Our Verdict
The Sonos Playbar is alright for mixed use. Its sound is suitable for most audio content, like vocal-centric genres like podcasts or TV shows. However, it lacks sub-bass and won't be ideal for bass-heavy music or action movies. It also has poor surround performance and it doesn't support height channels or Atmos. Still, it has a wide soundstage which can help immerse you in your movies or music. The bar gets loud but at max volume, you can hear noticeable compression artifacts, especially in the bass range.
- Solid well-built design.
- Fairly balanced sound profile.
- Great center channel performance for dialogue in movies.
- Easily upgradable setup.
- Lacks sub-bass.
- No Full HDMI In ports.
The Sonos Playbar is good for dialogue. It's got a fairly neutral sound but some may find it too bright. Voices sound accurate and clear which is great for vocal-centric content like audiobooks or podcasts. It can get fairly loud and you can easily stream content using Wi-Fi.
The Sonos Playbar is decent for music. It has a fairly balanced but bright sound. Without its separate subwoofer, it lacks a lot of sub-bass which can disappoint fans of more thumpy genres like EDM. However, it's got a wide soundstage that can immerse you in your favorite tunes. The bar can also get loud, but at max volume, there's noticeable compression, especially in the bass range.
The Sonos Playbar is mediocre for movies. While it has a fairly neutral sound, it doesn't have height channels or Atmos content support. Its lack of bass and slight brightness may impact action movies that have a lot of rumbling explosions. On the upside, thanks to its side-firing speakers, it has a wide soundstage that can help create a more immersive sound experience. This soundbar can also get loud too, although at max volume, there are some compression artifacts, especially in the bass range.
Changelog
- Updated Jan 20, 2022: New update adds DTS support.
- Updated Dec 22, 2021: Added third-party voice assistant support.
- Updated Mar 29, 2021: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 27, 2019: Review published.
Check Price
Popular Soundbar Comparisons
The Sonos Playbar is an older 3.0 soundbar that still performs well for its age. It has a balanced sound but lacks sub-bass. However, just like the Sonos Beam, you can easily upgrade your setup with a subwoofer and satellites. On the downside, it lacks now common connectivity options like HDMI ports and Bluetooth. If you're still shopping around for soundbars, take a look at our recommendations for the best soundbars, the best small soundbars, and the best soundbars 5.1.
The Sonos Beam is a better soundbar than the Sonos Playbar. The Beam has a more neutral sound profile and a sleek, compact design. It also supports ARC via an adapter and is Apple AirPlay compatible.
The Sonos Arc is a bit more versatile than the Sonos Playbar. The Arc has HDMI ports and also supports Atmos and eARC, unlike the Playbar. Both sound fairly bright, and the Playbar performs better at max volume than the Arc.
The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is better than the Sonos Playbar. The Beam is a better-built 5.0 setup that has a better surround performance. Unlike the Playbar, it supports Atmos content and Apple AirPlay 2, and has built-in voice assistant capabilities. It also has an HDMI ARC port. That said, the 3.0 Playbar gets louder.
The Sonos Playbar is a better option than the Bose Solo 5. The Sonos can get noticeably louder and is better built. The Sonos also has a room correction feature to optimize its audio reproduction. The soundstage of the Sonos is also wider. On the other hand, the Bose supports Bluetooth, while the Sonos soundbar is only Wi-Fi compatible.
Test Results
The Sonos Playbar has a fabric wrap around the front face and top side of the bar that can be prone to tears or collecting dust. There's a metal grille on both sides of the bar while the back and underside are made from a good quality silver plastic. For a more sleek-looking design, check out the 2020 Sonos Arc soundbar.
The Sonos Playbar is fairly large. Its wide size may not fit between the legs of a 55" TV while its height could pose issues if your TV sits flush to the table or if it has a short stand.
The bar has an opening on the back for input connectivity as well as its power cable. Although it has wall-mounting holes on its underside, you have to buy the proprietary all-mounting bracket separately.
This soundbar's build quality is great. Its plastic body feels very solid and the grilled sides are a nice touch. On the downside, the fabric covering on the top and front face can rip or get dirty easily.
- Sonos Playbar
- Manuals
- Flat ethernet cable
- Power cable
- Optical cable
The Sonos Playbar's stereo frequency response is fair. Similar to the Sonos Beam, this soundbar by itself struggles to produce deep thump and rumble. However, it still has a fairly neutral, but slightly bright sound.
