True 5.1 ruined for the sake of simplicity
I'm a HUGE Sonos fan. I own 3 Play:5's and a Sub. I'd been wanting to replace my bulky 5.1 speaker system with a Playbar since it was rumored. All their products have incredible sound quality so I was optimistic about this set up.
Set up is easy, sound quality is good for the unit. It's a nice product and looks great while being easy to operate (although more reliant on the Sonos application than I'd prefer). It's the typical awesomeness that you get with any Sonos product.
When testing the Playbar with a direct connection to a device (e.g. Apple TV) and running it compared to my 5 speaker system through my receiver I was impressed with the quality. Sound was more spread out and filled the room better but dialog/center was ultimately a bit shallow feeling. If you turn on speech enhancement in the menu it helps out but something still feels slightly off. It's something you're unlikely to notice unless you're actively comparing like I was but to the...
More Than Just a Sound Bar, but Less Than Perfect
The SONOS PlayBar may seem expensive for a sound bar, but only if you look at it as just a sound bar. Really it does much more (and I'll get to that). But first, as a sound bar, it works well and is pretty easy to set up: plug in the power cord and an optical cable from your TV and that's it, as far as audio connections go. To fully configure the unit and get it to work with your existing remote, you'll need to install the SONOS controller app (free) which runs on PC, Mac, Android and iOS devices. In the app is where you "add a device" (add the PlayBar to your home network) and establish the SONOS network in your home.
If you don't have any other SONOS products in your home already, you'll need to either connect the PlayBar to a network router or network switch with a standard network cable (one of which is included in the box), or purchase a SONOS BRIDGE which plugs into your network router and...
Easy Install, Elegant Looks, & High Fidelity
We have a small 10'x12' game room for our Xbox 360 and Wii U. Each console is hooked up to a LG 47" LED TV. The video quality is fantastic but the sound left a lot to be desired. This "problem" needed a solution. I set four simple goals to address this.
1) The system had to sound great.
2) High Wife Acceptance Factor. :)
3) I did not want to run a separate A/V receiver. I simply don't have the room.
4) I did not want to run wires under the baseboards or carpet.
To achieve these goals I decided to build a complete Sonos Home Theater System, with the new PLAYBAR front and center (literally).
Here are the components I chose for my system:
- Sonos BRIDGE
- Sonos PLAYBAR
- Sonos SUB
- Sonos PLAY:3 (x2 as Surround Speakers)
Let's start with the setup. First thing I did was download the Sonos software for my laptop and hooked up the Wireless BRIDGE to my router. After the software downloaded and...
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