Sonos Offers Up to 25% Off Home Theater Audio Equipment Ahead of Super Bowl

Word of caution to those of you who may be enticed to buy a Sonos home theater... I bought the Sonos Arc Ultra theater kit. The audio quality was fantastic and it was very easy to install. BUT, it had a slight but noticeable audio delay when watching content off of the Apple TV with Atmos enabled... It only went away if the audio was down-mixed to stereo. Apparently of the soundbars brands, Sonos is more susceptible to the audio processing lag, and because it lacks an HDMI in, it cannot be overcome if present.

I went with a wired system instead (AVR+5.1.2), and while it's not as a pretty it sounds the mostly same without the audio lag.

edit:
From rtings
Arc Ultra
https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/sonos/arc-ultra
Audio Latency: ARC
PCM-2.0 ch
49 ms
PCM-5.1 ch
45 ms
Dolby MAT (PCM) Atmos
64 ms
Dolby Digital
98 ms
Dolby Digital Plus
107 ms
Dolby Digital Plus Atmos
107 ms

vs

Samsung bar
https://www.rtings.com/soundbar/reviews/samsung/hw-q990d
PCM-2.0 ch
34 ms
PCM-5.1 ch
40 ms
Dolby MAT (PCM) Atmos
58 ms
Dolby Digital
79 ms
Dolby Digital Plus
86 ms
Dolby Digital Plus Atmos
90 ms

The ~110 ms atmos latency was noticeable for my particular setup, while the 50 ms 2.0/5.1 delay was not.

With a real AVR, my media inputs go into the AVR and I cannot perceive any latency even with atmos enabled content.

Ahead of 200 posts ripping Sonos left & right for the new app with words like "destroyed", "useless", etc, I'll offer this:

* Apple people do not even need to touch the new app in a Sonos system already set up. I've owned Sonos speakers for years, use them nearly every day and just about never open the iDevice app. Instead I play music to them from Apple Music app (just as one can airplay to any other speakers too). Friends with them set up as home theater speakers just turn on their TV and their remote controls them (no app required). When I do use the new app to play- say- the Sonos music stations themselves (or Pandora/tunein/etc), it works just fine for me.
* The Mac Sonos app is still readily available as the "same old Mac app" for anyone willing to "workaround" if they don't like the new app. While less convenient than one on a mobile device, it is fully functional as a workaround until the new app gets to where one judges it needs to be.
* I've helped friends set up new Sonos systems since the new app was released and all went just fine using the new app.
* Objective reviews often rank Sonos towards the top of all smart speaker choices. Perhaps that's part of the problem here since Apple also sells smart speakers? All Apple competitors are bad, bad, bad.
* The new app is a wholesale change from the old app... exactly like Apple sometimes makes wholesale changes to apps. Those who do not like change vent.
* The new app appears to be an attempt to bring most popular uses of their app to the top. Previously, they were often multiple clicks away, but now you can design the "home" page as you want it and it's one click to play. I learned how to build the top "home" page as I want it and very much appreciate one click to anything I want to play now... vs. how the old app handled it.
* The new app has been out a good while now... and has had multiple updates to put some missing features back in again.

All that is not to say there were NO problems with the new app: many did have some negative experience with it- especially on release quite a while ago. Wholesale change requires learning new ways to do old things and that sometimes gets a lot of gripes all to itself. In Sonos's RUSH to release it, they did not include some features available in the old app... and subtraction of features/functionality often yields gripes. Sonos clearly could have handled the change much better than they did but the rush to new revenue seems to have overridden enough beta testing to try to get it right the first time. Our favorite company makes that same mistake on an annual basis these days.

The point of this post is to help those who may read the thread understand that it's not all abominationationally terrible doom & gloom destruction & futility for all Apple people everywhere who own or want to own Sonos equipment... even if it appears that way by the time you get to post 100 or so. In the ways speakers are mostly used with Apple stuff, one doesn't even have to open the Sonos app at all (and could even delete it entirely with no consequence). Friends with recent installations gush & praise how well their setups sound, work, work with AppleTV-based setups, play home-shared media or airplayed music, etc... none of which requires opening the Sonos app at all.

If you want some smart speakers that have already worked out a solid surround sound setup with subwoofer (vs. only stereo at best HomePods) from a company focused on only speakers (vs. that being a hobby-like sideline) and like what you read on objective sites and in objective reviews about Sonos, consider buying from someone with a solid return policy and then HEAR with your own ears in your own home. If it's as bad as some say, return them. And if it's as it has been for my own friends (and myself), you'll probably find they are quite great in a mostly-to-fully Apple home.

Now on with the brand bashfest... 🍿

I have Sonos at my office and at home. It’s a headache every single day. The app is so bugged that it constantly drops one of the 4 speakers at work and struggles with Spotify to the point that you can play but not shuffle. Never again Sonos.