Note: This soundbar was tested with the bar only, but we plan to test it with a full setup (sub and satellites) in the future.
The Sonos Playbar has a great soundstage. Its wide soundstage is thanks to its side-firing speakers that work together with its stereo speakers. Although you can't disable it, it produces a widening effect on the soundstage and it feels almost as wide as home theater tower speakers. On the downside, it slightly diffuses sound as if it's coming from a general area rather than an accurate pinpoint location.
This soundbar has good stereo dynamics and can get pretty loud. You should be able to use it in large rooms without much of a problem. However, if you push it to its max volume, this soundbar produces thumping and compression artifacts, especially in the bass range.
The Sonos Playbar has good total harmonic distortion performance. At a normal listening volume, this soundbar's distortion is within good limits, producing a clear and pure sound. Even at max volume, there isn't a big jump in distortion either, although there may be compression artifacts in the bass range.
The Sonos Playbar is a 3.0 setup with an excellently performing center channel. Its dedicated center channel is great for clearer and more accurate vocal content such as dialogue in movies or TV shows.
As a 3.0 setup, the Playbar's surrounds performance is disappointing. The bar downmixes surround content to stereo which doesn't really produce an accurate or clear representation of surround objects. However, it has an accurate and well-balanced frequency response. If you want a standalone soundbar with a better surrounds performance, consider the Harman/Kardon Enchant 1300 instead.
Unlike the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), the Sonos Playbar doesn’t support height channels or Atmos.
Update 01/20/2022: The new Sonos S2 app is advertised to add additional EQ settings for the bar. However, we found that the EQ tab leads users to the same bass and treble adjustments found in the previous version of the app, so there aren't any changes to our results.
The Sonos Playbar has excellent sound enhancement features. It has a dialogue enhancement feature, which is great for your favorite TV shows or podcasts, as well as a night mode that can help adjust the volume level of the content you're playing. Unlike the Samsung HW-S60T, it lacks a proper EQ for you to tweak its sound. However, you can still adjust the amount of treble and bass on this soundbar. There's even a room correction feature that adapts the sound to your specific room, but it's only currently available on the iOS app.
This bar has limited physical inputs and you can only connect devices that have an optical connection. On the bright side, it can connect to your network if you use its two ethernet ports. If you're looking for a soundbar with HDMI ports, check out the Samsung HW-Q70R.
The Sonos Playbar doesn't have an HDMI port.
This soundbar doesn't have an HDMI port.
Update 01/20/2022: The new Sonos S2 app update added support for DTS content. We've updated our results accordingly.
The Sonos Playbar uses its optical port to playback surround sound in Dolby Digital content such as Blu-ray discs and streaming services, but it downmixes the signal. It also supports DTS content.
The Sonos Playbar has disappointing wireless playback capabilities and can't use a Bluetooth connection. However, you can connect to it using your Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, it doesn't support Apple AirPlay or Chromecast built-in which can make it difficult to stream from your mobile devices without using Wi-Fi. For a soundbar with more wireless playback options, see the Bowers & Wilkins Formation Bar.
The Sonos Playbar doesn't have HDMI ports, so it can't passthrough any video signal.
The interface is located on the right side of the bar. It has a status light that flashes or changes color depending on what you're doing.
The bar's controls are located on its right side. There's only a button for play/pause and another for volume up and down.
The Sonos Playbar doesn't have a remote. However, if you're using the Sonos Controller app, you can program your TV's IR remote to control for volume by using the 'Remote Control Setup' feature.
Update 12/22/2021: Added additional information about third-party voice assistant support.
The Sonos Playbar doesn't have built-in voice assistant capabilities. However, if you have a third-party Amazon Alexa or Google Home device, you can connect it to the bar to control it with your voice. You just need to set it up in the Amazon Alexa or Google Home app respectively to use it.
This soundbar has access to the Sonos Controller companion app. It can link all of your music services like Spotify together so you can search through all of them at once to find your favorite tune. You can also control your entire network of Sonos speakers, which is great if you choose to upgrade this setup and even set up room configurations. However, some may find this app hard to use to control the soundbar instead of a remote. Their room connection feature, Trueplay Tuning, is also only currently available on the iOS version of the app.
This bar doesn't have any power saving features such as an auto off-timer. While you can set a sleep timer that stops your audio after a set time, this doesn't turn the bar off. If you're using the Sonos Controller app, you can also configure your TV remote to control the soundbar's volume, but it doesn't support HDMI CEC.