Nowadays, anyone involved in the music and audio tech industries seems to have a lot of their work cut out for them. Products are expected to be interesting but understandable, powerful but compact, and trendy but lasting. The end result has to be easily obtained by people with all levels of electronic know-how, not just the engineers in the room.
California based Sonos Inc. has taken a new stab at this everlasting desire for improvement with their newest product, the PLAYBAR. Its imminent March 5 launch was announced last week in a press release.
Years ago, when it came to high end audio products in the home, not as many names were around to give consumers pause for consideration. Large, overarching tech companies accompanying brand names like Sony and Bose have been around far longer than the young Sonos, which was only founded a little over a decade ago in 2002. However, company age does not carry as much implied weight of superiority as it used to, seeing as how Sonos has become a fairly recognized brand in its own right and has quality product that manages to go toe-to-toe with that of a company like Bose.
The Playbar adds to Sonos’s repertoire of strong products through the fact that this one machine has layers of offerings often coveted in a single instrument. An audio playback device defined as a “full wireless Hi-Fi system,” from a technical standpoint, users gain a tool with single-step installation and control compatibility across Macs, PCs, i-devices and Androids. Moreover, because one person’s home entertainment made be laid out differently than another’s, regardless of the orientation that the Playbar is placed in, internal sensors alert the system to modify the EQ and the placement of the channels so that users always get the optimal sound for their arrangement. The raw power of the Playbar comes from a set of nine separate speakers that lie just beneath a covering of speaker fabric that cover the sound spectrum from low basses to high trebles. At a 6:3 ratio respectively.
Setting up the Playbar only involves one optical cable meant for one’s television and it will automatically register to work with the playback of anything also connected, from set top boxes, to gaming consoles and blu-ray players. Audio formats accepted by the Playbar span those most common with televisions, including Dolby Digital sound. Recognized music file formats cover just about any file type you would encounter, as listed in Playbar’s technical specifications.
Aside from playing back music on one’s own mp3 player, Playbar can also patch into streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, the Amazon Cloud Player, the EU’s WiMP and several others.
Going with the rising trend of universal control, free app software also allows users to manipulate Playbar using their smart phones in addition to standard television remotes and if users already have Sonos products in their homes, much like Apple cross connection capability, other Sonos speakers can be integrated with the Playbar to enhance the range of frequency playback or even create a 5.1 surround sound environment.
The price for Playbar currently stands at $699 USD, €899 EUR and £599 GBP and is available for pre-order now.
Below is a description/demo video for the Playbar:
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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