Product Description
PLAYBAR’s nine-speaker design floods any room with super-realistic audio for games and movies, huge waves of live concert sound, and wireless streams of all the music on earth. And it all comes from one easy-to-use player that brings HiFi sound to your high-definition TV.
| Price: |
$699.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
| as of Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:34:09 GMT ***Remember, deals price on this item for sale just for limited time*** | |
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #205 in Receiver or Amplifier
- Color: Black
- Brand: Sonos
- Model: PBAR1US1BLK
- Released on: 2013-03-05
- Dimensions: 3.33" h x 5.51" w x 35.43" l, 12.12 pounds
- Networking: Wireless
Features
- Sonos HiFi sound for your TV with nine amplified speakers
- Listen to all the music on earth - from any source
- Simple, single-cable setup
- Flexible, multiple position and orientation design for any room and TV
From the Manufacturer
SONOS PLAYBAR
The soundbar that streams all the music on earth.
HDTVs offer an amazing picture but often lack the powerful, realistic sounds that movie, music, and gaming enthusiasts enjoy. The SONOS PLAYBAR wireless soundbar delivers sophisticated home theater acoustics and wirelessly streams all the music on earth through one streamlined, easy-to-use soundbar.
Sonos HiFi sound for your HiDef television
Flood any room with epic, full-theater HiFi sound and wirelessly stream all the music on earth through one easy-to-use soundbar.
Wirelessly stream all the music on earth
Enjoy a universe of music in every room- your iTunes library, your favorite music services, and more than 100,000 free Internet radio stations, podcasts and shows.
Easy to setup
PLAYBAR connects to your TV using a single optical cable and plays everything that’s connected to the TV, including cable boxes and game consoles.
Control your way
Control PLAYBAR volume and mute using your existing TV, cable or universal remote. And for streaming music you can download the free Sonos Controller Apps for your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Easy to expand wirelessly
Expand your Sonos system throughout the entire house, with PLAYBAR as the centerpiece of an immersive surround sound experience and wireless audio system.
Sonos Product Brochure Quickstart Guide
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Key Features
Sonos HiFi sound for your HiDef television
- The nine-speaker design (6 mid woofer, 3 tweeter) of SONOS PLAYBAR complements cinematic HD televisions with richly textured HiFi sound for TV, web, movies or video games.
- It automatically adjusts to the differences between shoot ‘em up action flicks, Shakespearean dramas, and live concerts to deliver the sound as it was intended.
- For after-hours viewing, Night Mode compresses the volume so you can hear all the details without waking the family.
- The PLAYBAR plays all sources plugged into your TV: cable and satellite boxes, Blu-ray™ players, and video game consoles-through the single optical input on the back. It also plays all common audio formats from TVs, including Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM.
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Digital audio in (optical)
100-240V Power
Wirelessly stream all the music on earth
- PLAYBAR is also a stand-alone all-in-one Sonos speaker that allows you to wirelessly stream all the music on earth—your iTunes® library, your favorite music services, and thousands of Internet radio stations, shows and podcasts.
- Sonos works seamlessly with your iTunes collection, Spotify™, Pandora®, Sirius XM™, TuneIn, Rhapsody®, AmazonCloud, Songza, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Slacker, 7Digital, MOG, Rdio®, Last.fm, Murfie, Wolfgang’s Vault®, AUPEO!, Stitcher™, Dar.fm, Hearts of Space and downloads from any service offering DRM-free tracks.
Easy to setup
- PLAYBAR is quick and easy to set up. Just plug the power cord in, attach the optical cord to your TV and connect to your router or the SONOS BRIDGE (sold separately). Quickstart Guide
Do you need a BRIDGE?
One Sonos component must be connected to your router using a standard Ethernet cable.
- If the PLAYBAR is within reach of your router, you can connect directly.
- If not, connect the BRIDGE directly to your router and the PLAYBAR will work wirelessly.
- PLAYBAR can sit flat on your TV table or console. If your TV is wall-mounted, PLAYBAR may be placed horizontally above or below the TV. For an easy and secure wall-mounting solution, use the PLAYBAR Wall Mount Kit (sold separately).
Control your way
- Control PLAYBAR volume and mute using your existing TV, cable or universal remote.
To wirelessly stream all the music on earth simply download the free Sonos Controller Apps to control PLAYBAR with your Kindle Fire, Android smartphone or tablet, iPhone, or iPad and stream your music even when your TV is off. Download from the Amazon App Store, the Android Market™ or iTunes App Store.
Easy to expand wirelessly
Easily expand your Sonos wireless audio system: set up Sonos in one room, then add as many Sonos speakers as you wish to your home theater or throughout your home to enjoy HiFi audio throughout the entire house.
