WEBVTT

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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an

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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts welcome to part two of my

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coverage of Sonos Play series of network speakers in part one which you can view

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here I covered wired setup ease of use the basics of their app and the sound

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quality of the play 1 and the Play 3 this time we're going to start with the

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wireless experience now last time because apparently I'm an idiot I hooked up every single speaker

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separately via Ethernet thinking that you needed their bridge in order to run

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wirelessly or you were stuck with wired I realize now that you actually only

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need to plug any one component in via Ethernet and it will act as the

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controller while the rest will simply join a mesh style wireless network

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automatically so you only need to run power to them so the bridge is meant to

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be a controller for folks who can't get an Ethernet cable to any of their ideal

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speaker locations to get the mesh going or for folks who want to extend its

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reach without installing random intermediate speakers between two more

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distance ones live and learn right

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anyway while generally I'm not a big fan of Wireless networking's slow

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interference ridden headache inducing terribleness music streaming isn't

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terribly demanding and Sonos is solution which runs on the same 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz

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frequencies as Wi-Fi but using as a proprietary communication protocol

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actually works just fine it is slower

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adding new speakers to the mesh adjusting settings changing volume these

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are all a little bit less responsive but it's still very tolerable and reasonably

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configurable so like if you're having interference issues you can manually

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select a channel if you want but I didn't experience any stutters hiccups

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or dropouts in my house with it on auto and I think part of the reason for that

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is they have a huge buffer on the music

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that you're playing if you're streaming off a device you can test this by playing something off your phone turning

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off your Wi-Fi and seeing how long the speaker keeps playing for so there you

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go this little white box with its two Port switch is something that I'd

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consider handy but very very optional because in most cases the wireless

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speaker experience is just as good without it so let's move on to the other

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stuff that they sent us oh yeah the

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playar speaker bar is designed to let you use Sonos gear as a replacement for

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your TV's built-in speakers or more traditional aftermarket setup but just

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like the room speakers the key here is going to be ease of setup and once again

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I was impressed the software made things basically effortless I mean compared to

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my Eno receiver and CF speakers let's get this out of the way right now sonus

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the solution doesn't sound as good and actually costs about the same as I paid

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for that but the Simplicity is very compelling and it's not just simple to

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set up but also to use the play bar can be added to your mesh to play music in

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that room like any other Sonos speaker then unlike my multi- remote setup that

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my wife constantly complains about it can be configured to automatically

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override wireless speaker functionality when it receives an optical signal from

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your TV media PC game console or whatever else so you don't have to think

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about it the setup guide walks you through all these steps including how to

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use your TV as a pass through for audio from all the connected devices without

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using its own poopy speakers and it also gives you some helpful tips on

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positioning the Soundbar and this is the point at which I know that their logo is

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the same right side up and upside down

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that blew my freaking mind anyway uh once it was set up I was pretty happy

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with it volume control is handled seamlessly through your existing remote

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and it sounds way better than your TV stock speakers ever will and the base it

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delivers is surprisingly tight and loud on top of that the play bar has a magic

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give me back some of the mid-range vocal boost button when it's running on

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optical that I wish all of their speakers had all the time because it

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really makes Sonos sound signature much more appealing to me so there's my

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feature request in this video so far so good with the play bar though but it

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gets cooler than that in the same way that you can link speakers in multiple

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rooms together to synchronize playback and create stereo pairs of matching

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speakers within one room you can add a sub to your play bar and use software to

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control Its Behavior so almost recommend standing the sub upright or laying it

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down under a couch and I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here but the

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setup is as easy as is pressing a couple of buttons and yeah it was easy with

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that said I didn't really feel like the sub contributed much to the experience

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for me if you really want to crank things then you'll appreciate it but and

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this isn't a criticism of the sub but rather an endorsement of the play bar at

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normal TV and movie listening volumes for me I found that the play bar

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delivered ample base on its own the sub isn't the only thing you might want to

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expend though you can add a couple of play ones too with some solid

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configuration options so you can have them just join in full blast or act as

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ambient music enhancers when you're playing music in that room or you can

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use them as surround speakers for movies it works as well as any of their stuff

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uh one viewer did specifically ask me to see if the play bar would work with a

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DTS 5.1 stream in XBMC and it handled it

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just fine and suround so no complaints overall but even if it works exactly as

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advertised well you can expand the play bar this way I didn't find this config

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that compelling I'm not the right customer in the the first place I don't

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have enough room behind my couch to place speakers there at all but that's

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not even my main problem even if I had space I don't have a power outlet there

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so once again I'm a bit disappointed by the limitation that Sonos has imposed on

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their gear by not giving the play ones standard speaker inputs and maybe

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putting a a beefier amp with a couple of speaker wire outputs on the play bar or

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something this would make the unit slightly less Sleek perhaps but speaker

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wire is a lot easier to to hide next to a baseboard than power extension cords I

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mean maybe to make things easier a play one enhanced skew in the future could

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have like a power pass through so you could daisy chain them with only one of

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them plugged into the wall or or something but as it is I doubt I'm the

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only one who will find a Sonos surround setup impractical however easy it might

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be to configure from a software side and I guess that's it for wireless and the

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home theater setup stuff so I'm going to conclude part two with some more General

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thoughts on having my house Sonos up it's not cheap but for me this really is

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NextGen it works the way they say it does you can stream to individual

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speakers full rooms combinations of rooms you can adjust volume as groups or

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to each individual speaker within a group expansion is easy and it all feels

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so made to go together even something

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like that veiled midrange I might not

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prefer that sound but I have to acknowledge that from the top of their

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speaker line up to the bottom they're delivering that sound signature

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consistently so at least when I order something from Sonos I know what to

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expect and a big benefit here is that as I walk from room to room it's not

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jarring to hear something the same music but playing very differently as I move

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around my house I think really at this point the only thing missing for me is

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to add more options to the lineup I'd love to see some better sounding

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speakers some more uh purpose-built ones

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like maybe a weather resistant outdoor speaker for example but that's all I

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really have to say other than that I wholeheartedly recommend sons's

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ecosystem it's not perfect like anything easy it's not the best sounding it's not

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the cheapest but it just works and I even got wife approval on it and at the

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end of the day that's the bottom line for new tech gadgets isn't

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it all right guys thanks for watching like this video if you liked it dislike

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it if you disliked it leave a comment let me know your thoughts on Sonos have you ever tried it do you have positive

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comments on it do you have negative comments on it leave leave those

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comments uh in the video description you'll find our support link where you

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can give us a monthly contribution you can buy a sweet t-shirt like the one

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of stuff helps us out a lot thanks again for watching guys as always don't forget

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he