Review: Rick Brown
If you are tired of your TV’s flat sound look no further than the Sonos Playbar. Boasting 9 speakers (6 – 3.15” mids and 3 – 1” tweeters) powered by a Class D amplifier in total in its sleek and stylish 35.43” x 3.35” x 5.51” fame weighing only 12lbs. The Playbar and be placed in front of your TV or mounted on the wall. I have found that the best sound quality comes from standing the unit up vertically as opposed to laying it flat, however you decide to have it setup you will not be disappointed in its great sound quality that it provides.
Right out of the box you are all set to go through a somewhat quick and easy process to set up the device. The install program bring you through step by step to set it up which includes registering the device, which is needed if you want to listen to streaming music players like Pandora, SiriusXM, Spotify and many more. Once your setup up is complete you can control the volume of the Playbar through your TV service providers remote thanks to the IR port located on both the top and front of the device that recognizes the signal used from your remote to control your TV’s volume.
A couple of additional features found on the Sonos Playbar that sets it apart from other sound bars. Sleep timer you can set in 15, 30, 45min, 1hr and 2hr increments. The ability to set an alarm to wake you up with either the default chime or your favorite song/playlist or radio station. You also have the night sound feature that allows you to use lower volumes and not compromise the balance and range of the Playbar you get when in normal mode. These features are only available through the Sonos app on your computer, iPhone or android device.
One downfall that I ran into during my review was that TV does not come with and optical output so I was not able to enjoy the lovely sound quality from my game systems with out having to unplug the optical cable from my set-top box and plug it into either my PS3 or Xbox which during the review period was not to much of an inconvenience but for permanent audio solution would be a pain. This is something to think about before you go out and grab yourself one or buy it as a present for a lucky someone.
For those who already have a Sonos speaker you will need to purchase the Bridge. This will allow you to group your speakers together. Combine the Playbar ($699), Sub ($699), (2) Play:3’s ($299ea) and a Bridge ($49) and you have a 5.1 wireless HiFi system that will run you $2,045 that you won’t regret.