Sonos Play Bar or Play 5 and dedicated Soundbar for TV?
Discussion
I've currently got a Roth Bar One soundbar and wireless sub and whilst it's done a great job, I feel it's time for replacement - it's also a bit wee when compared to my 58" big ass new tv 
I also have a Sonos Play 1 as I have only recently found the world of Sonos.
I am now looking at 2 paths - either replacing both with a Sonos Play Bar and moving the Play 1 into the kitchen, or maybe getting a dedicated sound bar and using a Play 5 in the living room with the Play 1 in the kitchen.
So I have a few questions - does anyone have a Play Bar? I am concerned that standalone it may lack a bit of bass and I am not shelling out £1200 for both the bar and the sub to match.
How good does a Play 5 sound compared to a Play 1 - is it head and shoulders better sound?
What sound bar would people recommend up to £300 (would like a wireless sub with it).
I've seen a JBL one in Richer Sounds that looks pretty good but would like to hear personal recommendations from real world owners if possible.
Cheers.
I also have a Sonos Play 1 as I have only recently found the world of Sonos.
I am now looking at 2 paths - either replacing both with a Sonos Play Bar and moving the Play 1 into the kitchen, or maybe getting a dedicated sound bar and using a Play 5 in the living room with the Play 1 in the kitchen.
So I have a few questions - does anyone have a Play Bar? I am concerned that standalone it may lack a bit of bass and I am not shelling out £1200 for both the bar and the sub to match.
How good does a Play 5 sound compared to a Play 1 - is it head and shoulders better sound?
What sound bar would people recommend up to £300 (would like a wireless sub with it).
I've seen a JBL one in Richer Sounds that looks pretty good but would like to hear personal recommendations from real world owners if possible.
Cheers.
I don't usually bother responding to threads like this, but I feel quite strongly about this particular question and feel I can help persuade you away from a play bar for tv and movie use.
I bought one to replace an old samsung soundbar that was a bit whack. Got rather excited and bought a play one for the kitchen too.
Have to say, when the whole interface worked properly it was a joy to use, as I'm sure you already know. I had issues with drop outs and freezes but that's another story.
The play bar, for music, I thought was seriously poor. It sounded 'ok' for movies and TV, but when playing music at a mid to high volume with the bass pumped up it was laughably poor. Every thud of a bass drum would kill the treble momentarily so it sounded like a kid was twiddling the treble knob in time with the music.
I appreciate that there is a sub also, so I ddecided to stump up the cash and buy it too. It made a bit of difference, but nowhere near as much of an improvement as I expected for an additional £600! I thought the whole thing was sub par to say the least.
I boxed the entire Sonos caboodle up and took it back to Richer sounds, where the sales man said "Yeah, I'm not a fan of sonos sound quality and agree that the play bar is especially poor, no idea how it gets such glowing reviews."
He proceeded to set me up a Yamaha YSP3300 in their booth, and my socks were well and truly blown off. It's fantastic. Music plays via a Bluetooth dongle or you can set up an Airport Express and optical lead which I've just done. The bass is stunning, cinema quality. Movies are a joy to watch now. I'm Chuffed. It was still almost a thousand pounds, but is a far better piece of kit than the Playbar. I do, however sometimes miss having the synced music in the kitchen, but I can live without that.
Just my experience. Others probably found them to be different . I do wonder if the one I got was a dud. Will never know..
I bought one to replace an old samsung soundbar that was a bit whack. Got rather excited and bought a play one for the kitchen too.
Have to say, when the whole interface worked properly it was a joy to use, as I'm sure you already know. I had issues with drop outs and freezes but that's another story.
The play bar, for music, I thought was seriously poor. It sounded 'ok' for movies and TV, but when playing music at a mid to high volume with the bass pumped up it was laughably poor. Every thud of a bass drum would kill the treble momentarily so it sounded like a kid was twiddling the treble knob in time with the music.
I appreciate that there is a sub also, so I ddecided to stump up the cash and buy it too. It made a bit of difference, but nowhere near as much of an improvement as I expected for an additional £600! I thought the whole thing was sub par to say the least.
