When it comes to reputation, Sonos is second to none in the wireless multi-room speaker arena. Having always positioned itself as the go-to speaker set up for music lovers, it is now trying to take over your TV with its first soundbar, the Sonos Playbar.
The company calls the Playbar the soundbar for music lovers, promising that it delivers all the world’s music (through compatible apps from Spotify, Rdio et al) wirelessly, as well as giving your flatscreen TV an auditory boost.
But can it satisfy both sets at once?
Design and setup
First, the looks. There’s not a great deal to play with in the soundbar design department – you’re basically looking at a bar full of speakers.
That said, the Sonos effort isn’t bad; it’s unassuming enough to sit almost imperceptibly beneath the television, while the rounded corners and matt casing are aesthetically pleasing when you do notice it.
Some might think it a tiny bit chunky compared to the slinky bezel-challenged televisions around at the moment, but the fact that you can place the bar anywhere you like helps on that front.
In the traditional Sonos style, there aren’t many buttons or ports to speak of on the Playbar; just an ethernet port, power-in and optical audio-in for connecting it up, and three understated volume and pairing buttons.
Inside, there are nine speakers – six midrange and three tweeters, which are positioned under the mesh to provide a wide sound stage and angled so that the audio spread is uniform no matter where you position the Playbar.
So you can opt for above the TV, below it, on the wall or on a table in front of the television and it will detect the differing positions you put it in using an accelerometer and automatically recalibrate the speakers accordingly. Pretty clever – and you’ll never know it’s even doing it.
Pairing the Playbar to a Sonos bridge is very simple – just put the bridge in pairing mode, then press and hold the volume up and pairing button on the Playbar and you’re away.
Once paired, the Playbar is on the same network as any other Sonos speakers you have around the house, so it forms part of your multi-room setup (you can then play different songs in different rooms or the same song in all the rooms as you wish).
It also means the Playbar can playback any of your MP3 music library, or pretty much any song ever, using the Controller App’s Spotify (and Rdio, etc) apps. There’s also internet radio, if you’re struggling to decide what you feel like listening to.
The Playbar doesn’t come with a remote control – shock horror. Instead, it uses your television remote and the Sonos Controller app (for iOS and Android) – and hey, one less remote cluttering up the place is just fine with us.
Sound quality
Sitting directly in front of the Playbar will give you the best experience – as is the case with any sound bar. Watching big action sequences, there was definitely a nice depth to the audio and a not hugely noticeable but still apparent movement to the sound.
The Playbar did struggle a little bit when there was a lot of audio going on at once – so where action was kicking off but characters were still speaking (well, shouting), the dialogue did tend to get a little bit lost.
With the television off, the music-playback can be described with one word: loud. The music we listened to through just the Playbar sounded pretty huge and while die-hard audiophiles may be left wanting a little more clarity from the playback, for everyday users the quality is more than adequate.
Things get a bit more interesting when you add the Sonos Sub into the mix; the Sonos Playbar automatically adjusts the levels when it knows it’s using the sub so that the bass doesn’t overwhelm the sound, be it music or film.
But it’s reassuringly bassy – and when listening to a spot of dubstep, for example, the Playbar alone didn’t judder us enough to make us feel physically ill but the Playbar and Sub duo sure did.
The final pieces of the surround-sound puzzle are the two Play 3 units which you do have to faff about with a bit to set up – Sonos has tried to simplify this process as much as possible but there is still a certain amount of measurement estimation to deal with.
Unfortunately for anyone hoarding Play 5s, the surround sound set up only works with the smaller consoles.
Once you’re up and running, though, the surround sound is impressive, with the sound running smoothly around the room – we watched the train crash from Super 8 and the destruction was all around us.
The fact that this is a wireless surround-sound setup is all the more impressive, but it does come at a price – about £1600 (around $2500) for the whole lot – and that’s before you’ve even thought about your swanky svelte TV.
Early verdict
We’ve had our reservations about soundbars in the past, with many of the pricey ones underwhelming and the cheap ones proving that old idiom: you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
But we were impressed with the Sonos Playbar at first listen and we love the fact that its uses extend beyond simply watching films and TV.
We’d like to see a bit more clarity in the film playback though – not everyone watches massive action flicks in their spare time – but it’s certainly a vast improvement on what most televisions offer.
Related Stories
 |
 |