Sort of a soundbar?
Contents
When installing the Sonos Amp, the app asks if we are going to listen to music with it or if the Sonos Amp is going to be on TV. If the last option is selected, the HDMI ARC is activated. We’ll have the sound of TV running over the Sonos Amp. Nice with Indiana Jones or Jurassic Park. But the Beam of Sonos can do that trick too. A big advantage of choosing your own speakers is that a subwoofer soon becomes superfluous. And it is the subwoofer that is often lacking at sound bars.
The golden combination with the B&W 606 S2 we won’t let go. This is also a good choice for the film experience. We hear a particularly tight layer, along with details for the special effects. We’re connecting two more behind channels: the two Sonos One spekaers. One on the left and one on the right. That’s a bit more cinematic experience. A surround effect is clearly audible. But keep in mind that this is not a real surround. It’s a dobly mix down.
The front center channel is created from the left and right front. We see this more often in soundbars that are oriented music. But it does show that Sonos is aiming for a high deployability of the Amp.
Very secretly… we think this combination of the Sonos Amp and B&W speakers is a lot better than the Sonos soundbar. Don’t tell me, Alpha audio secret.
Wells of criticism
So the Sonos Amp is totally awesome and we didn’t run into anything? Unfortunately, there are a few things. It took us 2 hours to get the Sonos Amp working on the editorial board due to tension tree problems (wifi and cable both stayed on creating a network loop). Now we have to admit that the network on the editorial board is a lot more complex than an average home network. In a simple home network we didn’t have this problem.
We also need to talk about the elephant in the room. High Res music. The wet dream of every music lover. Our music server is full of it. Probably from every audiophile. But the Sonos Amp doesn’t play High Res music. That’s pretty crazy, because Sonos is aiming at the Hifi target group. This is therefore a lack of functionality. It’s such a pity, because the Sonos Amp has so many good aspects on board that make it a great amplifier/streamer. With support for High Res music, the established brands in hi-filand would have a harder time. Sure, we hear the critics say, “There’s an RCA connection to it, right?” But they want to connect a turntable to that. If we would connect an external streamer, we would miss the Sonos simplicity.
So Sonos! Get through with that software update for High Res music!
