Sonos - Playbase

For the past year I am been browsing around looking for a good soundbar that would fit in my family room.  In my old house I had a pretty good Cambridge Soundworks  6.1 surround sound system installed, which did not come with me to the new house.  In my new house wanted better home theater sound, but I did not want to run wires. With the layout of the room, it would be impossible or at least extremely ugly to run wires around the walls.  I have been looking at higher end soundbars, but I was unable to find one reviewed well enough to encourage me to pull the trigger.  My other issue is my TV sits so low on the base that most soundbars would block the IR receiver.  This seemed to be another instance where the technology was not yet where I needed it to be but if I waited long enough something would eventually be released.  I have not been real impressed with the performance of any of the Bluetooth speakers I have owned and I have never really been a fan of Bose products.

I had read about a bit about Sonos products, and really wasn't looking very closely at them as they are pretty pricey.  Then last month I came across a couple reviews of the Playbase.  Although pricey, it seemed to fit the criteria of most of what I was looking for.

• Great Sound
• Plenty of bass for movies
• Expandable
• Wireless
• Can play music form just about anywhere

So after a lot of research I pulled the trigger and picked up a Playbase.  I have to say I am impressed.  The sound obviously does not rival my old 6.1 system but it is pretty damn good.  I no longer find my self turning the volume up to hear dialogue and then down when the explosions get too loud.  It also looks great under my TV.  Very sleek and unobtrusive.

What has impressed me the most is the ability to stream different types of audio.  I have been a Pandora user for a while so it was great to be able to use it on the Playbase as well.  I am also able to listen to local radio stations through TunedIn.  The system supports 49 streaming services so most likely your favorite is supported.  Most impressive is I am able to share out my whole music library on my PC and stream it to the Playbase.  The great thing is it just works.  The app is great, very intuitive.  You don't get any drops like on Bluetooth.

I can't really find much to complain about regarding the system but if I had to come up with something....

• Its expensive - Yes it is expensive but for me it is worth it
• Limited connection options - The playbase connects from your TV using an optical cable only. 
• It does not support DTS or other advanced audio formats

The problem is now I am wanting to add more components to the system.  While the bass output is good I am sure it would sound a lot better with the sub so I will probably be adding one soon.  And once I have the sub I might as well get a couple Play1s for the rear.  Then of course I need a Play 3 for the office.   Not to mention the kids rooms and bathroom.   The good thing is once I do build the whole system out it will be so easy to setup and manage through the app.  You can have one audio source playing in one room and another audio source in another room.

Also on the horizon is integration with Amazon Echo so if you are a user of voice control products it is coming toward the end of 2017.  Overall very happy with my Playbase and looking forward to adding more components as budget permits.