SONOS PLAY BASE

The Sonos Playbase, a device that enhances the sound of your TV, is now available in Australia for $999 (RRP). As the name suggests, the Playbase is designed as a base… for your TV screen. Sonos says that although soundbars are an ideal solution for people with wall-mounted screens, they’re not ideal for users who put their TV on a horizontal structure, such as a table or shelf, and that its research shows that this

is where the overwhelming majority of users put their TV. So the Sonos Playbase is designed to sit on a flat surface, underneath your TV, and deliver higher-quality audio than from the TV itself. When it’s not delivering TV sound, it can deliver music streamed from Spotify, Google Play and so on, via a single woofer, six midrange drivers and three tweeters, all of which are individually powered by Class-D amplifiers.

Connectivity is a touch limited, with only a single optical audio input and a single Ethernet port (notably no HDMI), but it does have wireless, albeit only 802.11b/g, 2.4 GHz. Extra processing features built in include a speech enhancement setting to keep the volume of speech at a consistent level while reducing the intensity of loud sound effects, and a ‘Night Sound’ setting that quashes the dynamic range at low volume levels by boosting the level of quiet sounds and reducing the level of louder ones to make it easier to listen at a low level without disturbing others in your family who might be trying to sleep. For more information, contact Sonos Australia on (03) 9874 0800 or at www.sonos.com.au