We have a bunch of Sonos speakers (Ones, Fives, Playbase, soundbars) throughout our home and they've been great from day one. We never use the Sonos app except to tune the speakers for their respective rooms, to change the loudness, etc. I have no experience with the Sonos' appgate fiasco since we play them through AirPlay. Love 'em.

Word of caution to those of you who may be enticed to buy a Sonos home theater... I bought the Sonos Arc Ultra theater kit. The audio quality was fantastic and it was very easy to install. BUT, it had a slight but noticeable audio delay when watching content off of the Apple TV with Atmos enabled... It only went away if the audio was down-mixed to stereo. Apparently of the soundbars brands, Sonos is more susceptible to the audio processing lag, and because it lacks an HDMI in, it cannot be overcome if present.

I went with a wired system instead (AVR+5.1.2), and while it's not as a pretty it sounds the mostly same without the audio lag.

Also running a Sonos Arc Ultra with 2 Era 300 surrounds. I don’t seem to have any noticeable audio lag. I would regard myself as overly sensitive / irritable about lag after working in post houses doing editing and VFX. My Arc Ultra is connected via eARC HDMI (which serves as an HDMI) to an LG 2022 OLED and my TV allows me to adjust sync timing if needed (wasn’t needed).

As a side note. I know the Arc Ultra isn’t on the sale list above but having upgraded from an Arc to an Arc Ultra, the difference in audio quality is shocking. The Ultra is such a huge leap forward from the original Arc that both my wife and daughter, who could care less about any of this stuff as long as it just works, constantly comment on how amazing it sounds. They made zero comments about the original Arc for the two years it was in our living room. We use to have everything connected to really nice Dynaudio speakers before we moved; this setup finally creates a similar rich, warm, and full sound.

Ahead of 200 posts ripping Sonos left & right for the new app with words like "destroyed", "useless", etc, I'll offer this:

* Apple people do not even need to touch the new app in a Sonos system already set up. I've owned Sonos speakers for years, use them nearly every day and just about never open the iDevice app. Instead I play music to them from Apple Music app (just as one can airplay to any other speakers too). Friends with them set up as home theater speakers just turn on their TV and their remote controls them (no app required). When I do use the new app to play- say- the Sonos music stations themselves (or Pandora/tunein/etc), it works just fine for me.
* The Mac Sonos app is still readily available as the "same old Mac app" for anyone willing to "workaround" if they don't like the new app. While less convenient than one on a mobile device, it is fully functional as a workaround until the new app gets to where one judges it needs to be.
* I've helped friends set up new Sonos systems since the new app was released and all went just fine using the new app.
* Objective reviews often rank Sonos towards the top of all smart speaker choices. Perhaps that's part of the problem here since Apple also sells smart speakers? All Apple competitors are bad, bad, bad.
* The new app is a wholesale change from the old app... exactly like Apple sometimes makes wholesale changes to apps. Those who do not like change vent.
* The new app appears to be an attempt to bring most popular uses of their app to the top. Previously, they were often multiple clicks away, but now you can design the "home" page as you want it and it's one click to play. I learned how to build the top "home" page as I want it and very much appreciate one click to anything I want to play now... vs. how the old app handled it.
* The new app has been out a good while now... and has had multiple updates to put some missing features back in again.

All that is not to say there were NO problems with the new app: many did have some negative experience with it- especially on release quite a while ago. Wholesale change requires learning new ways to do old things and that sometimes gets a lot of gripes all to itself. In Sonos's RUSH to release it, they did not include some features available in the old app... and subtraction of features/functionality often yields gripes. Sonos clearly could have handled the change much better than they did but the rush to new revenue seems to have overridden enough beta testing to try to get it right the first time. Our favorite company makes that same mistake on an annual basis these days.

The point of this post is to help those who may read the thread understand that it's not all abominationationally terrible doom & gloom destruction & futility for all Apple people everywhere who own or want to own Sonos equipment... even if it appears that way by the time you get to post 100 or so. In the ways speakers are mostly used with Apple stuff, one doesn't even have to open the Sonos app at all (and could even delete it entirely with no consequence). Friends with recent installations gush & praise how well their setups sound, work, work with AppleTV-based setups, play home-shared media or airplayed music, etc... none of which requires opening the Sonos app at all.

If you want some smart speakers that have already worked out a solid surround sound setup with subwoofer (vs. only stereo at best HomePods) from a company focused on only speakers (vs. that being a hobby-like sideline) and like what you read on objective sites and in objective reviews about Sonos, consider buying from someone with a solid return policy and then HEAR with your own ears in your own home. If it's as bad as some say, return them. And if it's as it has been for my own friends (and myself), you'll probably find they are quite great in a mostly-to-fully Apple home.

Now on with the brand bashfest... 🍿

Thank you for this informative post, great to see it from a different perspective.