sonos set

  • 9 June 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 454 views

What would you buy first?
the sonos beam with subwoofer or
the sonos playbar with 2 play one?

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6 replies

Userlevel 2
Badge +4
Ok first of just my opinion

beam vs playbar no comparison not even a close call the playbar wins hands down

sub. The sub is the sub it will do what it says on the tin and it will do dam well

Play ones. If you want surround sound go for the plays ones not the one as voice control is deactivated when used as a surround sound

in short playbar and 2 play ones. Is the ultimate starting point then add the sub.

I personally started with playbar sub and two play 5. That was complete overkill and use play 5s else where and have playones as surround
Userlevel 7
Badge +17
If you do not have a very large room, the Beam will be sufficient and has HDMI, so you don’t have to set up your remote (provided your TT does HDMI ARC). For surround two Play:1’s work well. Then you can decide if you need a Sub later....
Userlevel 3
Badge +6
I think you are asking the wrong question.
Which is more important to you, surround or bass?

Once decided, the next question is the size of your room?

A beam is usually enough for a smaller rooms while the playbar is more powerful and therefore suited to lager rooms.

Once these decisions have been made then you have to test suitability of your choice in the room itself and adjust based on what you hear.

Best to start at the lowest level and then add.
So if your room is small I'll start with the beam and work my way up making use of the Sonos return offer.
Userlevel 3
Badge +6
For a room that size, i would normally recommend a Playbar, but as you will be getting the sub as well, a beam should be more than enough.
Save the difference for when you get your surrounds.

You can always swap the beam for a bar later if you find it not sufficient enough for your needs.

Hope that helps.
I just want to clarify one small point and that is the Sonos One voice service (Alexa/Google etc.) is not deactivated when used as surrounds with the PlayBar or PlayBase. It is only deactivated when used with the Sonos Beam (because the Beam already has the voice service built-in)

Airplay is not available on/to the Sonos Ones when they are used as surrounds.

The PlayBar does not have AirPlay capability, but both the Beam and PlayBase do.

My own personal choice, for the size of room mentioned, would be to buy the Beam and two older Play:1’s. I do actually have that setup already in one of the main rooms in our home. I think the setup works well in a medium sized room and of course it provides voice services and AirPlaying capability.
Thanx you all! I have a medium size room. 6 by 5 meter. ( is that medium)?
for me clear sound and bass is important. Surround is less important but maybe in the future it will be a nice extra. So maybe the beam with the sub will be fine and than later adding 2x play one.