I boxed the entire Sonos caboodle up and took it back to Richer sounds, where the sales man said "Yeah, I'm not a fan of sonos sound quality and agree that the play bar is especially poor, no idea how it gets such glowing reviews."
He proceeded to set me up a Yamaha YSP3300 in their booth, and my socks were well and truly blown off. It's fantastic. Music plays via a Bluetooth dongle or you can set up an Airport Express and optical lead which I've just done. The bass is stunning, cinema quality. Movies are a joy to watch now. I'm Chuffed. It was still almost a thousand pounds, but is a far better piece of kit than the Playbar. I do, however sometimes miss having the synced music in the kitchen, but I can live without that.
Just my experience. Others probably found them to be different . I do wonder if the one I got was a dud. Will never know..
Edited by Mr Noble on Saturday 25th October 17:04
Agree with the above.
I think the Play:1 sounds ok for the money for a bedroom or kitchen, but the rest is pretty poor sound quality wise, the bar is the worst.
A playbar, sub, two fives and two ones is an expensive and pretty poor performing surround setup.
The interface is brilliant though, so buy some connects and connect amps and decent speakers and soundboard for similar or not much more money
I think the Play:1 sounds ok for the money for a bedroom or kitchen, but the rest is pretty poor sound quality wise, the bar is the worst.
A playbar, sub, two fives and two ones is an expensive and pretty poor performing surround setup.
The interface is brilliant though, so buy some connects and connect amps and decent speakers and soundboard for similar or not much more money
I was looking yesterday for a new Soundbar, looking to spend near £500. The new Yamaha SRT-1000 which stream music from bluetooth and a whole variety of connectors. The sound is amazing and to me is better than a Canton DM 75 which only comes alive with high volume. Not the smallest but the quality is there for you to hear. Otherwise look at what Philips have to offer with their 5140 Soundbar and wireless subwoofer.
Forget Sonos and their soundbar which offers limited quality for the money and is style over substance. Multiroom music is a great idea but in reality does not work so well in the UK due to thick walls and insulation. You would be better off just buying a wireless speaker in the Kitchen or elsewhere for less money that do an amazing job....Geneva Model S for around £330. Blows away the Sonos.
Forget Sonos and their soundbar which offers limited quality for the money and is style over substance. Multiroom music is a great idea but in reality does not work so well in the UK due to thick walls and insulation. You would be better off just buying a wireless speaker in the Kitchen or elsewhere for less money that do an amazing job....Geneva Model S for around £330. Blows away the Sonos.
belleair302 said:
Multiroom music is a great idea but in reality does not work so well in the UK due to thick walls and insulation.
soundbar is pants for music, but then I've never heard a soundbar that was good for music. Play 5's are heads and shoulders better than Play 1's. I have 3 Play 5's and personally wouldn't touch Play3's and 1's unless someone can demonstrate they sound a whole lot better in a home than in a shop.
Sonos is un-rivalled for connectivity, usability, stability and flexibility - but you pay for it. Unless you seriously want proper multi room there are cheaper better sounding alternatives.
I totally disagree with the multiroom opinion above. I live in a 4 story Victorian terrace house made of stone with thick walls and large room. My bridge (the start of the Sonos network) is in a corner of a room behind a 50 inch TV with an AV amp, Blue ray, PVR within 2/3 feet. The AV front speakers are also close. The bridge sits on top of the surround sound subwoofer, within inches of the router, a 8 port switch, and my Synology NAS, As you can imagine behind the TV there is a rats nest of 10 power cables and probably 5/6 network cables. Its also pretty much under a 15 ft RSJ. So in the scheme of things, short of burying the bridge in concrete I don't think it could be placed in a worse position.
I have 3 Play 5's and a connect - 1 in the same room, 1 same level but about 40ft away through thick walls. 1 on the 2nd floor above the bridge and the third on the third floor opposite end of the house.
