eolsson

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eolsson
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  • Review: Sonos Playbar speaker does all-in-one TV & music for Apple device owners

    eolssoneolsson
    Thanks for the great review. I have a Sonos Playbar myself and am very happy with it, though I agree that for a number of reasons it's not for everyone. I thought the info below from my experience with it so far might be useful for other readers:

    In the review you stated "While the Playbar can be configured to recognize IR remotes, our 2011 Sharp TV wouldn't let us completely disable its speakers, which resulted in internal and external audio levels going up and down at the same time." There's a workaround for this issue posted on the Sonos support website. The instructions here are specifically for the Apple TV remote but should work with other remotes too. Basically what you have to do is configure whatever remote you're using to control the volume of the Sonos Playbar without also controlling the volume of the TV. Here's how to do that:

    https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4043/kw/apple tv 4th gen remote

    Regarding the post by lrnchriz above about Dolby 5.1, according to what I've read most newer TVs DO send Dolby 5.1 through the toslink output, the problem is that most TVs DO NOT pass a Dolby 5.1 signal coming into an HDMI port on the TV back out through toslink. The exceptions are TVs made by Sony and Vizio, and maybe a few other very recent models from other companies:

    http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/How-to-Get-5-1-Dolby-Surround-Sound-from-a-SONOS-PlayBar.shtml

    If you're not in the market for a new TV you can also work around this issue with a number of inexpensive third-party switches.

    Graham'sNumber: The main difference between the Playbar and the Playbase is that the Playbase is designed explicitly for stand-mounted TVs, while the Playbar works with both stand-mounted and wall-mounted TV configurations. The Playbase has 10 drivers as opposed to 9 in the Playbar, but I don't know how this affects sound quality. The additional driver in the Playbase is a woofer, so if you're planning on also installing a Sonos subwoofer the difference is probably irrelevant. Also - I'd love to stick to Apple gear as well, but for the time being Apple/Beats doesn't offer anything like Sonos and I haven't seen any rumors of them planning anything either. In fact Sonos fills such an obvious gap in the Apple/Beats product portfolio that I'd be surprised if Apple didn't buy the company at some point.

    Cjcoops - regarding lack of DTS support, one way to work around this is to get a blu-ray player that automatically converts DTS to Dolby 5.1. I know Samsung makes these and other companies may as well. Note that you still have to have a TV that passes Dolby 5.1 from an HDMI port to the toslink port as I mentioned above, or a switch. 
    dacharargonaut