Sonos Playbar
£699
FOR Neat and stylish; dynamic soundstage; upgradeable
AGAINST Doesn’t fill a room; optical connection only
Sonos has always done things its own way – no bouncing beams or 5.1 surround sound. We’ve always respected the company for being different. But now there are plenty of better equipped and similarly priced rivals, maybe now is the time to reconsider.
While the claims that the Sonos Playbar introduces ‘hi-fi sound’ to your TV are little over the top, this is a very nice sounding unit, and it does a lot more than most soundbars, too.
That’s because, at heart, this is a full Sonos unit, with access to massive amounts of streamed music. It will play everything you have stored on your computer or NAS device (except hi-res); it benefits from a feature that lets you send audio from an iphone, ipad or ipod Touch; and it connects to internet radio.
No other (non-sonos) device delivers anywhere near the same breadth or depth of content – and no other soundbar delivers as much music as this.
Take the plunge
If all you want is lots of music, you can buy a Play:3. The difference is that the Playbar also connects to your TV – but there’s just one way to do this, and that’s via digital optical cable. This has benefits in terms of simplicity, but it’s not as neat as systems with multiple HDMI inputs and a single HDMI output for video.
If you do take the plunge, you’ll start to consider it money well spent as soon as you take the unit from the box. This is a really nicely made and minimally styled unit that blends in neatly. It can be wall-mounted or laid flat in front of your TV, with the built-in accelerometers automatically sensing the orientation and adjusting the sound accordingly. The Playbar sounds best when oriented with the wider edge facing out, so even if you’re not wall mounting we’d recommend standing it on the thin edge.
Tucked away with the other connections is a pair of ethernet sockets, which allow you to connect other components, such as a smart TV, to the internet via the Sonos network.
Kicking off
The big question, of course, is how the Sonos Playbar sounds, so we kick off (ahem!) with some Premier League football. It soon becomes clear that this is a massive improvement over even the most impressive-sounding flatscreen TV. There’s detail, weight and tonal balance that a TV on its own simply can’t deliver.
Sonos has gone for a sound that’s more atmospheric than full of impact. It sounds as if it’s firing sound upwards rather than out into the room and to the listening position, especially if you’ve laid it flat. It does mean the presentation is a little less involving than it could be.
Switch to Ed Harcourt’s The Cusp And The Wane and that trait is still evident, but at the same time the sound is impressively detailed and dynamic, and that means you get all of the natural emotion of the track, even with a streamed MP3 from Spotify.
The Playbar is capable of going pretty deep for a product of its type, too, although it does struggle with the very lowest bass notes. The fact that it even gets close is impressive, but if you want to hear even those near sub-sonic notes you have the option to add a Sonos Sub.
Adding the Sonos Sub to your system via the app is a simple process and the sound clearly improves with its addition. Not only does it add weight to big movie effects, it helps the whole presentation fill the room more thoroughly.
All gain then, but gain that you have to pay a great deal for – and given the Playbar’s quality it’s something only the wealthy or dedicated should consider.
So should you buy a Playbar at all? If you’re simply after great movie sound there are better options, such as the Yamaha YSP-2500, which offers a more convincing virtual surround sound experience. But if you’re looking for a simple device that will improve the sound from your TV and give you access to more music than you could possibly listen to, the Sonos Playbar is for you.