Sonos
Tremendous Bowl season usually brings an uptick in offers for TV tech. True to type, Sonos has introduced reductions for a handful of its residence theater units.
Right here’s a rundown of the smart-speaker maker’s choices:
The Sonos Beam soundbar is on the market for $349, a $50 low cost.
The corporate’s bigger soundbar, the Sonos Playbar, is on the market for $599, a $100 low cost.
The Sonos Playbase, a speaker designed to sit down underneath TVs that aren’t wall mounted, is on the market for $599, a $100 low cost.
The Sonos Sub wi-fi subwoofer can be out there for $599, one other $100 low cost.
Varied bundles that embrace a combination of the merchandise above and/or the corporate’s Sonos One good audio system are additionally discounted.
The offers can be found on the Sonos web site in addition to third-party retailers like Amazon. Sonos says they are going to final till February three, the date of Tremendous Bowl LIII.
In a vacuum, not one of the reductions are huge. However offers on Sonos audio system are uncommon, and the costs listed here are as little as we usually see the handful of instances these units have been a part of gross sales.
Be aware: Ars Technica could earn compensation for gross sales from hyperlinks on this submit by affiliate packages.
What you’re getting
We typically like Sonos units for being simple to handle in comparison with different whole-home audio techniques, supporting all the most important streaming music companies and providing sturdy—if barely overpriced—audio high quality. Its PC and cellular apps are largely easy. If you happen to’ve purchased into the Sonos household of units already, any of the 4 units on sale ought to slot in with out difficulty.
There are a number of caveats value noting if you wish to use this sale to leap on the Sonos bandwagon, although. The Beam is the corporate’s newest gadget: it behaves equally to its Sonos One good speaker, with Amazon’s Alexa assistant inbuilt. That’s a big a part of the gadget’s enchantment, as it’s considerably smaller than the Playbar and thus produces a smaller sound. It’s nonetheless spectacular for its measurement, however it’s finest fitted to smaller (assume sub-50 inches) and/or secondary TVs. We stated in a present information final 12 months that Polk’s Command Bar, which prices $100 much less and comes with a wi-fi subwoofer, is a greater “good soundbar” should you aren’t already invested within the Sonos ecosystem. If you wish to dive into the Sonos pool, although, the Beam is much from poor.
The Playbar and Playbase, in the meantime, supply way more expansive sound however on the expense of Alexa help—which can or is probably not a unfavorable, relying on how you’re feeling about good audio system—and connectivity choices. Whereas the Sonos Beam features a extra fashionable HDMI ARC port, the older Playbar and Playbase solely embrace one optical enter. In case your TV solely helps 2.zero audio over optical, be aware that this would possibly preclude you from creating a real 5.1 encompass sound system down the highway.
For iOS customers, the Beam and Playbase are the one merchandise right here to instantly help Apple’s AirPlay 2 protocol, which helps you to ship audio instantly from an iPhone or iPad to a Sonos speaker. It’s nonetheless attainable to make use of AirPlay with different Sonos units, however you’ll must have a Beam, Playbase, Sonos One, or second-gen Sonos Play:5 in your house setup first. It’s additionally value noting that, whereas the present Sub is great, Sonos is rumored to be working a brand new variant of the wi-fi subwoofer.
Past that, all Sonos audio system proceed to lack help for Bluetooth streaming and Dolby Atmos. Not one of the units help dual-band or 802.11ac Wi-Fi, both, so that you’ll need to have a comparatively steady sign at residence should you plan to stream music to the audio system.
On the privateness aspect, Sonos says it collects data like IP addresses and shares choose knowledge with third events, however it doesn’t accumulate voice recordings. It’s attainable to choose out of some knowledge assortment. The corporate has relied on Microsoft’s outdated and wildly susceptible SMBv1 file-sharing protocol, however stated it migrated from SMBv1 to HTTP for these streaming from an area Home windows PC library final 12 months. The replace didn’t cowl streaming from a NAS, although, so there’s nonetheless a safety danger should you’re a part of that area of interest.
All that stated, whereas these audio system nonetheless aren’t low cost, the person expertise is sweet for many, and the offers listed here are stable.
