Sonos Playbase

Neither commenters realized that the title of the post is not the title of the video, and the video itself has timestamped breakdowns with a short 1-2 minute summation of their thoughts at the beginning AND end. Crazy to me that the people who are lurking in the dedicated SONOS sub weren't the slightest bit interested in this video and didn't hesitate to shit all over something they didn't even watch. With that out of the way, I thought the video was really interesting and I think it's finally convinced me to just bite the bullet and replace my Playbase with the Beam Gen 2 instead of holding out for an Arc. I already have the Sub and 2 One SL's as rears, and it sounds like for what I mostly use it for (music more than tv/movies), and the space I have, the Arc wouldn't be that big of an improvement, certainly not a 300 hundred dollar one.

Nilay pretty much already nailed who the Playbase is for: "Someone who already has a Sonos system and doesn’t mind paying a huge premium to add another Sonos-integrated speaker under their TV." This is for the existing Sonos customer who is willing to pay a lot of money to improve their TV’s bad speakers with something that sounds excellent and fits into the Sonos ecosystem.

I have a Sonos Playbase, Sub, and two ones for our living room, and a klipsch 5.1 system in the theatre. While the Klipsch is clearly a better sounding system, for simple shows like The Office, Superstore, etc where 95% of the audio is center channel dialogue, I find it does more than enough, in a much more aesthetic way. For music (we aren’t audiophiles, just like a bit of volume and punch), I also am really impressed.

It's a very capable sound on its own, even if the addition of a subwoofer would further enhance the bass with more low frequency support. The Sonos Playbase is a pricey but powerful one-piece sound system. It stands well on its own, offering better bass response than single soundbars can generally produce, even if it lacks much power in the ultra-low frequencies

I honestly think this is the best Sonos home theater option for most people. I own(ed) the playbase, playbar and arc and feel like the playbase has the best bass of all them standalone. While the mids/highs are better/wider on the others, the playbase is definitely more versatile from a soundscape perspective.

Final thoughtsThe Sonos Playbase is right up there with the very best sound bars and bases on the market, whether used on its own or in conjunction with the Sonos Sub and/or the Play:1 or even Play:3 speakers.

Finally, I used to think the Playbase had plenty of bass (which it does) but it's not even close to what the Sub can do. Even at lower volumes, the sub just rounds out the sound beautifully.

All sound just comes through the Playbase, whether source is from the TV or the Apple TV. Works well.