GreenZoner egypt: sonos

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/livedsc045612.jpg" /></div><div class="more-info" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Sonos has found a sweet spot in the audio world. Its wireless  technology and ability to stream music from almost any source -- be it  from the cloud or local storage -- have given it considerable geek cred,  yet its simple setup still offers mass appeal. Of course, none of that  would matter if its systems didn't sound good, but fortunately, Sonos' Play:3, Play:5 and its Sub have all impressed with the quality of audio they produce. The $699 Playbar  is the newest member of the family, and with this product, Sonos is  setting its sights squarely on the home theater market. Is it fit for  your living room? Read on to find out.</div><div class="post-gallery" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><h3 class="title"><strong>Sonos Playbar review</strong></h3><br />    <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04505_95x95.jpg" />  <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04525_95x95.jpg" />  <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04509_95x95.jpg" />  <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04529_95x95.jpg" />  <img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04559_95x95.jpg" />  <br />    <br />  <ul class="thumbs">See all photos</ul></div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title0" style="text-align: left;"> Hardware and setup</h3><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/livedsc045592.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The Playbar is a handsome, if understated piece of equipment. At 3.35 x  35.43 x 5.51 inches (85 x 900 x 140mm) in size, you'll have no problem  fitting it beneath your flat-screen. Indeed, we used it with both a 42-  and 47-inch TV, and found the dimensions appropriate in either case. Its  exterior is sheathed in black speaker cloth, and has a pewter-colored  insert comprising a lengthwise edge on either side of the bar. A pair of  matching inset bands rings the mesh grilles on each end -- an echo of  the design language of the Sub -- with the Sonos-standard volume toggle,  mute button and an LED power light on the right side. The long metal  edges are made of extruded aluminum, and the wider of the two makes room  for both an inlaid IR receiver and IR repeater strip, along with a  notch cut out on the underside for the power, two Ethernet jacks and  Toslink port. Build quality is excellent -- the openings are pretty  uniform and we couldn't find any visual blemishes on our review unit  either.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Aside from providing a nice bit of visual contrast and a  place for some minimal Sonos branding, the larger aluminum edge serves  as a heat sink for the nine drivers that pump out sound. There are six  8-centimeter (3.15-inch) aluminum cone mids powered by neodymium  magnets, and three 2.5-centimeter (1-inch) titanium dome tweeters, and  each speaker has its own digital amp. The speakers are mounted in a  super rigid, sealed plastic enclosure at a 45-degree angle, and it's  that angular sweet spot that's key to providing good acoustic imaging  whether the Playbar is mounted on the wall or lying flat on a TV  cabinet. Of course, the accelerometer and 800Mhz PowerPC CPU inside also  work in tandem to determine the Playbar's orientation and tweak the EQ  accordingly to ensure that imaging is perfect.</div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/livedsc045102.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> It's not exactly groundbreaking industrial design, but it does have a  bit more panache than your average soundbar. Put it this way: it'll fit  in with just about any décor, but it's distinctive enough that astute  visitors will likely notice and ask about it -- or at least that was our  experience while testing it out.</div><blockquote class="quote right" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">    Such simplicity of operation is often difficult to execute, but the  boffins at Sonos have made pairing an IR remote about as easy as it can  be.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Sonos prides itself on the fact that its systems  are simple to install, and the Playbar is no exception. To test that  ease of installation, I asked my not-so-tech-savvy girlfriend to hook up  the Playbar and a Sonos Bridge,  and she had it wired up in less than five minutes. Just plug in the  power cord and the Toslink cable to the Playbar, then connect the other  end of the optical cable to your TV or other audio source and you're  good to go.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> After that, the Playbar prompts you to hit the  volume-up button on your TV remote, which allows it to find the proper  IR code. From then on, your remote should be able to control the volume  on the Playbar. Also, in the event the Playbar doesn't recognize your  remote straight away, the Sonos software will walk you through hitting  the volume toggle and the mute buttons so that it can learn the correct  code and add it to the list on Sonos' servers. That way, future  customers won't have to go through those additional steps. That's just  one other bit of engineering genius from the Sonos folks. Such  simplicity of operation is often difficult to execute, but the boffins  at Sonos have made pairing an IR remote about as easy as it can be.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We did hit a slight snag in trying to pair the Playbar and Bridge,  despite the Sonos Controller software's clear and easy-to-follow  instructions. However, moving the Bridge a bit farther from our router  and a quick reset of said router remedied the issue. Then it was simply a  matter of hitting the join button on the Bridge and the mute and volume  up button on the Playbar, and we were up and running in short order.  Once connected, it took about 10 minutes to index the 40GB of music we  had on our external hard drive connected via USB, during which time we  entered the login info for our streaming services. All told, we went  from unboxing to blasting Blind Melon in less than half an hour.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> A  quick note about our setup. We were forced to connect the Playbar  directly to a set-top box because our particular flat-screen's  optical-out doesn't switch on when set to an HDMI input. Without the  ability to pull audio from whatever was playing on our TV, we had to  swap connections between our PS3 and our satellite TV box if we wanted  the Sonos' simulated surround sound on either. An inconvenience, to be  sure, and something that runs counter to Sonos' simplicity of use ethos.  Of course, this shouldn't pose a problem for users who own TV sets  without such a limitation, but it's certainly something to consider  before spending $700 on a Playbar.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title1" style="text-align: left;"> Software</h3><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="467" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/boomsonos-desktop-9.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We've covered both the Sonos desktop and mobile Controller apps in our  previous Sonos reviews, and the user experience remains unchanged since  their overhaul a year ago.  There are three panes of controls for bigger screens: the leftmost  shows all your connected Sonos speakers, the middle displays a queue of  tracks and what's currently playing on a selected speaker and the right  window displays your available audio sources. At the top are the volume,  EQ, play / pause and track controls, and a universal search-as-you-type  field. There are also buttons for clearing your current queue or saving  it as a playlist, plus sleep timer and alarm settings at the bottom.