TV Sound bar system comparison Roku vs Sonos

[corn18]

After I got the OLED TV, I decided to add some sound to it that matched the image quality. Here's what I got:

Sonos Beam $400
Sonos Sub $600
2x Sonos One (surround) 2x$200

These aren't cheap. Total was $1400. I debated between the Beam and Playbar and the Beam won out for our den setup because it is smaller and easier to setup.

I also got a Roku setup for the master bedroom:

Roku soundbar $180
Roku sub $180
Roku wireless speakers (surround) $150

A LOT cheaper @ $530.

The Sonos setup is remarkable. Clear audio, great presence, bass is great and well integrated. And the level of adjustment is awesome. The best feature is the ability to tune it with the Sonos app. It sounded about the same as the Roku system until I did the full tune and now it sounds breathtaking. The best sound I have ever gotten out of a TV setup. The ease of setup and sound quality make this a winner all around.

The Roku setup is 10x better than the Vizio soundbar and sub I had in the den before. But it lacks the clarity and balance of the Sonos. If I had never heard the Sonos, I would say the Roku system is great. Now it is very good. The big downside with the Roku system is it has very limited controls. And without a tune feature like the Sonos, it might sound great in one setup and horrible in another with the exact same components. A room can really kill good sound.

So the big question is which would I buy? For a home theatre, the Sonos, all day and twice on Sundays. Yeah, it ain't cheap, but you will have awesome sound. And it looks like they are adding Atmos capability via software upgrade. This is what I will be putting in for the basement system.

For a basic TV soundbar and sub, I would not get a Roku. I had the speakers already and just added the soundbar and sub. Will work great for our MBR. And the soundbar has the Roku app built in which means I don't need another Roku stick. Not a big deal, but I had to list something.

[infinitekidM2C]

Nice review. I mean $1400 isnt that bad in the scheme of things.

If you get a receiver and component audio of any decent quality it's going to be over $2k easily.

[VeeralS05]

Good Review - I have a Sonos setup in most of our rooms. It's works great w/ AirPlay and I love that you can pair all the speakers together to one sound source.

[Nuckle]

You may want to go listen to this one if and when your local AV store opens. I have had it for about 4 months and like it. I didn't want to fool with rear speakers in my living room but you can add them. I have a friend with sonos and I do not like his set up at all. Way too much mid range coming through his sub. Makes it sound flat and fake with no adjustment that he has been able to find.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...?skuId=6350834



Nothing replaces a full home theater set up but as far as a single bar with a sub it rocks.

[corn18]

Originally Posted by Nuckle

You may want to go listen to this one if and when your local AV store opens. I have had it for about 4 months and like it. I didn't want to fool with rear speakers in my living room but you can add them. I have a friend with sonos and I do not like his set up at all. Way too much mid range coming through his sub. Makes it sound flat and fake with no adjustment that he has been able to find.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...?skuId=6350834



Nothing replaces a full home theater set up but as far as a single bar with a sub it rocks.

I'll give it a listen. One thing I have found about sound is it is 90% personal. I have been in my friend's dedicated home theatre. He said he had $50k into it. He was very proud of it. I thought it was below average. It was loud and booming, but I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I hate that. Same thing with concerts. If the vocals aren't clear, I hate it.

I have also found that cheap systems with a proper tuning/setup can sound 100x better than $10,000 systems that are set up wrong. Kindof like my OLED. Out of the box, it was remarkable, which is unusual. A few small tweaks and I had it looking worse than my 1080p LED TV.

[Nuckle]

Originally Posted by corn18

I'll give it a listen. One thing I have found about sound is it is 90% personal. I have been in my friend's dedicated home theatre. He said he had $50k into it. He was very proud of it. I thought it was below average. It was loud and booming, but I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I hate that. Same thing with concerts. If the vocals aren't clear, I hate it.

I have also found that cheap systems with a proper tuning/setup can sound 100x better than $10,000 systems that are set up wrong. Kindof like my OLED. Out of the box, it was remarkable, which is unusual. A few small tweaks and I had it looking worse than my 1080p LED TV.

Spot on assessment! It may sound great to me and like garbage to you!

For the larger systems the set up is more important than the money spent. I get ahead of the family on movie night and tweak the settings/channel levels to each individual movie for the best experience possible. I have a 15" sub and if I don't keep it under control it can overpower everything else and create a bad sound stage.

Back to the Samsung sound bar. Not sure which brand TV you went with but I have a samsung connected to my sound bar and part of what I like is the communication between it and the TV. I can't speak to if it would be indifferent to a different brand TV but this is an example of my experience.

We have our SAT box, and a PS4 connected to the bar. We have an extra HDMI cable connected to the TV so we can hookup any device we want on the fly like an iPad, camera etc. Optical cable coming from the TV to the bar. We have to interact very little with the bar when switching sources. It intuitively knows what we want it to do and does it if that makes sense.

[The Reverend]

It looks like Sonos is updating their sound bar, sub and Play 5's very soon, maybe even today. I guess the design and tech is from 2013 so I'd wait until the new system comes out before buying. I unfortunately bought the Playbar and sub in 2018 but had I known I would have waited. Still amazing sound but the new system could be life changing.

[corn18]

Originally Posted by The Reverend

It looks like Sonos is updating their sound bar, sub and Play 5's very soon, maybe even today. I guess the design and tech is from 2013 so I'd wait until the new system comes out before buying. I unfortunately bought the Playbar and sub in 2018 but had I known I would have waited. Still amazing sound but the new system could be life changing.

