SONOS Wireless HiFi Speaker System Part 2
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,722 words · ~8 min read
0:06
with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an
0:11
amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts welcome to part two of my
0:16
coverage of Sonos Play series of network speakers in part one which you can view
0:20
here I covered wired setup ease of use the basics of their app and the sound
0:25
quality of the play 1 and the Play 3 this time we're going to start with the
0:29
wireless experience now last time because apparently I'm an idiot I hooked up every single speaker
0:34
separately via Ethernet thinking that you needed their bridge in order to run
0:38
wirelessly or you were stuck with wired I realize now that you actually only
0:42
need to plug any one component in via Ethernet and it will act as the
0:47
controller while the rest will simply join a mesh style wireless network
0:51
automatically so you only need to run power to them so the bridge is meant to
0:56
be a controller for folks who can't get an Ethernet cable to any of their ideal
1:01
speaker locations to get the mesh going or for folks who want to extend its
1:05
reach without installing random intermediate speakers between two more
1:09
distance ones live and learn right
1:13
anyway while generally I'm not a big fan of Wireless networking's slow
1:17
interference ridden headache inducing terribleness music streaming isn't
1:22
terribly demanding and Sonos is solution which runs on the same 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
1:28
frequencies as Wi-Fi but using as a proprietary communication protocol
1:32
actually works just fine it is slower
1:35
adding new speakers to the mesh adjusting settings changing volume these
1:39
are all a little bit less responsive but it's still very tolerable and reasonably
1:44
configurable so like if you're having interference issues you can manually
1:48
select a channel if you want but I didn't experience any stutters hiccups
1:52
or dropouts in my house with it on auto and I think part of the reason for that
1:56
is they have a huge buffer on the music
1:59
that you're playing if you're streaming off a device you can test this by playing something off your phone turning
2:04
off your Wi-Fi and seeing how long the speaker keeps playing for so there you
2:08
go this little white box with its two Port switch is something that I'd
2:12
consider handy but very very optional because in most cases the wireless
2:16
speaker experience is just as good without it so let's move on to the other
2:20
stuff that they sent us oh yeah the
2:23
playar speaker bar is designed to let you use Sonos gear as a replacement for
2:27
your TV's built-in speakers or more traditional aftermarket setup but just
2:31
like the room speakers the key here is going to be ease of setup and once again
2:37
I was impressed the software made things basically effortless I mean compared to
2:41
my Eno receiver and CF speakers let's get this out of the way right now sonus
2:45
the solution doesn't sound as good and actually costs about the same as I paid
2:48
for that but the Simplicity is very compelling and it's not just simple to
2:52
set up but also to use the play bar can be added to your mesh to play music in
2:57
that room like any other Sonos speaker then unlike my multi- remote setup that
3:02
my wife constantly complains about it can be configured to automatically
3:06
override wireless speaker functionality when it receives an optical signal from
3:11
your TV media PC game console or whatever else so you don't have to think
3:16
about it the setup guide walks you through all these steps including how to
3:19
use your TV as a pass through for audio from all the connected devices without
3:23
using its own poopy speakers and it also gives you some helpful tips on
3:27
positioning the Soundbar and this is the point at which I know that their logo is
3:31
the same right side up and upside down
3:35
that blew my freaking mind anyway uh once it was set up I was pretty happy
3:39
with it volume control is handled seamlessly through your existing remote
3:42
and it sounds way better than your TV stock speakers ever will and the base it
3:46
delivers is surprisingly tight and loud on top of that the play bar has a magic
3:52
give me back some of the mid-range vocal boost button when it's running on
3:56
optical that I wish all of their speakers had all the time because it
4:00
really makes Sonos sound signature much more appealing to me so there's my
4:04
feature request in this video so far so good with the play bar though but it
4:07
gets cooler than that in the same way that you can link speakers in multiple
4:11
rooms together to synchronize playback and create stereo pairs of matching