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> All of these features are available on the mobile apps, but are  situated within menus, as opposed to being readily available. For  example, if you want to tweak the bass and treble settings from the "now  playing" screen on the mobile app, you have to tap through no less than  five menus to get to the necessary controls. That's hardly an ideal UI;  in fact, it quickly became a source of irritation for us. Every.  Single. Time.</div><blockquote class="quote left" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">   Despite the somewhat arcane nature of the Controller app, most folks won't have trouble getting comfy with it in a day or two.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Suffice to say that the multi-pane interface of the desktop and tablet  Controller apps is a better UI than the mobile version, as it makes more  controls readily available and you can easily drag and drop songs into  your queue. And, diving through the hierarchy of menus to get at all  your sound sources feels more tolerable when you can do so while still  being able to control your queue and what's playing. Despite the  somewhat arcane nature of the Controller app, most folks won't have  trouble getting comfy with it in a day or two.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> It feels like  Sonos already supports every music service under the sun, but new  streaming platforms seem to emerge on a weekly basis these days. That's  why Sonos has its Sonos Labs feature, which allows you to test out new  services as they become available. It's a little-talked-about feature  that Sonos provides, and while there isn't always something new to try  out, it is always a pleasant surprise to find a new music provider to  explore.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title2" style="text-align: left;"> Sound</h3><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/livedsc045142.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> We've said it before, but it bears repeating: the Playbar sounds good  when compared to its soundbar competition, particularly when playing  music. It's a versatile speaker that coped well with any genre we threw  at it, whether it was bass-heavy tracks from Jay Z's <em>The Black Album</em>, ripping guitar solos from <em>Phish: A Live One</em> or vocal anthems from Fun.'s <em>Some Nights</em>.  Bass is tight, and vocals are delivered with clarity. Similarly, the  Playbar shines during TV and movie audio playback, providing good  simulated surround. All in all, it's a considerable improvement over any  TV speakers we've ever heard.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Is it a replacement for your home  stereo? No. Casual listeners will find no fault with the Playbar's sonic  output, but if you're thinking this new Sonos can provide the depth of  sound and stereo separation provided by a quality set of desktop  speakers or a full component stereo, you'll be disappointed. The Playbar  excels as a <em>soundbar</em>, providing a considerable upgrade over  your TV's speakers and serving as a capable stereo substitute that  provides a convenient way to listen to all of your music.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> The  Playbar's home theater performance is bolstered by a pair of unique  features: Night Sound and Speech Enhancement. Night Sound is aimed at  those who prefer late-night TV viewing, but don't want to wake the  neighbors. Switch it on, and the dynamic range of the audio coming  through the speakers is reduced as the volume is lowered. Soft sounds,  like dialogue, become louder, while the louder sounds, like explosions,  are softened. It works fine for movie watching, but we found the feature  made talk shows sound a bit tinny. All told, we preferred the audio  with Night Sound turned off.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Speech Enhancement, on the other  hand, was a welcome addition to our TV watching. It works through a  combination of lowering bass, adding gain to the center channel while  lowering the gains of competing channels and boosting or reducing  certain frequency ranges. In practice, the feature is brilliant, as it  makes voices sound richer and clearer, particularly when watching the  talking heads on the news or ESPN. It's not something you notice until  it's switched off, when you realize that onscreen voices suddenly seem  muted and muddy in comparison.</div><blockquote class="quote left" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">   Overall, the array of nine drivers inside delivered a well-rounded, room-filling sonic experience.</blockquote><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Overall, the array of nine drivers filled the room with sound, and  despite Sonos' reluctance to talk about its products' wattages, the  Playbar can really crank up the volume. We're talking wake-the-neighbors  loud, and should you be so inclined, we detected no distortion during  our (brief) time spent listening at max output. Needless to say, if  you're looking for the Playbar to serve as the centerpiece for your next  party you won't be disappointed.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Despite the Playbar's  well-rounded abilities, we'd be remiss not to mention just how much  better the listening experience is when it's paired with a Sonos Sub.  For all the Playbar does well, it lacks the low-end punch of a  subwoofer, and we sometimes missed that capability, particularly when  watching movies. Those six 8-centimeter drivers simply cannot deliver  the low, rumbling bass that is integral to a truly great theatrical  experience. That's not to say the Playbar doesn't deliver good home  theater audio on its own; it's just that having heard the soundbar in  concert with the Sub, without one, it's a noticeably diminished  experience. Naturally, home theater sound can be improved further by  deploying a couple of Play:3s as satellite speakers to create a true 5.1  surround system, but adding the Sub is what really fills in the  Playbar's sonic gaps.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title3" style="text-align: left;"> Wrap-up</h3><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos Playbar review an excellent and expensive home theater addition" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/livedsc045262-1363905847.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Sonos' Playbar is an expertly constructed, excellent-sounding soundbar,  but at $700 it poses a significant challenge; it's hardly an impulse  buy. Pair it with a Sub for a truly great home theater audio experience,  and that tally rises to $1,300 or $1,400 (not counting another $50 for a  Sonos Bridge). An extravagant sum when compared to, say, Vizio's forthcoming highly regarded soundbar and wireless sub system.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Vizio's offering will stream music via Bluetooth, comes with a pair of  satellite speakers and delivers near-Sonos quality sound for a mere  $329. However, you don't get the all-in-one music streaming solution of  the Sonos Controller, the Playbar's robust and well-engineered hardware,  nor the elegant simplicity of setup that only Sonos provides. So, while  the Playbar may not necessarily represent the best bang for your buck  when it comes to home theater systems, it <em>does</em> offer a superior  user experience -- and if you have the financial means, you won't be  disappointed by its performance. Put it this way: this is one review  unit we wish we didn't have to send back.</div></div>

