Sonos S14 thoughts and wishes


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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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82 replies

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Well Well Well, What do you guys think?
Im so disappointed:(. Had to sell my playbase, as i dont have a furniture anymore.
At no point im willing to spent the money on a 2013 playbar and the beam is just a smallscale soundbar. Sonos says playbar and base are still the flagships.

I had hoped for a new playbar, and instead a new release and a design (again) that doesnt match any other Sonos products.
Imo this beam is only for users who wants a more full tv sound and not for those who want minimalistic hometheater.

Sorry Sonos im out except for my Sonos ine in my kitchen.
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What audio codecs and formats will Sonos Beam support?

Sonos Beam plays audio from PCM stereo, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital 5.1 sources. These are the most popular audio formats for streaming video on demand and watching TV.

?

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/shop/beam.html
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Live stream:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1740173246069623&id=112155222204775
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Sadly, there is no public livestream of the event for you to watch online, but Pocket-lint will be there to bring you all the news as it happens.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/speakers/news/sonos/144391-sonos-holding-you-re-better-than-this-launch-event-in-june-but-for-what.amphtml?__twitter_impression=true
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Hello, do you know if a streaming link will be available in order to follow tomorrow's press conference from Sonos?

Thanks


(Translated) COMPUTER BILD gives an overview of the previous rumors and reports live from San Francisco. From 18 clock German time it starts!

https://amp.computerbild.de/artikel/avf-News-Audio-Sonos-Alexa-Playbase-Playbar-21626463.html?__twitter_impression=true
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Hello, do you know if a streaming link will be available in order to follow tomorrow's press conference from Sonos?

Thanks
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Yes, LG's SJ9 can be paired wirelessly with their H3 and H5 speakers. And Samsung's HW-950 is a wireless 7.1.4 setup.
Do you happen to know how reliable the wireless performance of the surround channels is?


I don't unfortunately.
Yes, LG's SJ9 can be paired wirelessly with their H3 and H5 speakers. And Samsung's HW-950 is a wireless 7.1.4 setup.
Do you happen to know how reliable the wireless performance of the surround channels is?
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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?


Yes, LG's SJ9 can be paired with their H3, H5 or H7 wireless speakers. And Samsung's HW-950 is a wireless 7.1.4 setup.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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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.
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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The new Sonos PLAYBAR needs to have at least 2 HDMI 2.1 inputs. Only 1 is technically needed for new HDMI 2.1 TVs via eArc, but let's say at least 2 for TVs with HDMI 2.0b and below.

1 HDMI 2.1 (eARC) output.

4K Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthrough.

Support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X respectively.

With HDMI 2.1 comes eARC. eARC allows the following audio formats to be transported:

Dolby Digital Plus (up to 7.1 channels)

Dolby TrueHD (up to 7.1 channels)

Dolby Atmos

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio (up to 7.1 channels)

DTS-HD Master Audio (up to 7.1 channels)

DTS:X


I fear that compiling this wishlists will only lead to disappointment come June 6 - I hope to be proved wrong !
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The new Sonos PLAYBAR needs to have at least 2 HDMI 2.1 inputs. Only 1 is technically needed for new HDMI 2.1 TVs via eArc, but let's say at least 2 for TVs with HDMI 2.0b and below.

1 HDMI 2.1 (eARC) output.

4K Dolby Vision and HDR10+ passthrough.

Support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X respectively.

With HDMI 2.1 comes eARC. eARC allows the following audio formats to be transported:

Dolby Digital Plus (up to 7.1 channels)

Dolby TrueHD (up to 7.1 channels)

Dolby Atmos

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio (up to 7.1 channels)

DTS-HD Master Audio (up to 7.1 channels)

DTS:X
Userlevel 7
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I think you are right DTS on a new product will drive more sales, current playbars can be moved to 2nd/3rd tv rooms.
My personal tought:
IF, the new model will add HDMI support, maybe the new speaker will be able to decode DD+, DD true HD, DTS HD MA. Since this will be a possibility, it means that Sonos is going to pay royalties to decode DTS signal as well --> maybe they will add DTS support via SW update also on Playbar/playbase.
DTS 5.1 IS POSSIBLE trough optical, but codec is missing...


I'm not a expert on royalties, but I don't know that that would be a good idea from a Sonos perspective. Sonos has always looked to add new features to their existing products, but there is always at least a chance that the customer will end up buying new products because of it. Assuming that the new product replaces the playbar , adding DTS to the playbar will only cause customers to avoid buying the S14 (or whatever new product is). Perhaps maybe they add it to the playbase, if it serves a different customer than the S14.

But I speculate.
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My personal tought:
IF, the new model will add HDMI support, maybe the new speaker will be able to decode DD+, DD true HD, DTS HD MA. Since this will be a possibility, it means that Sonos is going to pay royalties to decode DTS signal as well --> maybe they will add DTS support via SW update also on Playbar/playbase.
DTS 5.1 IS POSSIBLE trough optical, but codec is missing...
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Some interesting ideas about the headphone use, and how peole use their equipment in different ways. I guess my use cases are very simple. ATV or PS3 to soundbar for movies and radio app and spotify for music i chucked my NAS and local file collection into a recycle dump when I moved house as I was never using it. ?

I guess having more non speaker uses for Sonos might help justify the always on paradigm and 24/7 power consumption.