Home Theater Soundbars..

[keithmac]

Our Sonos Playbar is still going strong but I'd like to have a dip into Dolby Atmos.

Has anyone one on here got any of the following and if so how do you rate them?.

Sonos ARC

Sony HT-A7000

Samsung HW-Q950A

Obviously the ARC would be the sensible move (already got Sub and Play:1 surrounds) but the Sony does look a great bit of kit and the Samsung is 11.1.4, their surrounds look great with side/up/front drivers.

 

[JtB]

Be careful, the Sonos Arc soundbar is not compatible with Sonos Gen 1 speakers.

I have 2 Sonos surround sound systems; the one in the living room is an old one containing a Playbar soundbar while the one in the gym is quite recent and contains an Arc soundbar. In terms of audio quality, I can’t tell any difference between the two.

PS: The first surround sound system I tried in the gym was a Samsung system containing an HWQ950TXU soundbar. The soundbar sounded amazing, but the Samsung sub-woofer and surround speakers were absolute rubbish. As a surround sound system it was therefore totally inadequate which was a shame because I really liked the soundbar. Also, I found the Samsung software extremely painful to use. In the end, I returned the Samsung surround sound system and replaced it with the Sonos surround sound system. The Sonos surround sound system cost twice as much but the quality was so much better. That said though, if I was going for a soundbar just by itself then I think the standalone Samsung soundbar probably beats the standalone Sonos soundbar.

 

[JtB]

Sorry if I appear to be rambling on a bit, but the Samsung sub-woofer and surround speakers looked really impressive physically, but sounded disappointing. The Samsung sub-woofer looked an absolute monster of a speaker but it was really difficult to hear if it was actually working. The Sonos sub-woofer on the other hand really rattles the house and shakes your internal organs. Similarly the Samsung surround speakers looked physically impressive but really were unable to make their presence heard. The Samsung software also provided very little in the way of being able to adjust the individual speaker levels. Additionally the Samsung software is very clunky, for example connecting the speakers to Amazon music was just so very convoluted. I also hate the Samsung SmartThings software you have to use. I had high expectations for this product because I already had 3 smart Samsung TVs and a basic Samsung soundbar which I really liked.

 

[nickb]

I gave my old Sonos Playbar to my son and I’m now using my original Apple HomePods as TV speakers.

 

[keithmac]

Thanks for the replies @JtB really interesting.

I have a Playbar, Sub and Play:1 5:1 setup in our living room, various Sonos Ones, Play:1's Play:3's and a Move in the house. All on S1 at the moment (which I'd like to keep on S1 really) but all S2 capable.

I did ask if the ARC was significantly better than my Playbar and people have said it was but is it £800 better 🤔. I really do like the Playbar setup

Looking at how we have our living room and how it's set up I think the Sony HT-A9 Atmos Speakers are our only viable option unless we start moving furniture.

I'd keep Playbar for music duties.

I agree the Sonos sub is a really great bit of kit, amazing bass output (I suppose you could class it as 2 subs as it has 2 drivers).

 

[mistyoptic]

Thanks for the replies @JtB really interesting.

I have a Playbar, Sub and Play:1 5:1 setup in our living room, various Sonos Ones, Play:1's Play:3's and a Move in the house. All on S1 at the moment (which I'd like to keep on S1 really) but all S2 capable.

I did ask if the ARC was significantly better than my Playbar and people have said it was but is it £800 better 🤔. I really do like the Playbar setup

Looking at how we have our living room and how it's set up I think the Sony HT-A9 Atmos Speakers are our only viable option unless we start moving furniture.

I'd keep Playbar for music duties.

I agree the Sonos sub is a really great bit of kit, amazing bass output (I suppose you could class it as 2 subs as it has 2 drivers).

Just curious, as a fellow Sonos user. If all S2 capable, why do you want to stay S1. Is it for a CR200 or some other reason?

 

[keithmac]

Just curious, as a fellow Sonos user. If all S2 capable, why do you want to stay S1. Is it for a CR200 or some other reason?

It's the updates mainly, S1 has relatively few now.

14.6 on the S2 gave a lot of people with Moves and Arcs problems (surrounds and subs cutting out), took Sonos over 2 months to rectify a problem they caused but will never admit to it.

It's not the first time updates have broken Sonos systems and how they handle it doesn't bode well.

We have Moves, Sub, Playbar, Play:1s and Ones, Play 3 and it all works great on S1, Alexa voice control and Spotify / Tunein work perfectly.

At the point we lose ability to connect to Spotify, Tunein etc or Alexa support stops I would begrudgingly update to S2.

As for the Arc, I don't believe it will be significantly better than our Playbar and the Sony HT-A9 appears to be much better at Atmos which is the main reason for upgrading.

 

[JtB]

I’ve got both an S1 and S2 system, but I have automatic updates switched off. I’m not entirely certain but I think a S2 system update once detected a speaker on my S1 system and updated it leaving it disassociated from both systems. It took a factory reset and lots of messing around to get said speaker downgraded and back onto my S1 system. So now I decide when to perform upgrades, making sure first that all speakers on the system not being upgraded are powered down.

 

[keithmac]

Yep I have automatic updates turned off as well, the only problem is when the app has sniffed a new update it removes my ability to alter my surrounds etc until the new update has been applied. You can use the system but they lock certain settings.

So it won't auto update BUT Sonos put you in a corner to update.

If you have Updating turned off really it should stop looking for them imho.