Sonos Playbar review: an excellent (and expensive) home theater addition

Sonos has found a sweet spot in the audio world. Its wireless technology and ability to stream music from almost any source -- be it fro...

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<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" />                                   <div class="copy post-body" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Sonos app gets universal favories, widget on Android and iPhone 5 tweaks " data-src-height="301" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/sonos-sub-620.jpg" /></div>Ask a Sonos  listener about flaws in the Controller app and you'll often hear about  three sticking points: favorites buried in separate sections, the  absence of an official Android widget and an iOS version that still  isn't optimized for the iPhone 5.  As of Tuesday, the company is cleaning house by curing all three  hiccups at once. A new software update puts a source-independent Sonos  Favorites section at the top of the menu system; Android users now have a  playback widget to quickly skip tracks, and the iPhone app finally  takes advantage of those 176 extra lines on the screen. All the official  Controller releases should see their fixes appear at relevant app  stores soon, if not by the time you read this.<br />           </div></div>

Sonos app gets universal favorites, Android widget and iPhone 5 tweaks

Ask a Sonos listener about flaws in the Controller app and you'll often hear about three sticking...

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GreenZoner egypt

Sonos Playbar review: an excellent (and expensive) home theater addition

Sonos offers up same bass, less shine with limited edition matte black Sub

Sonos app gets universal favorites, Android widget and iPhone 5 tweaks

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