The IT Nerd

This week, I got a chance to look, or more accurately hear the Sonos PLAYBAR in my condo. If you recall my In Depth look at the PLAYBAR, you’ll know that Sonos products are wireless and allow you to customize them to fit your needs so that you can get totally amazing sound. Now the PLAYBAR that Sonos provided came with one added accessory. The Sonos Bridge was included to allow me to connect the PLAYBAR to my network wirelessly (rather than run a long Ethernet cable into the back of the PLAYBAR). More on why that matters in a moment.

In terms of set up, it went something like this for me:

1. Plug the Bridge into my home network and provide it with AC power.
2. Plug in the AC power of the PLAYBAR.
3. Plug in an Toslink cable from the PLAYBAR to the back of my TV. The cable is included in the box by the way.
4. Download the Sonos Controller app for iOS onto my iPhone.
5. Follow the directions on the app to set everything up making sure I had the remote controls that I use with the TV handy.
6. Declare victory and have a beer while enjoying the fruits of my labors.

Total time: about 20 minutes. It wasn’t that hard for me.

Once it was set up, the difference between the built in speakers in my HDTV and the PLAYBAR were stark. The highs and lows were much better defined and I could pick up detail that I wasn’t used to hearing. For example, I could pick up the sounds of skates while watching game seven of the Leafs/Bruins first round playoff game in which the Leafs collapsed in an epic manner…. Not that I’m bitter.

I was also able to pick up the sounds associated with the graphics on Hockey Night In Canada which I never heard before (confirmed when I switched back to my HDTV’s speakers). But what really got my attention was watching Zero Dark Thirty via Rogers On Demand. Every aspect of the audio was enhanced from the speech of the actors to gunshots and other random sounds in the battle sequence at the end of the movie. It was very much like being in a theater, which is of course the whole point of course.

Now, back to the need to use the Bridge to hook the PLAYBAR up to my network. I can use the Sonos Controller app on my local network to do the following:

• Tweak the audio settings to suit my tastes. Including activate a night mode that cuts that volume so you can watch TV without disturbing your spouse.
• I can stream music from my iPhone to the PLAYBAR. I should note that the audio quality was impressive regardless of what I played from my iPhone.
• I can stream music from a rather long list of music streaming services.
• I can organize my Sonos products into groups. For example, if I have a system in my TV room and another in the den, I can set those up and control them independently.

I should note the app is available for Android as well. There are also versions for the PC and Mac too. One other thing about using the Bridge, as you expand the system there are no wires needed. Nice!

Now this is the part of the review where I nitpick things. I could say that while the lows were much better defined, it lacks the low-end punch of a subwoofer. I could also say that the PLAYBAR does not do the sort of stereo separation that a home theatre in a box does. The fact is that if all of that is important to you, Sonos can help you with that with their line of audio products such as the the Sub as well as other products that provide the items that I just mentioned. If you don’t need any of that, you will not be disappointed with what you get with the PLAYBAR.

Now all of this doesn’t come cheap. If you want a PLAYBAR, it’s going to set you back $750, plus $59 for the Bridge. But here’s the thing: If you want much better audio from your HDTV, plus give yourself a few extra tricks, and no wires as you expand beyond the PLAYBAR if that is your intention, you need to look at the PLAYBAR. This is ideal for a condo such as the one I live in. But I know that it would work equally as well in a larger space as well. Try it out at a dealer near you, I think you’ll be putting down your hard earned cash for one.

This entry was posted on May 21, 2013 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Products with tags Sonos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.