Upgrade Conundrum

The Era 100s and Arc Ultra are a leaps ahead of the Play 1 and the Playbar. You’d be best going to a store to listen for yourself to judge them. But the main reason for updating - even if you are happy with the current sound - if that the Play 1 and Playbar do not support the highest resolution sound/Dolby Atmos as they don’t have the memory, which can make a massive difference to your sports and movie experience.

If you can afford it, absolutely you should upgrade. If you’re in two minds, wait for an offer - or activate your trade-in discount on your Sonos Play 1 and Playbar (if available in your account), apply that discount to the new products at the Sonos online shop, and then sell the Play 1 and Playbar to recoup some more cash. 

‘Blow out of the water’ is subjective. I upgraded both my PLAYBARs to Arcs. I upgraded both sets of PLAY:1s to Era 100s and Era 300s, respectively. Am I pleased? Absolutely. Would I have been fine with the older system, yes, I would. It’s more up to you as to whether you feel the upgrade is worth it. 

For what it is worth, I upgraded both my PLAYBARs to S2, once it became available, so all my other speakers as well. For TV use, I’m not certain there was any difference, but I preferred the update for other reasons. 

In addition to ​@Airgetlam excellent “subjective” comments 😂

The gear you have is aging fast to the point that at some stage Sonos will stop providing updates to the latest audio codecs and/or improvements. It (the Playbar) is already incapable of playing Dolby Atmos. In short it will eventually go the way of the Play 5 Gen1. Still working but sparingly supported.

Sound quality IMO may exceed that of the Beam2 in terms of stereo reproduction for a wide sound stage and low-end. However, it can’t compete with the ArcUltra.

One crucial point is this… The Playbar is an optical connection. There’s no need to upgrade to an ArcUltra if your current TV doesn’t have HDMI eARC connection. Furthermore, to purchase an ArcUltra and relegate it’s connection to optical is a poor use of $1000_USD.

So…there you have my “Objective” opinion 😂

The playbar imo is one of, if not the best sounding Sonos speaker period. If you want Atmos, upgrade it, but if not I would keep it until it dies. The idea that it won’t support codecs or is aging beyond use  is FUD. 

Just to be clear...no one said the Playbar is aging beyond use. However, there will be limitations as to what the Playbar will be able to handle as Sonos and the audio industry advances. Tech like Sonos which are small computers will always reach a stage of incompatibility in some manner.  I have 36 units (not counting my three pairs of Ace headphones) but I’m not naive enough to think that they will continue to function at full capacity 10 years from now. It would be great if they did; but reality/history says differently.

There are reasons to upgrade but this is just FUD. 

Have it your way 😂 I’ve expressed my opinion so let the OP decide. Makes no difference to me whether you or the OP agree as it’s their system and money to spend or not.

I’m the first person to call out FUD (and there is a lot around).  However, ​@AjTrek1 is telling the truth.  Like all electronics, eventually the Playbar will not have enough processor power or storage/Ram to keep up with the more modern devices, ala the S1/S2 split.  Now Sonos is said to be working on staving off the inevitable sunsetting of older devices by doing more in the cloud, but sunsetting of older devices is inevitable, none the less.

I’m not arguing against that inevitability. I’m saying it is FUD to use the inevitable to answer  what the person is asking in their post 

“The question is should I upgrade my aging surround set up, namely my rear Play 1’s and Playbar. My mini sub is fairly new and doesn’t need replacing. The build quality of my Play 1’s and Playbar is such that they still sound good to my ear. Does the new stuff blow it out of the water?”

Agree to disagree.  FUD is Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.  The fear of inevitability is real, there is no uncertainty that it will eventually happen, nor is there any doubt.  ​@AjTrek1 framed his posts with enough context that anyone should be able to discern his meaning without inferring the extreme for any of those three terms.

PS - I should know better than to take the bait from brand new users who post like they know it all.  I’ll not be replying, so you can save the effort.  But what can I say, you got me.

Ok thanks for your invaluable input. 

Hmmm….it seems that members with 10 plus years in this community agree with ​@jgatie. How long have you been posting here 🤔. BTW...I’m done also...at least responding to your comments.