4:15
speakers within one room you can add a sub to your play bar and use software to
4:21
control Its Behavior so almost recommend standing the sub upright or laying it
4:25
down under a couch and I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here but the
4:28
setup is as easy as is pressing a couple of buttons and yeah it was easy with
4:34
that said I didn't really feel like the sub contributed much to the experience
4:37
for me if you really want to crank things then you'll appreciate it but and
4:41
this isn't a criticism of the sub but rather an endorsement of the play bar at
4:45
normal TV and movie listening volumes for me I found that the play bar
4:50
delivered ample base on its own the sub isn't the only thing you might want to
4:53
expend though you can add a couple of play ones too with some solid
4:57
configuration options so you can have them just join in full blast or act as
5:01
ambient music enhancers when you're playing music in that room or you can
5:05
use them as surround speakers for movies it works as well as any of their stuff
5:10
uh one viewer did specifically ask me to see if the play bar would work with a
5:14
DTS 5.1 stream in XBMC and it handled it
5:17
just fine and suround so no complaints overall but even if it works exactly as
5:21
advertised well you can expand the play bar this way I didn't find this config
5:27
that compelling I'm not the right customer in the the first place I don't
5:31
have enough room behind my couch to place speakers there at all but that's
5:35
not even my main problem even if I had space I don't have a power outlet there
5:39
so once again I'm a bit disappointed by the limitation that Sonos has imposed on
5:44
their gear by not giving the play ones standard speaker inputs and maybe
5:49
putting a a beefier amp with a couple of speaker wire outputs on the play bar or
5:53
something this would make the unit slightly less Sleek perhaps but speaker
5:58
wire is a lot easier to to hide next to a baseboard than power extension cords I
6:04
mean maybe to make things easier a play one enhanced skew in the future could
6:08
have like a power pass through so you could daisy chain them with only one of
6:12
them plugged into the wall or or something but as it is I doubt I'm the
6:16
only one who will find a Sonos surround setup impractical however easy it might
6:21
be to configure from a software side and I guess that's it for wireless and the
6:25
home theater setup stuff so I'm going to conclude part two with some more General
6:29
thoughts on having my house Sonos up it's not cheap but for me this really is
6:35
NextGen it works the way they say it does you can stream to individual
6:39
speakers full rooms combinations of rooms you can adjust volume as groups or
6:43
to each individual speaker within a group expansion is easy and it all feels
6:48
so made to go together even something
6:51
like that veiled midrange I might not
6:55
prefer that sound but I have to acknowledge that from the top of their
6:58
speaker line up to the bottom they're delivering that sound signature
7:02
consistently so at least when I order something from Sonos I know what to
7:06
expect and a big benefit here is that as I walk from room to room it's not
7:11
jarring to hear something the same music but playing very differently as I move
7:15
around my house I think really at this point the only thing missing for me is
7:19
to add more options to the lineup I'd love to see some better sounding
7:23
speakers some more uh purpose-built ones
7:26
like maybe a weather resistant outdoor speaker for example but that's all I
7:30
really have to say other than that I wholeheartedly recommend sons's
7:34
ecosystem it's not perfect like anything easy it's not the best sounding it's not
7:39
the cheapest but it just works and I even got wife approval on it and at the
7:43
end of the day that's the bottom line for new tech gadgets isn't
7:47
it all right guys thanks for watching like this video if you liked it dislike
7:50
it if you disliked it leave a comment let me know your thoughts on Sonos have you ever tried it do you have positive
7:55
comments on it do you have negative comments on it leave leave those
7:58
comments uh in the video description you'll find our support link where you
8:02
can give us a monthly contribution you can buy a sweet t-shirt like the one
8:06
that I'm wearing right now we actually have some other really cool designs right now too go check those out and you
8:10
can change your Amazon bookmark to one that has our affiliate code in it so
8:13
whenever you just navigate there and buy stuff we get a small Kickback that kind
8:17
of stuff helps us out a lot thanks again for watching guys as always don't forget
8:20
to subscribe if you haven't already
8:31
he