For your TV:
3.0 Home Theater
PLAYBAR connects to your TV with a single cable and plays all sources, including satellite boxes and game consoles.
3.1 Home Theater
Pair PLAYBAR with SONOS SUB and with the push of a button you can add spine-curling bass to your cinematic experience – wirelessly.
5.1 Home Theater
Add 2 SONOS PLAY:3 speakers and SUB to your PLAYBAR for a true surround sound experience wrapping you in deeply immersive, crystal clear, state of the art Sonos sound.
For your whole house:
You can use PLAYBAR alone or extend the Sonos experience beyond the TV room by adding as many Sonos players throughout your home as you wish. Play different songs in one room or blast the same song everywhere, in perfect party sync.
| 3.0 Home Theater | 3.1 Home Theater | 5.1 Home Theater | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SONOS PLAYBAR | |||
| SONOS SUB | |||
| SONOS PLAY:3 |
What's in the box
- SONOS PLAYBAR
- AC Power cord
- Optical audio cable
- Ethernet cable
- Warranty and regulatory booklet
- Sonos Quickstart Guide
What you need
- TV with optical audio output
- Broadband wireless internet connection
- One Sonos component wired to router
- Windows XP SP3
- Macintosh OSX (10.6 or higher)
- Sonos Controller App (to control music streaming services; system requirements subject to change)
Detailed Specifications
Not louder. Clearer. With nine amplified speakers —six midrange and three tweeters—PLAYBAR replaces the steady drip of your TV’s built-in speakers with deep booms, crystal-clear whispers, and huge waves of live concert sound. And with automatic equalization, the system self-adjusts for rich, seamless performance.
Dimensions
3.35” (H) x 5.51” (D) x 35.43” (W),85mm (H) x 140mm (D) x 900mm (W)
Weight
11.9 lbs. (5.4kg)
Power Supply
AC 100-240V, 50-60 Hz
Operating Temperature
32°F to 104°F (0°C to 40°C)
Digital audio input
Optical Toslink S/PDIF
Control
Dual IR receiver
Multiple orientations
Place on the wall above or below TV or place flat on table
Amplifier
Nine Class-D digital amplifiers
Speakers
Three tweeters, six mid woofers
Side-Panel Buttons
Volume up, volume down and mute
Side-Panel LEDs
Indicate PLAYBAR status
Supported Devices
PLAYBAR works with all amplified and non-amplified Sonos products. PLAYBAR connects to your TV using a single optical cable and plays all sources connected to the TV, including cable boxes and game consoles.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
By AreYouKidding?
We have a small 10'x12' game room for our Xbox 360 and Wii U. Each console is hooked up to a LG 47" LED TV. The video quality is fantastic but the sound left a lot to be desired. This "problem" needed a solution. I set four simple goals to address this.
1) The system had to sound great.
2) High Wife Acceptance Factor. :)
3) I did not want to run a separate A/V receiver. I simply don't have the room.
4) I did not want to run wires under the baseboards or carpet.
To achieve these goals I decided to build a complete Sonos Home Theater System, with the new PLAYBAR front and center (literally).
Here are the components I chose for my system:
- Sonos BRIDGE
- Sonos PLAYBAR
- Sonos SUB
- Sonos PLAY:3 (x2 as Surround Speakers)
Let's start with the setup. First thing I did was download the Sonos software for my laptop and hooked up the Wireless BRIDGE to my router. After the software downloaded and installed, getting the BRIDGE recognized by the software was as simple as pressing a button.
After the BRIDGE was set-up, I went on to tackle the PLAYBAR. Installation was equally as simple. An optical cable from the TV along with power from an outlet are the only two wires needed to get running. Press a couple buttons to sync the PLAYBAR with the BRIDGE, follow a few prompts in the software, disable the TV speakers, and the PLAYBAR is handling audio for my TV and game consoles. It was super-simple and a dramatic improvement in fidelity compared to the TV's built-in speakers.
Next up was adding the subwoofer and surrounds. I found a nice spot in the corner of the game room and hooked up the power cable to the sub. Press a button on the front of the SUB, follow a few prompts in the software, and the subwoofer is handling the low frequencies. Adding the two PLAY:3 surround speakers was just as easy. Provide power to each PLAY:3, press two buttons on each speaker, follow the prompts in the software, and your done.
My new Game Room/Home Theater system was complete. Installation took less than an hour from start to finish. No big bulky receiver, no running wires under the carpet or baseboards, and the wife approves!
How does it sound?
