*** Official SONOS Thread ***

PSA. Sonos announced that it is going to start rolling out new features like high definition high bandwidth audio and new audio features like Atmos etc.

No new products have been announced but the first step to this rollout is to launch a brand new operating system firmware called Sonos S2. The new software will be rolled out to most Sonos devices in June. This software does not enable your device to support high definition audio or Dolby Atmos - it simply enables you to still keep your existing devices paired with any new unreleased devices you may purchase.

New devices such as a new Playbar with HDMi 2.1 and Dolby Atmos will have to come after the new S2 firmware is released
 
Quite expensive but ok.

Only 2 upfiring channel with no Atmos surrounds yet.

Seems to support Atmos and all other Dolby formats and that's great.

my only remaining question is does it support multi channel lpcm- ie can I get surround sound by plugging my pc into it

Edit: yeah ok it's only got a single HDMi in port and doesn't support multi channel audio. That means your TV must be able to pass through your format of choice. The other issue is it doesn't do up mixing - so once again if I plug it into my PC or my ovninto my TV I will only get 2 channel audio.

Disappointing product, I'm still gonna just buy a receiver that does a proper job - I need something that will upmix multi channel audio into surround sound like Atmos and very few soundbars do this and arc is one of these that do not
 
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Grim5 said:
Quite expensive but ok.

Only 2 upfiring channel with no Atmos surrounds yet.

Seems to support Atmos and all other Dolby formats and that's great.

my only remaining question is does it support multi channel lpcm- ie can I get surround sound by plugging my pc into it

Edit: yeah ok it's only got a single HDMi in port and doesn't support multi channel audio. That means your TV must be able to pass through your format of choice. The other issue is it doesn't do up mixing - so once again if I plug it into my PC or my ovninto my TV I will only get 2 channel audio.

Disappointing product, I'm still gonna just buy a receiver that does a proper job - I need something that will upmix multi channel audio into surround sound like Atmos and very few soundbars do this and arc is one of these that do not
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Clearly not the product for you it’s a lifestyle device not an audiophile one!
 
a1ex2001 said:
Clearly not the product for you it’s a lifestyle device not an audiophile one!
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a lifestyle product that doesn't even fully work with a home console, Nintendo switch

Any sound system that doesn't support lpcm won't have surround sound from the 2nd most popular lifestyle gaming system in the world

Edit: it's not the only gaming system, google stadia also only outputs sound in LPCM
 
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I have a switch and have to say I never thought that the sound output was poor, then again platformers, super mario kart etc don’t seem like the kind of games that would benefit much from surround audio.
 
Grim5 said:
a lifestyle product that doesn't even fully work with a home console, Nintendo switch

Any sound system that doesn't support lpcm won't have surround sound from the 2nd most popular lifestyle gaming system in the world

Edit: it's not the only gaming system, google stadia also only outputs sound in LPCM
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The Nintendo switch who’s average user is oh so massively focussed on surround sound performance :)

Sonos know there market and hit it spot on pretty much every time the only duff product they have ever released was the play 3 and that was only because the play 1 was just so good.

They are not targeting audiophiles they are targeting people who want attractive convenient decent sounding products and I’m sure the new products will sell just as well as the last ones while continuing to generate these complaints from people who are not suited to the product.
 
a1ex2001 said:
The Nintendo switch who’s average user is oh so massively focussed on surround sound performance :)

Sonos know there market and hit it spot on pretty much every time the only duff product they have ever released was the play 3 and that was only because the play 1 was just so good.

They are not targeting audiophiles they are targeting people who want attractive convenient decent sounding products and I’m sure the new products will sell just as well as the last ones while continuing to generate these complaints from people who are not suited to the product.
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why did Sonos even bother to add Atmos when as you say not of their customers have ever heard of the word before
 
Grim5 said:
why did Sonos even bother to add Atmos when as you say not of their customers have ever heard of the word before
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Marketing logo on the box/sales stand to match competitors the audio visual world is full of this consumers regularly by technology they don’t need because the marketing tells them to.

I’m also sure the new Playbar sounds better than the old one with the additional drivers technology etc clearly not a match for a full separates system or Yamaha's best sound bars but better and it was already a very nice sounding product in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong I see the limitations of the Sonos system and I totally get the price complaints but I look passed them because it delivers the good sounding convenient music anywhere experience that I want.
 
Basher said:
Do it! It totally transforms the sound.
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This. Had the Playbar and Play 1s on their own but this year my gf bought me the Sub as a bday present. In quiet scenes it is very subtle, but loud scenes and music are on another level. The Playbar and 1s are also more crisp as they no longer handle low frequencies.
 
My Sonos move turned up today. Happy so far. But Its connected to my "older" system. I've not yet taken the 30% off upgrade offer as I have 4xplay 1's, 3xplay 5's and 3 connect amps. Thats going to be expensive. Although I suppose I could sell the older units to claw back some cash
 
M1k3H said:
This. Had the Playbar and Play 1s on their own but this year my gf bought me the Sub as a bday present. In quiet scenes it is very subtle, but loud scenes and music are on another level. The Playbar and 1s are also more crisp as they no longer handle low frequencies.
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Hmm I have a Playbar and 1’s in my bedroom and I’ve often discounted the sub as I didn’t think it would make a huge difference in a small ish bedroom.
 
ChrisD. said:
Hmm I have a Playbar and 1’s in my bedroom and I’ve often discounted the sub as I didn’t think it would make a huge difference in a small ish bedroom.
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It depends how you consume your media I suppose. If you watch movies or listen to relatively loud music in the bedroom then it would make a difference. In my bedroom music is always kept down as we usually just relax and prepare for sleep, or if I were to have a TV in the bedroom I’d probably not watch any movies, so a Playbar alone with the surrounds sounds overkill for me already.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Marketing logo on the box/sales stand to match competitors the audio visual world is full of this consumers regularly by technology they don’t need because the marketing tells them to.

I’m also sure the new Playbar sounds better than the old one with the additional drivers technology etc clearly not a match for a full separates system or Yamaha's best sound bars but better and it was already a very nice sounding product in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong I see the limitations of the Sonos system and I totally get the price complaints but I look passed them because it delivers the good sounding convenient music anywhere experience that I want.
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remains to be seen. I think the new Arc soundbar has smaller mid range drivers than the Playbar in an attempt to fit in 3 extra drives into the soundbar. My experience with those Yamaha bars is that little speakers don't sound as good as bigger ones
 
Chris344 said:
Worth upgrading the Playbar to the Arc?
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how desperate are you for Atmos?

it's possible that the Arc is actually much better at creating a sound bubble around the listener so even without Atmos it could sound better. That's what I always liked about the Bose soundbar - it doesn't do Atmos but it creates a much better bubble of sound than the Playbar.

The Arc claims to now use phase guide tech along with two upfiring drivers - so if they've done the job correctly the Arc should create a much bigger soundstage and the listener should get more sound on the sides and sound overhead.

My only concern with sound quality is that the drivers have been downsized - they had to do this because they fit in more speakers into nearly the same size as before. But with tuning and I've got a sub it may not make that much difference. If you don't have a sub you may notice a bigger audio quality variance between the Arc and Playbar

the Arcs main selling point is directional sound - so it's possible the Playbar will have the edge with absolute music quality while the Arc has the edge for home theatre - it's pretty telling that Sonos has said the Playbar is not a legacy product it will be sold alongside the Arc so it would seem they are two seperate products and the Arc is not a replacement
 
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