Sonos likely to reveal Alexa-enabled home theater speaker at June 6 event
Connected speaker maker Sonos on Thursday invited the press to a June 6 event in San Francisco, where the company will almost certainly reveal a new home theater product with support for Amazon's Alexa voice assistant.
The company's email invite shows a table littered with remotes, and overlaid text claiming "you're better than this." Adding to the evidence of a home theater speaker, a March FCC filing pointed to a product with both microphones and HDMI support.
Sonos's first true smartspeaker, the Sonos One, already has Alexa and should gain Google Assistant and AirPlay 2 compatibility in the near future. The company has expressed a strong interest in voice assistants, and so it would make sense to continue with other product lines.
It will presumably refresh either the Playbase or Playbar, but might also choose to debut an entirely new design. The presence of HDMI on the new model could mean direct control of a TV, though what that would entail is uncertain.
Apple and Sonos have enjoyed a close partnership, despite the former's introduction of the HomePod, nominally a competitor with the One. Sonos products have appeared in Apple stores, and also support Apple Music as an option in app-based control.
The company's email invite shows a table littered with remotes, and overlaid text claiming "you're better than this." Adding to the evidence of a home theater speaker, a March FCC filing pointed to a product with both microphones and HDMI support.
Sonos's first true smartspeaker, the Sonos One, already has Alexa and should gain Google Assistant and AirPlay 2 compatibility in the near future. The company has expressed a strong interest in voice assistants, and so it would make sense to continue with other product lines.
It will presumably refresh either the Playbase or Playbar, but might also choose to debut an entirely new design. The presence of HDMI on the new model could mean direct control of a TV, though what that would entail is uncertain.
Apple and Sonos have enjoyed a close partnership, despite the former's introduction of the HomePod, nominally a competitor with the One. Sonos products have appeared in Apple stores, and also support Apple Music as an option in app-based control.
Comments
Also if the pricing stays the same the Playbar & Playbase are priced at $699.00 USD.
I think this illustrates the hypocrisy of those grading Apple on a curve.
Nobody calls HomePod half baked because it can't play Spotify, it's intentionally hobbled. We all know it's Apple's MO to keep the system closed but that's doesn't mean people have to like it.
dont like. I was agreeing with the OP. Please explain how the system is closed? You can play ANY other music service via airplay to HomePod. It may not be ideal for you, but to say it’s Apple’s MO to keep the system closed when in fact it isn’t, doesn’t make sense.
Is Sonos going for the center channel, or will you be able to double it for discrete two or more channel stereo?
I wouldn't buy any soundbar without hearing it first. They sound better than TV speakers, but almost all of them sound like— soundbars. I'd have to be under some kind of significant constraints to choose one over a pair of decent speakers.
I argue the app is is the best part of Sonos. I have playlists that consist of random mashups of tracks saved on local iTunes libraries, streaming Apple Music tracks and amazon music as well as smaller services like Bandcamp.
I dont begrudge Apple their choice to heavily favor their music service on homepod, but I’m not going to pretend Sonos doesn’t have something very compelling with their Sonos app-based player technology.
I don’t experience any difference playing Apple Music tracks and other streaming services. The device that initiates playback can shut down or leave the premises and the music happily keeps playing. As far as I can tell, all services are equally “native”
what makes Apple Music not native?
Ive been quite happy with the playbar by itself. I used it this way for a few months before adding surrounds and subwoofer, which were great additions, though certainly not necessary for those who aren’t super particular about their audio equipment. The playbar works quite nicely on its own.
It it would be interesting if in addition to the first player mounted conventionally (horizontally) under the TV you could also mount playbars vertically to be L&R & surround channels throughout the room. As it is now, you cannot add any speakers to specifically do left & right stereo. The only possible configuration for left & right stereo is routed to the left and right sides of the playbar.