After minimal tweaking in the Calibration Menus I got the sound just right. Mids and highs are clean and crisp, voices are clear, and the SUB is in perfect lock-step delivering deep/tight bass to Movies, Music and Games. This is an incredibly balanced combination that fills the room with accurate, high-quality sound. I honestly wasn't expecting to be this impresssed. I'm stunned by quality delivered without a dedicated A/V receiver. Incredible job, Sonos!
Here are a few of the software features that I found most helpful.
1) You can turn off the white status light on each speaker. This is great if you find those lights to be a distraction when the room is dark.
2) You can enhance/amplify "Voice/Speech" which makes hearing dialog at low volume levels much easier.
3) Not all room seating is rectangular. When calibrating the Surround Speakers you have the option for setting distances independently for the main seating position. Note: This is somewhat limited as the only three options to choose from are less than 2ft, 2-10ft and over 10ft.
I took some screenshots of the software menus I found helpful. Check 'em out under Customer Images along with some photos of the PLAYBAR in my game room.
I almost forgot. A review wouldn't be complete without at least a "Con". Here is my one real pet peave. There are no official Windows RT or Windows Phone 8 apps. It would be great to use my Surface RT tablet and/or my Nokia Lumia 920 phone as a controller for the system.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading!
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
By Eric Klein
This is addition to my Sonos enabled home, so you can also read my reviews of other Sonos products. Sonos makes amazing home audio solutions, so whenever I add a component, I always write a review...
Summary : I was so excited by the concept of a Playbar. I have Sonos speakers in two other rooms of my house, but it is unfortunately not integrated in my two rooms with surround sound speaker systems. I would kill to have Sonos wireless music in those rooms, but seamlessly integrate with my existing A/V setups. That is what Playbar is for. Super exciting. While the setup experience and audio quality of Playbar is great and up to the usual Sonos quality bar, it unfortunately doesn't work with my Sharp Aqous TV, and I think that might be the tiny Achilles heel of this product. It probably works with most, but not every HDTV, due to a basic setup assumption. I love the Playbar concept, and it probably works great for most people!
Review :
I got this product to integrate into my main living room A/V experience. My LR is about 20'x16' with no separation from another 20'x16' dining room. Relatively big space to fill with audio. I've got a relatively generic 5 speaker setup, with no sub because everyone else in the house complains about the noise level when it is enabled ;-) I mounted my Sharp Aquos 46D62U on the wall, and ran HDMI and component
in-wall between a lower cabinet and the wall plate behind the Sharp. Pretty standard. I've got a number of HDMI sources running into a Onkyo amp, then one HDMI from the amp to the TV through the in-wall wiring. My goal in adding Playbar was to disable the existing room speakers, and use the Playbar as the audio source. I would get full Sonos integration plus audio from my existing PS3, Xbox 360, and AppleTV. Wee!
The out of the box experience was mostly to Sonos's standard quality level. I've come to expect that setup is very easy, and it was. They've added the steps needed to check audio coming from your TV source, and to configure your remote control to change volume on the Playbar. This all worked well for me.
The sound quality was also up to the high Sonos standards. I loved having my music collection seamlessly stream into my living room, finally. And as I'll explain in a minute, when I tested with an alternate TV, the audio quality for game (PS3, Xbox 360) and movie sources was quite good. I think for bigger rooms you'll want to add the Sonos Sub for depth, but for smaller rooms the sound was high quality and bright.
There were two big gotchas that will not affect everyone, but affected me. I think it is important to understand them before purchasing a Playbar:
1 - If you have an in-wall installation for your TV, adding/retrofitting Playbar into the environment is not hard, but requires some manual dexterity and a longer digital audio cable than ships in the box. Most people with an in-wall installation do not think of putting optical audio cables into the wall during the initial buildout. Audio was supposed to transfer via HDMI in the new world order. This means you have to difficultly get behind the TV (most of the time flush mounted), plug in an optical audio cable, then run this unsightly cable down from the TV to the Playbar. I went in-wall because I wanted a nice aesthetic, but that cable ruins the clean visual experience.
The optical cable that ships with the Playbar is way too short for most runs from the back of a wall mounted TV to the Playbar. Most TVs have their connections in the back to one side (right, often), so you have to run the optical cable back to center, then straight drop it to the center of the Playbar where its connectors are. If you don't want an oddly angled cable running from the Playbar to the TV, this involves a few 90 degree bends, which adds to the required cable length. The Sonos supplied short optical cable was in no way long enough for this, but as a bit of an audio geek, I had extra optical cables of various lengths. If you don't have extra optical cables of longer length, be prepared to buy one to finish this install. This is a rare "fit and finish" miss for Sonos.
