The Sonos Playbase Is Real and It’s Spectacular Michael Kwan March 7, 2017 News The leak from a couple weeks ago has now been officially confirmed and formally announced. The Sonos Playbase is everything that we expected to be, with the Sonos premium price tag to match. By and large, you might think of the Sonos Playbase as the lovechild of the existing Sonos Playbar and the Sonos Play:5 (Gen 2). It acts as a sound bar where you place your TV on top of it. There are other similar products from other companies, but Sonos says that its engineering and sound quality outperform its competitors. Supporting TVs up to 75 pounds in weight, the Sonos Playbase measures 2.28-inches tall and weights about 20 pounds itself. There are a total of 10 speakers found within: 6 mid-range, 3 tweets, and 1 flat-mounted subwoofer with a unique S-curved tube for pushing air. The touch controls are practically identical to the ones on the Play:5 and you use the same Sonos app to handle all your wireless streaming. And just like the Playbar, you connect the Playbase to your TV via optical. There’s no HDMI ARC support here, nor will you find DTS. It’s just Dolby Digital, because that’s what wireless streaming services like Netflix support. There is also no microphone, so we’re not sure how the rumored Alexa support will work. That said, the Trueplay tuning software now has a couple of modes: one for optimizing for music listening throughout the room and one for watching movies and TV from a single spot in the living room. The Sonos Playbase will retail for $899 in Canada and $699 in the US. You can find it on Sonos.com, as well as your usual retailers and e-tailers, starting on April 4. In the meantime, check out the video below by way of The Verge, followed by the “making of” video by Sonos itself. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqL7iGW32So] [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8iVhHbRSpQ] Share This With The World!
