Think I Found my Sonos Replacement

Having the Sonos 5.1 setup in my family room
We don't have TV in shared areas, but the above is exactly what I would do if we had one, and use it for music as well in full mode, in association with other Sonos speakers if necessary. Anything more TV oriented is best left for dedicated HT rooms, or, better still IMO, to multiplexes.

And to the subject of the title thread, for home audio I am yet to see a Sonos replacement that ticks all the boxes that Sonos does.

I find it ironic. People buy Sonos for its primary purpose, to have whole home audio. Yet find reasons to dislike the product that are beyond that intended purpose.


AMEN BROTHER

Who needs a sound bar for whole home audio?

Is the soundbar’s primary purpose not Home Theater? I would say it is. And for that purpose it is woefully outdated. No one is arguing Sonos is not a fine whole-home audio system or speaker.

I find it ironic. People buy Sonos for its primary purpose, to have whole home audio. Yet find reasons to dislike the product that are beyond that intended purpose.


AMEN BROTHER

Who needs a sound bar for whole home audio?

Is the soundbar’s primary purpose not Home Theater? I would say it is. And for that purpose it is woefully outdated. No one is arguing Sonos is not a fine whole-home audio system or speaker.

Yes, it's primary purpose in my case is for TV use. However, coupled with the Sub, it sounds very very good for music as well, and is used daily for TV, music, and talk radio. And with the convenience of integration with the entire home's audio system, an immensely useful and enjoyable piece of hardware.

I find it ironic. People buy Sonos for its primary purpose, to have whole home audio. Yet find reasons to dislike the product that are beyond that intended purpose.


AMEN BROTHER

Who needs a sound bar for whole home audio?

Is the soundbar’s primary purpose not Home Theater? I would say it is. And for that purpose it is woefully outdated. No one is arguing Sonos is not a fine whole-home audio system or speaker.

Yes, it's primary purpose in my case is for TV use. However, coupled with the Sub, it sounds very very good for music as well, and is used daily for TV, music, and talk radio. And with the convenience of integration with the entire home's audio system, an immensely useful and enjoyable piece of hardware.

Sounds like it fits your needs but that is not a 5.1 solution. Talk radio, streaming music, and TV broadcasts are not really its intended purpose.

I find it ironic. People buy Sonos for its primary purpose, to have whole home audio. Yet find reasons to dislike the product that are beyond that intended purpose.


AMEN BROTHER

Who needs a sound bar for whole home audio?

Is the soundbar’s primary purpose not Home Theater? I would say it is. And for that purpose it is woefully outdated. No one is arguing Sonos is not a fine whole-home audio system or speaker.

Yes, it's primary purpose in my case is for TV use. However, coupled with the Sub, it sounds very very good for music as well, and is used daily for TV, music, and talk radio. And with the convenience of integration with the entire home's audio system, an immensely useful and enjoyable piece of hardware.

Sounds like it fits your needs but that is not a 5.1 solution. Talk radio, streaming music, and TV broadcasts are not really its intended purpose.

No, please don't misunderstand. I am using "TV" as a catch all for all of my viewing, including Dolby 5.1 TV shows and movies. I fully and completely understand the "limitations" of the codecs and connectivity options of the Playbar, and love it 100% nonetheless.

About 3 years ago I replaced a "mid-level" 5.1 AVR system with decent speakers with the Sonos 5.1 system and could not be happier. I say mid-level meaning not a "HT in a box" solution, mine was about $2,500ish. Further, I still have a 5.1 system with floor-standing front speakers, etc. in my basement home theater. That setup was roughly $3,500. Does it sound better than the $1,800 Sonos system? Yeah, it does. It can go louder too. But that also comes with a completely higher level of complexity to operate, and quite honestly is not "That" much better.

This can go on and on...you have your heart set on the new Sennheisser option...go for it.

I still have a 5.1 system with floor-standing front speakers, etc. in my basement home theater.

This can go on and on...you have your heart set on the new Sennheisser option...go for it.
Quite. That said, I very much doubt that the single box Sennheiser can better the sound from the first referred 5.1 system above.
Yamaha sound bars that employ a raft of tricks in using mic calibrated delayed sound adjustments to incorporate wall reflections to approximate the sound from widely placed speakers need a room that will allow this to happen well when, at best, they will conveniently approximate the experience of fully wired 5.1/7.1/9.1. Often, they will sound noticeably sub par if the space isn't suitable for those acoustic tricks to work. I don't expect Sennheisers's solution in a box to do a lot better than the Yamaha line does. It simply isn't about codecs alone and progress there being enough to defeat the limitations of any one box solution, convenient though it is.

It sounds a bit like the Yamaha sound bars. I auditioned the ysp5600. It was $1700. I felt it was lacking in bass.

I’m sure the Sennheiser will sound better but I would be shocked if it’s less than $2k. I would also need to know the cost of the rest of the multi room speakers including the sub and the system would need to stream Apple Music.

Although I just purchased my first Sonos product a month ago I guess I’m a fanboy since I’ve quickly bought three more products.

I’m Sonos’s target. I have no desire to go past 5.1 and I listen to music 100% through a streaming service.

I have a main home theater rig with a 120” screen and its 5.1. I’m just not interested in adding more channels. I’ve heard some amazing systems over the years but I have no urge to go above 5.1 unless it’s adding a second sub.