My Wifi struggles to reach the 3rd floor and I have a wired connection in that room for the computer.
The beauty and some of the cost of Sonos is it creates its own network and each device is a repeater. So it knocks Wifi into the weeds.
Sonos just works.
I am not sure about the Playbar as I have no experience of one, but I do have 4x Sonos 1's and they are in my opinion an awesome solution.
We have two in the family sitting room connected as a stereo pair (total cost similar to 1x Play 5)
We have 1 in our bedroom and 1 in our daughters bedroom, we have just had a son recently so I will fork out for one for his room too.
The interface is fantastic, the flexibility is amazing and for us the sound is excellent.
I love being able to hook out my phone and have playing my song of choice within 20 seconds, I also love being able to walk up the stairs and by the time I have got there (if not sooner) the music I had playing downstairs is now playing upstairs.
Also I can play three different things in three different rooms all at different volumes and all from my phone - f
king awesome.
I also have Spotify Premium which works absolutely brilliantly with Sonos and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
We have two in the family sitting room connected as a stereo pair (total cost similar to 1x Play 5)
We have 1 in our bedroom and 1 in our daughters bedroom, we have just had a son recently so I will fork out for one for his room too.
The interface is fantastic, the flexibility is amazing and for us the sound is excellent.
I love being able to hook out my phone and have playing my song of choice within 20 seconds, I also love being able to walk up the stairs and by the time I have got there (if not sooner) the music I had playing downstairs is now playing upstairs.
Also I can play three different things in three different rooms all at different volumes and all from my phone - f
king awesome.I also have Spotify Premium which works absolutely brilliantly with Sonos and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
If you are a fan of films, and intend using a sound bar to listen to anything other than Sky+ output, then stay clear of the Sonos Playbar. It does not support DTS encoded soundtracks at all. You get nothing when a BluRay or DVD with a DTS track it played.
If you have an distribution matrix, then stay clear of the Sonos Playbar. It doesn't switch off. So, if you had one in room A, with the receiving TV etc switched off, but the matrix was last selected in that room to play say, the Sky box, and you have the sky box on and are viewing in another room, then bingo - you get sound playing in the room you are not in, as well as the one you wish to view.
If all you have is a single room, without DVD/BluRay, and only watch a Sky+ feed, then it's OK, but you need the sub too.
Also, something else to consider - the Sonos Playbar is only designed to connect to one AV source - the TV - digitally. Some TV's only output stereo from their digital out, not surround. Some only output audio from the TV itself - not pass through from connected devices. Some do not output digitally at all. You may need to change your TV also - or invest in another switch box to switch audio between sources, and connect the Playbar that way.
These are all difficulties I have had with the Sonos Playbar since buying a couple of them to use on a matrix distribution system. Even then I had to strip out the audio from the matrix HDMI signal to even connect the Playbar.
My advice - Sonos - audio only = excellent (zone amps to good quality speakers especially). AV use - no thanks.
If you have an distribution matrix, then stay clear of the Sonos Playbar. It doesn't switch off. So, if you had one in room A, with the receiving TV etc switched off, but the matrix was last selected in that room to play say, the Sky box, and you have the sky box on and are viewing in another room, then bingo - you get sound playing in the room you are not in, as well as the one you wish to view.
If all you have is a single room, without DVD/BluRay, and only watch a Sky+ feed, then it's OK, but you need the sub too.
Also, something else to consider - the Sonos Playbar is only designed to connect to one AV source - the TV - digitally. Some TV's only output stereo from their digital out, not surround. Some only output audio from the TV itself - not pass through from connected devices. Some do not output digitally at all. You may need to change your TV also - or invest in another switch box to switch audio between sources, and connect the Playbar that way.
These are all difficulties I have had with the Sonos Playbar since buying a couple of them to use on a matrix distribution system. Even then I had to strip out the audio from the matrix HDMI signal to even connect the Playbar.
My advice - Sonos - audio only = excellent (zone amps to good quality speakers especially). AV use - no thanks.
Edited by bradders on Thursday 30th October 18:18
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