atmos, and
DTS Digital Surround (up to 5.1 channels). I’m not sure about DTS-HD High Resolution Audio (lossy) and DTS:X. So if you have multiple devices that support Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, it will eliminate the need to keep swapping HDMI cables.
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melvimbe
melvimbe
May 31, 2018
Ok WildBomber, I admitted not that strong on this subject. Are you saying that you couldn't connect 2-3 hdmi inputs to your tv, and then have the audio pass down through hdmi to the S14 in anything other then stereo? I hadn't thought of it that much, but I suppose since technically the hdmi on the tv side is input only, you have to use ARC to send audio to the soundbar. Correct?

I am not crazy about that as aesthetically speaking, you can hide wires in the back of a tv better than you can from a soundbar, but if that's the way it has to be...
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Danny
WildBomber
Trending Lyricist I
May 31, 2018
You could connect 2-3 inputs to your TV, but your HDMI ARC port would only be able to pass down PCM (2 channel), Dolby Digital (up to 5.1 channels) and DTS Digital Surround (up to 5.1 channels). Some TVs, such as my LG B7 with 4x HDMI 2.0b ports, support Dolby Atmos playback via Dolby Digital Plus through ARC. ARC doesn't support HD audio due to limited bandwidth. With the upcoming HDMI 2.1 TVs, the eARC port will be able to pass down HD audio from the TV and all other HDMI inputs, eliminating the need for mutilple inputs on soundbars.
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Naekyr
Enthusiast II
June 1, 2018
TV's can only pass through limited formats, to get the good stuff (like dolby atmos or high res) your devices need to connect into the soundbar directly and there in is the problem - almost every bar on the market with HDMI inputs only has like 1 or 2 inputs - I have 4 devices, I need 4 inputs and I don't want to shuffle cables all the time

The fix to this is HDMI 2.1 TV's with eARC - once new TV's come out with these ports you just connect all your devices to your TV and your TV will pass-through just about any sound format into the soundbar

But key to this: both the soundbar and TV will need to have the HDMI 2.1 eARC port for the pass-through to work correctly
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SONOS ARC | SONOS Sub | SONOS Play 1 x 2 | LG C9 OLED | PS5 | RTX3090 Gaming PC | Sennheiser GSP600 Headset | Audio Pro T8L Desktop Monitors
    Chris
    Chris
    Lead Maestro
    June 1, 2018
    oh yea - and TV manufacturers need to get it right (they have bad history of just plain messing this part up - like with the toslink pass through standard).
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    Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)
    WildBomber
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 1, 2018
    Saying that, Denon have issued a firmware update for their AVR-X3400H, AVR-X4400H, AVR-X6400H and AVC-X8500H AV receivers (which are all HDMI 2.0 compliant) to achieve eARC compatibility. This might also be possible for some 2017/2018 high-end TVs, depending on the hardware.
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    WildBomber
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 1, 2018
    I can see the S14 being HDMI 2.0 compliant, but with eARC support like the Denon AV receivers mentioned above. My LG B7 can passthrough Dolby Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus. Is there a noticeable difference between Dolby Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus (lossy) and Dolby Atmos via Dolby TrueHD (lossless)?
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    WildBomber
    Trending Lyricist I
    June 1, 2018
    LG's SJ9 soundbar can passthrough 4K Dolby Vision as well as Dolby Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus.

    Sony's HT-ST9 soundbar supports LPCM 5.1, LPCM 7.1, Dolby Digital, Dobly Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.

    Samsung's HW-N950 soundbar supports DTS:X and I pressume will be able to passthrough 4K HDR10+.

    If Sonos can incorporate all of the above into the S14, it's pretty much game, set and match.

    Although I won't hold my breath:

    https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/no-dts-on-new-playbase-and-thats-not-due-to-hardware-limitations-6766995/index1.html
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    Smilja
    Smilja
    June 1, 2018
    LG's SJ9 soundbar can passthrough 4K Dolby Vision as well as Dolby Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus.

    Sony's HT-ST9 soundbar supports LPCM 5.1, LPCM 7.1, Dolby Digital, Dobly Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.

    Samsung's HW-N950 soundbar supports DTS:X and I pressume will be able to passthrough 4K HDR10+.

    If Sonos can incorporate all of the above into the S14, it's pretty much game, set and match.
    Are all of these cordless soundbars?
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    »And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)
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