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Originally from Wausau, Wisconsin he moved to Orlando at the age of 10 and started working in the AV industry at the age of 17, while still in high school. Within a few short years he quickly gained experience in the industry doing inside sales, pre-wires and custom installation working for some of the largest AV companies in Orlando. We’ve been praising Sonos for its foolproof setup process, and we’re going to keep heaping on the kudos. Like its competitors, the One is best for background listening. Put on your favorite rock or "cafe-style" playlist when you want to host a dinner party or simply potter around. There are times when I needed to shout at Alexa, or get closer, and this is something that other longtime Alexa users have said occurs with their own Echo speaker.
Apart from the optical cable, the only other connections are Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Unlike most competitors, the Sonos lacks a Bluetooth connection, but due to the number of music services Sonos supports, we don't think you'll miss it. A sound base is a flat box of a speaker designed to sit underneath a TV's stand.
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This is a really nicely made and minimally styled unit that blends in neatly. It can be wall-mounted using an optional mount or laid flat in front of your TV, with the built-in accelerometers automatically sensing the orientation and adjusting the sound accordingly. Despite the fact plenty of other players have entered the wireless, multi-room market, the Sonos proposition remains a very compelling one, thanks to a slick interface and a willingness to support new features and services. We've always applauded and respected Sonos for being different. But there now are plenty of similarly priced rivals, including from the company itself, so it's time to reconsider. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.
About a year after I bought it — and after the warranty expired — it started vomiting bogus high-definition copy protection errors and refusing to play any content from my Apple TV or Blu-Ray player. I spent a few weeks cursing and telling Hollywood where they could go shove their consumer hostility. But it's a shame the set-up can't handle DTS or any of the higher quality soundtracks such as Dolby TrueHD – the latter due to the limitations of the bandwith of the optical connection. The Playbar is capable of going pretty darn deep for a product of its type, too, although it does struggle with the very lowest bass note on the track.
Setup
The LeEco "clawfoot" TV fit over the top of the Playbase just fine. Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio. Prior to the latest Apple TV, you could just hook the optical directly to the Playbar, but of course they dropped the toslink.
Most smaller ones won't fit, however, so the potential audience for the Playbase is smaller than that of the Sonos Playbar, the company's more conventionally designed sound bar. Sonos is big on pointing out that its speakers connect via Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth, and while Wi-Fi has its distinct advantages, there’s no arguing Bluetooth is a convenience most folks want. Sonos added Bluetooth LE to the One for 2019, but it’s important to understand this is not for playing music — it’s simply for slightly faster setup.
HDMI at last, kind of
The Sonos Playbase is a low-slung sound base with impeccable design and impressive sound. Its bass is even better than the Playbar's, so there's no need for a sub. Sonos' app and other speakers make it part of one of the best multiroom systems available. I have a V1 Play 5 in the living room, a Play 3 in the Bedroom, and a couple of Play 1's.
Not only does it mean the system can now reach James Blake levels of bass with rousing power, it also adds weight to big movie effects and helps the whole presentation fill the room more thoroughly. The big question, of course, is how the Sonos Playbar sounds, so we kick off with a spot of Premier League football. If you do go for the standard laid down orientation, you also need to be aware that the Playbar’s feet don’t lift it very high, so it won’t straddle a TV pedestal in the way the Yamaha YSP-2500 helpfully does. Sonos offers a 1-year limited warranty on all of its products.
While iPhone users can use Trueplay to setup this device, Android and other iPad users are in the dark. We chose to side with these users and leave the speaker uncalibrated, although we did adjust treble and bass according to each room's needs. And 65-inch Vizio D series worked best, straddling the Playbase with ample clearance, while a 55-inch TCL Roku TV and a 50-inch Vizio E-series didn't. If you want this style of speaker and your TV doesn't fit, there is a $150 third-party Playbase stand available.
If I was given the choice of buying a single Sonos Beam or two Ones, it'd be close. The Beam is great for home theater with its HDMI port but it's not so great at music. If you want to do home listening only then a pair of Ones is a superior choice. I actually owned the 5.1 setup but once I purchased an Nvidia shield android tv that supports pretty much everything. It only supports dolby and no software update will provide dts support .
I will say the Amp sounds more effortless than the Connect Amp, but that’s about it. Distortion seemed lower as well, but again, the difference was small. Although there is only a $100 price gap, I feel this represents just a minor revision of the Connect Amp, not an upgrade or serious improvement in sound and volume. The Amp is more squarely aimed at the custom integration market with its rack mount and cooler running temperature, but that’s where the differences end. Like other speakers of its kind, the Sonos One is a mono design, but as expected the sound got much better when I paired it with a second One.
Other functions that Sonos can't yet perform but Google Assistant can include purchases and interpreter mode. Just like the Sonos Beam, the One doesn't let you choose between the assistants on the fly. In other words, the speaker won't respond to an "Alexa" command first and then a "Hey,Google" command immediately afterward. The wide effect needs breathing room -- unadorned walls, too, if you please.
I expect you’re now thinking, “But I don’t need that much power to drive in-ceiling speakers,” and that’s true, the Connect Amp does the job just fine with 125 watts. But Sonos is showing off the Amp as an amp to drive your front speakers in your main setup. 125 watts just doesn’t cut it for larger tower speakers and some bookshelf speakers.
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