Sonos Playbar brings home theatre into the multiroom mainstream

Soundbars get a bad rap – and it’s not always unjustified. They’re generally boring to look at and sometimes struggle for sound quality. But even when they’re good, they’re still the ugly ducklings of the gadget pond. Like laptops before them, they’re one of the most boring things you can buy in Gadgets R Us, yet undoubtedly will make your life better on a daily basis.

With this in mind, Sonos is entering the world of home cinema with its Playbar – a gorgeous swan of multiroom wonder designed to sit either in front of your TV or mount on the wall. Whichever you opt for, it’ll tune the output from its nine drivers to the optimum settings for that orientation – and it’s some output: this is the most powerful system Sonos has made to date.

Should you want to beef up your home cinema set-up at a later date, Sonos suggests you add its Sub and/or a pair of stereo twinned Play:3 units for extra depth and rumble. Well, it would, wouldn’t it? That ends up looking like a pretty pricey home theatre arrangement – though it does have the benefit of being wireless and flexible… and really quite wantable.

We’ve had a bit of ears-on with the Sonos Playbar and can confirm it’s got some major soundbar welly, especially when it’s twinned with the Sub and Play:3 twins. We’ll have a review very soon to let you know whether you should cough up for this addition to your multiroom rig when it goes on sale on 5th March for US$700/€700/£600.

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