Sonos Playbar Soundbar Review - Style, Amplified Sound and Wireless

The soundbar is an increasingly popular choice for those looking for both an aesthetic device and able to fill a room with a sound that stands out for its clarity. Sonos Soundbar review to know all the details about this quality sound bar.

Sonos is known for its high-end multi-room audio systems, but the Sonos Playbar soundbar is for those who want to watch movies and enjoy the Sonos ecosystem, for example by pairing it with Play: 5 in their living room.

To increase realism when listening to action movies or concerts, the soundbar is a great alternative and the Sonos Playbar is no exception. A sleek look, amplified sound, wireless music and control from mobile devices. These are some of the proposals of the Playbar.
You can also check our opinion of the sound bar Sony HT-MT300.

Characteristics

Inside, the Playbar is a 3.0 system with left, right and center speakers. However, you can also bundle it with other Sonos products to create a 3.1 or 5.1 system, giving you the flexibility to extend your sound system.
This Playbar sound bar is also beautiful to watch. As we have come to expect from Sonos, the build quality of the Playbar is absolutely staggering. Its elegant diamond-shaped design, aluminum details and black speaker grille immediately indicate that it is a high-end audio equipment. It's also convenient because the Playbar's angled speakers can automatically adjust the sound depending on whether it's laying flat or hanging on the wall, giving you superior sound wherever you place it.

Sonos Playbar Review: Configuration

Since this is a Sonos product, the installation could not be easier. If you already have a Sonos system, simply plug in the power cable, connect it to your TV via its optical output and use the controller to add it to your system, the Playbar connecting via the proprietary wireless network.

Zeroing for a brand new installation does not take much longer, although you need to have at least one device connected via a wired connection. Fortunately, there are two ports of 10 and 100Mbit / s on the back, so you can connect the Playbar to your router and use the second port of another device, such as your TV. You will also need to install a controller, which can be an iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows PC or Mac.
As soon as the Playbar is detected, you are guided by a configuration wizard. This one plays a couple of tones for you, asking which one sounds best to help the system properly configure its sound. It also asks if you want to connect a Sonos subwoofer for more bass and two more powerful Play: 3 to act as rear speakers (more details later).
An integrated IR repeater on the front controls the volume of the up and down keys on your TV remote control, allowing you to control the volume without the need for an additional remote. However, she did not recognize the remote control of our Samsung F8000 Smart LED TV, although he recognized the remote controls of some older TVs.

Sonos Playbar Review: TV Setup

To get the most out of the soundbar, you need to have it connected to your TV, which means that you will need a model with an optical output, as this is the only input to the SONOS Playbar. Most TVs have this output, especially if you have a recent model, but some older or cheaper sets do not.
If yours is not, you will need to connect your device, such as the set-top box or Box TV directly to the Playbar. It's a little boring though, because watching a movie would mean moving the cable manually to the back of your DVD or Blu-ray player. Having a TV with an optical output is clearly the best solution.
Finally, you will also need to turn off the speakers of your TV so that all the sound is transmitted only to the Playbar. Brightly, the Playbar is automatically set up by default on its optical input, so that turning on your TV allows you to hear the sound immediately without having to move.

Sound quality

The sound quality is generally excellent and it's one of the best sound bars we've listened to. This is as long as you have the speakers in the correct orientation. We first placed the Playbar on its thin edge with the network and optical ports facing down, but it sounded way too clear. By moving it to its flat orientation, on its feet, thus improving the sound.
As a 3.0 system, we did not have any real complaints. Inside the soundbar are nine individually amplified speakers: six bass-midrange (two each for the left, center and right channels) and three tweeters (one for each channel). The left and right tweeters are indicated on the side of the Playbar, to add more width to the sound. Thanks to this chart, the range and balance are excellent. There is enough bass, but not to shake the whole room, but a pronounced beat. The high end is brilliant and you can hear all the subtle details of a track.
The movies sounded great, with sound effects and incredibly clear dialogue. Our only complaint is that even though there are side-ignition tweeters, the sound is not as wide as it could be. You have the impression that objects are moving on the front of the screen, but it still sounds a little directional.

