Sonos S36 "Fury" Entry-Level Sound Bar

Anyone know if the event is behind closed doors or will be streamed online? Only a month away now. 

I dunno, Danny. In the tradition of confusing names, like Arc which uses ARC, I could see them calling it PLEX, which can use Plex.

I think @Simmz those calls are for investors only, and not open to the public, per se…..but I’ve never had time to even try, so it’s possible I’m wrong there. That being said, I’ve never seen a link posted in these forums for how to listen in. 

Sounds like a lawsuit.  Although ‘Flex’ is a powertool brand now I think, I imagine it’s a common enough word, and drastically different product, that it wouldn’t be a concern.

There’s a link to the webcast here...but I don’t know if you need an invite password or something to get in.  Never watched it myself.  I believe I read the transcript from the last earnings call, and it wasn’t that interesting if you aren’t an investor.

I would bet that if there is a product announcement, they won’t go into too much detail about it on the investor call.  That will focus on how the product will help the company...pretty much what investors want to know.  There will likely be a separate press release about the new product for the press and general public to get information about it.  And likely a Sonos announcement thread in the forums where questions can be addressed.  But I guess. 

Probably not Flex

https://www.bluesound.com/products/pulse-flex/

I am confident Sonos is well aware their Sonos 5.1.2 customer base is waiting and waiting with money in hand for a Sonos ARC 5.1.4 solution. So while I am disappointed once again that Sonos seems silent or ignoring the many requests for an ARC 5.1.4 solution all over the internet, I was somewhat encouraged by this new products “potential” for 5.1.4 as you wrote and I post below, but then again maybe wishful thinking on the part of the rumor’s author. 21” tall surround speaker does seem a bit on the unusual maybe even ridiculous, but if it does deliver 5.1.4 to my Sonos ARC, I’ll buy it. 

“Sonos anticipates that a fair number of customers will use the new soundbar as paired surrounds for the high-end Sonos Arc. And so, for that reason, the company has created a wall mount that will allow Fury — again, that’s just the codename and I’m unsure of its final branding — to be mounted vertically in addition to the standard horizontal orientation. If you’re wondering why anyone would do that, look closer at the drivers to the sides: they’re slightly angled and theoretically, when positioned vertically, they might do a better job at routing Atmos height audio towards the ceiling than something like a Sonos One SL.” -Chris Welch

I’m typically skeptical of claims that  everyone on the internet wants feature x.  For one thing, the person making the claim is always one of the people that wants feature x, and tends to be rather subjective, and surely informal in their information gathering.  It’s just human nature to assume that everyone else wants exactly what they want.  Not at all saying that you’re wrong for what you want, or that other people don’t feel strongly, just that that desire doesn’t mean there is a market out there that justifies a product or feature...guaranteed.

It is also often that people like the idea of something much more than the actual reality of it.  I think rear surrounds with upfiring speakers is one of those cases.  How much better atmos sound will you actually get from 4 speakers over 2?  How much content is out there where you would really notice a difference?  And the geometry of the  speaker placement, listening area, and room/ceiling dimension work out optimally?  I mean, my couch is essentially back aginst the wall, and surround speakers are about 2 feet behind seating area.  Upfiring speakers would need to be at about an 85% degree angle for me to hear them as coming from above.  I would bet these speakers are designed to be about 5 feet or more behind seating area.

I’m not trying to knock the idea really, and I would bet that Sonos is going to make these speakers usable for rear surrond and atmos.  I think it’s going to be a lot like high res audio.  People want it and may feel good about the purchase, but aren’t really going to notice any audio difference in their room.  They’ll be able to feel good about having 5.1.4 setup though.  And Sonos will be happy to give the people what they want.

I disagree. The desire for two more height channels is not just so people can “feel good about having a 5.1.4 setup”. For me, there is a pretty significant and noticeable difference between listening to Dolby Atmos content compared to stereo or regular 5.1 content. I can CLEARLY hear the height channels when watching movies or listening to music in Atmos. But currently, with a 5.1.2 setup, the height channel audio can only be heard on the front half of my room, not the back half. Since Dolby Atmos audio is object based, when there should be height audio on the back half of the room, it is missing without those two rear upward firing drivers. Adding two more height channels at the rear for a 5.1.4 setup would only add to the immersive experience and complete that “bubble” of sound that Dolby Atmos audio creates.

Maybe you know this already, but the war movie “1917” on Dolby Atmos/4K Blu-ray, night flare scene is at least in my environment and Sonos arc 5.1.2 setup, a repeatable height speaker effect bonanza. I've a small list of other digital content I have had the opportunity to verify and single out audible height effect for myself as well. 

I’m hoping 5.1.4 would bring that effect all the way from the front to the back of the sounds stage, but I’ve never had the opportunity to hear 5.1.4 before. 

I think the key aspect that at least I read out of @melvimbe ‘s response was the amount of Atmos content out there is relatively low. It’s effective for those few (less than 5%?) movies that have it, but it isn’t a common thing yet, so if Sonos were indeed to jump on that bandwagon, they’d be jumping on a currently unproven source. Kind of like how many TV manufacturers jumped on the 3D bandwagon, before it was a common technology.

But it does beg the question of the egg and the chicken, too, so who knows.