2 - The basic premise of the Playbar solution is that you run all HDMI to the TV, then an optical audio cable from the TV to the Playbar. This is a huge assumption about the age of most people's TVs. New TVs have plenty of HDMI ports and the assumption that there is a working audio optical out is probably ok. What I learned is that my older (sold in 2006-2008 at high volume) but still good Sharp Aquos 46D62U has that optical audio out, but it was designed only for ATSC (over the air HDTV) audio. It is not a generic pass-through audio port. Translation, the Playbar does not work with my TV. But I had no way of knowing this when I got the Playbar. There is no list I could find of TVs that will not work with the Playbar, but I can guarantee these exist. It took me three hours of super geeking to learn all of this, buried in manuals and AVForum posts. In this way I'm not the average Sonos customer, as less of a geek would have gotten frustrated and taken something back well before this.
I trust Sonos, and assume that the vast majority of TVs work with this digital audio pass-through model. I grabbed a newer Sony TV I had stored and hooked it up outside my home theatre room, and it worked well. Maybe mine is a rare case, but I wonder with less expensive or older HDTVs, will Playbar work every time. Hopefully FAQs will quickly appear documenting the few TVs that won't work with Playbar, so you don't have to order something that has a very low but possible chance of not working with your TV...
All in all, I really love the Playbar concept, and wish, oh wish, it had worked in my main home theatre room. The sound quality is great and setup is a breeze. Now to convince my wife I need a new TV for the living room?!
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
By krisskross applesauce
The sound on the Sonos Playbar is really good. It's designed super sleek and cool, and does a great job at "fake" surround. But it's a single bar, so it lacks the true surround sound that you'd get from having separate sub & speakers spread out, which you probably already know. If that's what you're looking for then look into true surround systems instead. Or, for an even bigger expense, it can be expanded to a true wireless 5.1 system by adding the Sonos Sub and two Play:3 speakers.
The connections provided: a single optical audio input, a power port, and a pair of ethernet jacks. So, you can connect your home theater devices directly to your TV, then connect your TV's optical audio output directly to the sound bar. But if your TV lacks an optical audio output, then you'll run into a variety of complications. They're mostly *workable* complications, but just be prepared to deal with this as a hassle if you're lacking optical audio.
Yes, it's pricey. But, keep in mind that Harman Kardan's competing playbar is priced generally the same ($600 range), and this one comes equipped with Sonos' best in-class digital music software built in, Sonos Connect, which gives you access to your library of digital music (Amazon Cloud Player, Spotify, Pandora, and Rhapsody) through a simple interface. You can also sync it to other Sonos audio systems throughout your house. So, you're getting much more than just a playbar in this price. But keep in mind, you will need a device that is able to download the Sonos:Connect app in order to use as a remote to sort through your library. Compatable devices are iPod Touches, iPhones, iPads, and most smartphones and tablets.
Another thing to know in advance: Although the Playbar is technically wireless, at least one Sonos component on your network needs a wired, ethernet connection. You can purchase a Sonos Bridge for $50 to use the Playbar wirelessly, but when you're already putting out $600 for a "wireless" soundbar, this is something they should be more clear about.
Sonos has chosen not to provide a remote for setting controls, which is something a lot of people take issue with in other brands. But they do provide you with the ability to program it to your TV remote. I get it... Who wants ANOTHER remote to have to deal with? .. But, I had to go through a lot of troubleshooting in order to get the remote setup working correctly, provided by onscreen prompts and tips on their website. Once you get it setup, it will give you the option to set your TV to mute, which I recommend doing, unless you want an annoying echo. Other than a couple hang ups with the remote, setup was crazy easy.
Onto the sound: for a playbar, it's pretty damn good. But, like I said, it's a playbar. It does its best to provide surround sound, but it's still a playbar and comes across a bit artificial and definitely lacks in the bass department.
But the sleek design with keyhole mounts provided on the back allow you to place it on the stand in front of the TV or -even cooler- mount it on the wall above or below. If you're looking for high quality surround sound that simultaneously provides the most simplistic, sleek look, you really can't go wrong with this playbar. And if you're interested in using it for listening to your digital music library through Sonos Connect (which is what I think is the best feature of this device), then you will be highly pleased with your purchase. As far as I know, there's not another audio system out there that provides surround sound for your TV with home theater connectivity AND audio streaming. (If I'm wrong about that, please feel free to correct me in the comments.)
If you're looking for the absolute most dynamic surround sound for your money... Well, then you're probably not looking at playbars in the first place.
Let me end this review by disclaiming that I am not a sound "purist". Purists will grow tired of the sound on this playbar fast and will, I'm sure, be able to pick out many more audio flaws than I can. I think it sounds good, not amazing, but good... Especially for a soundbar. It's also innovative, well-designed, and provides two good audio functions with surround sound that you won't be able to find anywhere else on the market without spending more money. So, it all depends on what you're looking for.
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