I think we all agree the Playbar is a great addition to the existing Sonos products. Movie experience is great, especially combined with a couple of Play:3's and a Sub. Since I bought the Playbar on launch day, I've sold the Connect, bought two Play:3's a few days later and yesterday received the matte Sub.
I also think there are roughly three issues with the new Playbar:
The good thing is that number 1 and 3 are probably quite easily fixed with a software update. I myself are mainly interested in nr. 3: although movie sound is great when the Playbar, Sub and Play:3's are in the 5.1 surround setup, it's quite lousy when you're listening to music because the Play:3's are utilized as surround speakers so the hardly produce any sound. The solution of course is to remove the Sub and Play:3's from the group and set them up in a new stereo setup + sub. Switching between these setups is quite bothersome:
The procedure for switching from the stereo music setup to the surround setup is almost identical.
Now, I think this can all be solved by allowing the user to create a set of profiles:
The user should only be bothered to setup the Sub once, and the Play:3's should remember which one is left and which one is right when switching between profiles.
If you guys think this is a proper way to address this issue, please vote for it at ask.sonos.com. By the way, I didn't create that topic and it doesn't talk about profiles, so if you think I should open a new topic, please say so.
I also think there are roughly three issues with the new Playbar:
- DTS support is missing
- No HDMI input, which is a problem for TV's that downsample external 5.1 HDMI input to 2.0 output through the Toslink
- Switching between music and surround setup is bothersome
The good thing is that number 1 and 3 are probably quite easily fixed with a software update. I myself are mainly interested in nr. 3: although movie sound is great when the Playbar, Sub and Play:3's are in the 5.1 surround setup, it's quite lousy when you're listening to music because the Play:3's are utilized as surround speakers so the hardly produce any sound. The solution of course is to remove the Sub and Play:3's from the group and set them up in a new stereo setup + sub. Switching between these setups is quite bothersome:
- Remove Play:3's and Sub from the room
- Setup the Play:3's as a stereo pair, which involves pressing buttons on both units, identifying them as left and right speaker
- Adding the Sub to the Play:3's, which involves going through the Sub setup process again
The procedure for switching from the stereo music setup to the surround setup is almost identical.
Now, I think this can all be solved by allowing the user to create a set of profiles:
- One profile for the 5.1 surround setup, consisting of Playbar, two Play:3's in surround mode and optionally a Sub
- One profile for the music setup, consisting of two Play:3's configured as a stereo pair and optionally a Sub
- One profile for a 'club' setup, which is just the previous music profile with the Playbar added
The user should only be bothered to setup the Sub once, and the Play:3's should remember which one is left and which one is right when switching between profiles.
If you guys think this is a proper way to address this issue, please vote for it at ask.sonos.com. By the way, I didn't create that topic and it doesn't talk about profiles, so if you think I should open a new topic, please say so.