With discrete satellite speakers, you get better stereo separation and a more immersive movie feel. Nevertheless, for a sound bar, it does a great job. At high volume level, we did not notice any distortion, which is largely due to the quality of manufacture.

• Discover our comparison of the best sound bars.

Surround sound

Of course, you are not limited to 3.0 sound. Adding a Sonos SUB gives you a 3.1 sound and that makes a big difference. For starters, the entire system is rebalanced to account for the fact that the Playbar needs to produce less bass, as is now done by the subwoofer. It gives you that deep bass that the movies really require, that brings the soundtracks to life. The subwoofer is not as noisy and punchy as some standalone woofers, but it is designed for and balanced with the Playbar. This means that the SUB does not dominate the sound and you still get the full range, rather than a mess of muddy bass. By adding the SUB, we first found the overall sound a bit brilliant, but we tuned the treble to get the balance we wanted.
If you want to go even further, you can add two Play: 3 (available separately) as rear speakers. Sonos asks you how far back you are from the rear speakers so you can adjust the audio, but we found the default settings a bit quiet for our room, so we had to increase a bit the rear volume.
The addition of surround speakers provides a much wider soundscape and makes movie viewing a much more immersive experience. Our only minor complaint is that the sound at the front is even narrower and easier to locate, although this is largely due to the width of the bar.

Surround sound quality

The Playbar will decode all Dolby Digital soundtracks, but it does not support DTS. If you're using a Blu-ray player and lossless audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD, your TV must be able to output decoded PCM audio to get the surround track. This reduces the audio quality (you only get the high quality bit rate in HDMI), but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference.
We must also warn against delays. Although Sonos used the 5GHz spectrum to communicate with other system components, latency over the wireless network is more problematic than with wired speakers. In a normal music system, Sonos allows all players to sync around a timecode. It adds a slight delay, but when it's audio only you cannot detect that. However, add visuals and you may have lip sync issues. To get around this, we had to reduce the audio delay on the television; we managed to get a perfectly synchronized sound with the lips and adapted to our wired home cinema system. That's another good reason to connect it to your TV.

Music Streaming with Soundbar SONOS Playbar

When you buy a Sonos product, you also buy a multiroom audio player. This means that you can send all your audio and multimedia services locally stored in streaming. The Sonos system is one of the best soundbars for streaming services, including Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, TuneIn Radio, Deezer and Google Play Music. You can also do all the smart things of Sonos, like playing the same music on your Playbar and other players in different rooms.
Many home theater systems do not sound as good at the music level, but we would dare say that Playbar is the best standalone player Sonos, even better than the excellent Play: 5. The depth and warmth are evident in all the pieces we have listened.
The detail is excellent, with a clear voice and great balance with appropriate bass, midrange and treble. Adding the SUB makes a big difference and really brings out the best of tracks, adding that extra level of sound. Adding the surround speakers allows the sound to fill the room, but they are not necessary at all.

+ PROS

Sound quality
Quality design and construction
Streaming capabilities

- CONS

Price a bit high

Conclusion SONOS Playbar

An audio system a little expensive, but offers a nice balance between all the frequencies of its possible. A big advantage is the ability to extend this soundbar to a 5.1 system by adding a subwoofer and 2 rear satellite speakers. Multi-room and pairing with other Sonos speakers are also easy. In short, a well thought out bar with a very honest value for money.
Taken as a whole, we cannot deny that this soundbar is fantastic. For movies and TV, the clear sound and excellent range make it one of the best sound bars we've listened to. It's great that you can also add additional components to make it a complete surround sound system.
You can also check our opinion of the soundbar Q Acoustics MEDIA 4.