Just saw that. They have an Atmos setup called Arc coming out today. That will go in the basement!

[Aldo_KingG]

I have the Sonos beam with two Sonos SL surrounds. I debated about getting the Sonos Sub but at $600, it was too much. There's a Sonos hack where you can take any powered home theater subwoofer then wire to an IKEA Symfonisk bookshelf speaker (which is made by Sonos) that will do essentially work like the Sonos sub for way less $$$. I ordered an symfonisk speaker from IKEA for $99 and I had a Velodyne home theater powered sub lying around the house. Ordered some wires and gold plated speaker binding posts from Amazon and the hack was relatively easy to do. The steps are on youtube if you search for Sonos Sub hack under Todd Parker.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by corn18

I'll give it a listen. One thing I have found about sound is it is 90% personal. I have been in my friend's dedicated home theatre. He said he had $50k into it. He was very proud of it. I thought it was below average. It was loud and booming, but I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I hate that. Same thing with concerts. If the vocals aren't clear, I hate it.

I have also found that cheap systems with a proper tuning/setup can sound 100x better than $10,000 systems that are set up wrong. Kindof like my OLED. Out of the box, it was remarkable, which is unusual. A few small tweaks and I had it looking worse than my 1080p LED TV.

You've hit a nerve with me with this whole A/V thing. I've been on forums (B&W cough) where they have a post up a pic of your system thread. I've gotten into heated debates with some forum members there where they thought I would react the same as the other lemmings to blindly praise their system. They felt because they posted up a pic of their $100k+ system with their 5 figure per pair 802D speakers that I would automatically be impressed. Nope. Not when they take those speakers and shove them into the corners of their listening room or they're wedged up against some awful home entertainment center/rack. While my system isn't cheap, I've only spent a fraction of what these guys have on their equipment yet I will wager my system sounds infinitely better than theirs. That's because I put a lot of attention into proper placement of the speakers, dialing in the tuning via EQs with my subs and overall sound tuning with my surround processor that has room correction. On top of that, I have acoustical panels to ensure the room is as dialed in as my system is.

I haven't had a bad reaction with anyone that has listened to my system from A/V enthusiast, to musicians, to regular lay people. I'm reminded of the magic of my system when I throw on some source material and the speakers just disappear while at the same time I get goose bumps.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Nuckle

Spot on assessment! It may sound great to me and like garbage to you!

For the larger systems the set up is more important than the money spent. I get ahead of the family on movie night and tweak the settings/channel levels to each individual movie for the best experience possible. I have a 15" sub and if I don't keep it under control it can overpower everything else and create a bad sound stage.

Back to the Samsung sound bar. Not sure which brand TV you went with but I have a samsung connected to my sound bar and part of what I like is the communication between it and the TV. I can't speak to if it would be indifferent to a different brand TV but this is an example of my experience.

We have our SAT box, and a PS4 connected to the bar. We have an extra HDMI cable connected to the TV so we can hookup any device we want on the fly like an iPad, camera etc. Optical cable coming from the TV to the bar. We have to interact very little with the bar when switching sources. It intuitively knows what we want it to do and does it if that makes sense.

That was my worry about adding a sub into my system. I went from hating the idea of using a sub to now having subs in two of my critical listening systems. My 2 channel system at my beach home has a 12" Velodyne sub. My main multi-channel system in my primary home has two subs in it: a 15" and 18" Velodyne subs. Both systems are using an EQ system from Velodyne where I can see the exact bass response in room in real time with the included mic. It provides the ability to do an auto EQ and you can see what the response curve is after completion or you can dial it in manually. The EQ box allows me to have different bass EQ tunes for different source material. I primarily listen with the EQ set to Jazz/Classical which provides the most balanced and flat response. But when I want to get some punch, I just push a button on the remote to set the EQ to Action/Adventure. And the nice thing is the bass in the lower frequency range is bumped up but not distorted or boomy.

[infinitekidM2C]

CHeck this out by KEF:

https://www.shop.us.kef.com/specials...nd-system.html

seems an amazing deal. I'd jump on it but i'm already good.

[corn18]

Originally Posted by infinitekidM2C

CHeck this out by KEF:

https://www.shop.us.kef.com/specials...nd-system.html

seems an amazing deal. I'd jump on it but i'm already good.

That is a heckofa deal. Never been a Kef fan though. I wish all speaker makers would just make speakers that spit out the exact same sound that was fed into them. Then let me decide what to do with it after that. Kef always struck me as very tweety.

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by corn18

That is a heckofa deal. Never been a Kef fan though. I wish all speaker makers would just make speakers that spit out the exact same sound that was fed into them. Then let me decide what to do with it after that. Kef always struck me as very tweety.

Hmm. I really like KEF and feel the sound is quite clear and natural. So many things affect sound, especially the receiver.

[corn18]

Originally Posted by infinitekidM2C

Hmm. I really like KEF and feel the sound is quite clear and natural. So many things affect sound, especially the receiver.

My reviews of Kef are very dated (1996).

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by infinitekidM2C

Hmm. I really like KEF and feel the sound is quite clear and natural. So many things affect sound, especially the receiver.

Biggest overlooked factor in something that affects the ultimate sound you get out of any system is your room. Hardly anyone I've seen puts any effort into fixing the acoustics of their listening room.

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by corn18

My reviews of Kef are very dated (1996).

Mine are only very recent 2018+