I would love for the Playbar to decode everything so I don’t have to pay attention to my next television purchase. But if not, I will adjust.

This exact thread pops up every few months in this sub-forum, generally with exactly the same comments. So I will just quote reply with my post from 4 months ago. It's still valid for the majority of this conversation:

This is an interesting thread, but there are lots of things in here that I don't agree with, and seem just pure conjecture. To caveat, I have both a "proper" wired 5.1 AV setup in my main TV room, as well as Sonos throughout the house (including 2x 5.0 Sonos setups). So I feel fairly well placed to make comparisons.

Firstly, a Sonos 5.1 setup is crazy expensive. Just looking at the online shop, a Playbar/Playbase, Sub and 2 surrounds (Play 1s) costs £1,736. You could easily spend that money on a wired setup, as well as an AV Pro to come round, trunk the speaker cabling, set everything up and then have at least £200-300 left to spare. It would support all sound formats, and I would say arguably give you slightly better sound (but it's negligible).

But set a Sonos surround system up, feed it a Dolby Digital 5.1 signal and it does a great job (as it should do, because it's crazy expensive). You can get a decent amount of bass without the Sub too (quite why it needs to cost £600 is really beyond me). So the "low quality Dolby Digital" comment is just pointless and incorrect. Sonos has superb software and the technology of SonosNet is fantastic, but comes at a hefty cost.

Saying "I actually use fewer wires" for a Denos/Q Acoustics setup just means you didn't do your research properly. Any LG TV will pass on a 5.1 signal either from an internal or external source (and most Samsung or Sony ones do too), and differentiating between "thick" and "thin" cabling is seriously clutching.

I fully agree that you can have issues if you're a serial DVD/Blu-Ray watcher, and I agree you can get pesky lip-sync issues. I'm wondering how many folk bought the last Star Wars films (DTS only for the main soundtrack, DD for description only!), plugged it in and realised they couldn't hear anything (although out the box, most TV/Sonos setups seem to default to 2.0 anyway). Lipsync issues though, in my experience, are more down to the TV manufacturer than Sonos (but it absolutely is a pain).

It is patently obvious that home theatre was an afterthought for Sonos, else there is no other reason to begin with a purely optical soundbar and charge £650. If I was a betting man, I'd give it a 90-95% chance that Sonos is R&D'ing a HDMI Soundbar. There is just no other way to take that product line forwards, but how they would make it work for surround sound is another thing. I'm guessing there would be serious bandwidth issues for anything beyond DD5.1 with non-wired surrounds.

And just 2 points to make to the OP - if we want to start talking about so-called "true" AV setups, then things such as clear speech shouldn't even be an issue and you should be watching everything in Pure Direct mode. If you're having to make adjustments for this, it's not setup properly in the first place (save for the odd show/film with really bad mixing). Also, Sonos quite literally has a Speech Enhancement function! And buying speakers such as the (excellent) Q Acoustics ones and then quite literally dumping them all next to each other on your TV stand with little space between them (thus, little audio separation) and at a low level which must be way below your ear level, is just wrong - you might as well have just got a Playbar.

I also must say the people who seem to be worried about sound formats, etc IMO is a vast minority of overall Sonos users. Every single other person I know who has it simply connects to their WiFi and is done with it. Most don't even know about DTS, DD+, Atmos, etc. And if you care that much about it, I find it odd you'd run through all these hoops to get surround sound and not want a "proper" wired setup in the first place.

Sonos is a music streamer and simple soundbar first, and an extension into Home Theatre second. It's the best in the market at the first, and does an admirable (if very very costly) job at the second.

And just a few random observations. The Sennheiser "3D" soundbar is retailing for like 2K. I think comparing it to the Playbar is a bit off.

Short of an overhaul in the Sonos architecture, I can't really see how they implement anything beyond DD 5.1 UNLESS they buy the Denon HEOS patents. HEOS seems to be able to decode most formats including DTS and happily spray it around whatever other speakers in their network you want.

If you want a Dolby Atmos setup, get either a Dolby Atmos soundbar (expensive and generally trash), or kit out your respective rooms with the appropriate ceiling speakers and a new AV amp to get the desired effect. A properly calibrated 5.1 setup (even with a "standard" 5.1 soundtrack rather than DD+, TrueHD, etc etc) will blow away a "simulated" Atmos setup every time.

And just a few random observations. The Sennheiser "3D" soundbar is retailing for like 2K. I think comparing it to the Playbar is a bit off.

Short of an overhaul in the Sonos architecture, I can't really see how they implement anything beyond DD 5.1 UNLESS they buy the Denon HEOS patents. HEOS seems to be able to decode most formats including DTS and happily spray it around whatever other speakers in their network you want.

If you want a Dolby Atmos setup, get either a Dolby Atmos soundbar (expensive and generally trash), or kit out your respective rooms with the appropriate ceiling speakers and a new AV amp to get the desired effect. A properly calibrated 5.1 setup (even with a "standard" 5.1 soundtrack rather than DD+, TrueHD, etc etc) will blow away a "simulated" Atmos setup every time.

It seems they already own the denon heos patents...
Sonos sued Denon 3 years ago... And it is going on.
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