Soundbar sucks

The Playbar has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon with over 1000 reviews. Personally, in the years since it was released, I've heard every critique there is about the unit, and this is the first and only time I've ever heard it sounds worse than TV speakers. Your experience is definitely not the norm.

Thanks. It definitely sounds great, when it works. Which is about 3 out of every 5 seconds.

I love both my Playbars. One is connected to an LG, the other Samsung.

Is the drop-out problem limited to TV-input, or is music effected as well?

I'd get a diagnostic code and call Support.

Thanks. Again, the playbar works fine. The drop-out is the other few speakers (Sonos1’s and 3) connected to it.

Is it basically just a mistake to think that Sonos can be used as “surround sound”? Maybe I am expecting way too much from Sonos in general. Maybe a better way to view it is just as a slightly more annoying (and less reliable) form of a bluetooth speaker?

It seems you are concentrating on running the system down instead of solving any problems you have. It is obvious you are disappointed. The vast majority are not. For us or Sonos to help you go from the former to the latter, you are going to have to actually describe your setup, describe what is happening, and do as requested by submitting a diagnostic and posting the reference number here so Sonos can look at it.

Like everyone else experiencing dropouts, you have WiFi issues. Either interference or weak signal. Get a WiFi analyzer app for your phone, figure out which channel is the clearest, and switch to it. Better, get a Boost so that each Sonos node will act as a repeater, and will ensure the best possible signal strength throughout the house.

Recently purchased a Playbar and it's been working fine with music and TV-input. The Playbar sync's perfectly with my Play 1's while in music mode as well. I don't use surround speakers so can't comment on that aspect. I hope you get the surround worked out. I use boost mode by running Ethernet to the Playbar.

Thanks. Is Boost a Sonos product? We have a Velop Wi-Fi boost...but I assume you are referring to a specific Sonos product? And, yes, you are correct - at this point it is much more fulfilling to put efforts into discouraging others from buying this sub-par product than to spend more time trying to figure out the issues. 🙂 j/k...kindof. 🙂

Well then, if all you are here for is to slag the product, I will thank you to not waste our time trying to get you fixed, and simply suggest that you return the product for something more . . . Uhh. . . .fullfilling.

I'll happily buy your playbar for 50% off msrp :D

I have 9 sonos speakers, all work damn mear perfect and am wanting 6 more.

Thanks. Is Boost a Sonos product?

Yes. After finding your clearest Wi-Fi channel and switching your router to it, you really want to be in SonosNet mode. Most all of us who haven't experienced a dropout in years use SonosNet. It's vastly superior, as it uses the Wi-Fi repeater in every Sonos product to assure even coverage throughout your house. If you can't connect one Sonos device to your router via Ethernet cable, then you need a Boost to enable SonosNet. Only then will you realize exactly how superior Sonos is to all its competitors.

My playbar is connected to my HD DigiCorder (provided by digital TV service provider) and directly connected to the Digital Optic Audio Out (AC-3 pass through S/PDIF). Great results...

Thanks. Over the last year, after switching booster/repeater/network, we have just given up on trying to use the Playbar with the Sonos 1’s and 3. Just not going to work. No big deal. But the Playbar doesn’t really even seem to work with the tv - it just creates an echo most of the time - the tv is pumping out volume as well as the Playbar. Is there a way to stop this? Thanks.

No wonder you were disappointed, you weren't even set up correctly. You aren't supposed to have the TV speakers on at the same time. Turn them off in the TVs audio menu

In addition to the rather critical point that jgatie made, it's also vital to set up the TV and associated devices so that they're putting out a Dolby Digital signal to the PLAYBAR. Otherwise, you own't be getting an appropriate measure of the value of the PLAYBAR.

Aaronjackson7900,

It's quite easy to see where your wireless problems lie with your setup. You need to resolve your wifi issues by doing the following...

If you have a main ISP router then put that into either 'modem mode' (recommended) or 'bridge mode', switch off its wifi and DHCP server and let the velop system handle everything in that regard, so that you have a single LAN operating for all your local network devices.

Next step is to turn off the velop secondary hubs temporarily and scan the locality with free wifi scanner software, something like wifiinfoview, or similar, and discover the least-used non overlapping wifi channels in use by your neighbours. Lets imagine for a moment you find two good free wifi channels, 6 and 11.

Switch on your velop secondary hubs and set those and also the main velop hub to channel 6 and choose to fix the channel so the velop system stays fixed on that channel. If you don't know how to do that then google it, or message me and i will send you the instructions.

Next you need to cable one sonos speaker to the velop system. This can be done at the main hub (preferred) or a secondary hub, or to an 'unmanaged' switch that connects directly to your velop system. I would not recommend using a managed switch in this instance.

Switch on all sonos speakers and have them up and running on the SonosNet signal that originates from the wired sonos device.

Now you need to change your SonosNet wireless channel to 11 (the other least used channel in your local area). You can change this in the sonos app in 'Settings/Advanced Settings'.

Now that your Sonos devices are running safely on their own SonosNet signal, I recommend you now goto 'Advanced Settings/Wireless Setup' in the Sonos App and remove/reset your wifi credentials. These credentials are not needed when running your sonos devices on SonosNet and it will stop your speakers from trying to connect to your velop wifi signal on channel 6.

And finally, I strongly recommend you also add all your sonos device IP addresses to your network DHCP Servers Reservation Table. It can take quite a few minutes to do this, but it is worth the extra effort and will ensure you do not get issues in the future with duplicate IP address allocation, particularly when updating/rebooting your system or entire network.

Anyhow those are my suggestions to get your local network and sonos system up and running and hopefully, if you do all these things, you should not have any further issues, or audio dropouts, going forward. Hope that helps.?