Still have a Playbar in my downstairs den paired with two Play:3s. I only replaced my upstairs Playbar to an Arc a few years ago because the little flapper door for the optical cable input broke and it would no longer hold the plug in place. Perfectly working otherwise, what shame to have to junk it. Sonos said they can't fix that so they gave us a nice deal for an update to Arc.
While on this subject, is there any advantage to using an HDMI from eARC/ARC to the Playbar utilizing Sonos' HDMI to Optical adapter? Or is there nothing to gain over using an Optical cable?
Playbar is a great piece of kit but a little limited if you want latest tech, it still uses optical input and does not support newer formats like Atmos.
My playbar is coming up on 8 years and it’s just as good as when I got it (just a little more dust on that cloth top). Wish it supported airplay but otherwise there’s no need to upgrade.
Yes, it's a great device and definitely an improvement over crappy TV speakers. I've had mine for 10 years now, but don't use it as much since it's on the basement TV, which the kids mostly use. I've got it paired up with Play:1 rears and a Sub (Gen 2 or 3, I forget), and it's great for movies.
Honestly, the only issue is the lack of eARC support, but you can make it work. The only thing to be aware of is that if your TV remote doesn't support IR, you'll have to adjust the volume via the app - or buy a universal remote that has built-in IR.
Yeah, I was able to get both the TV remote (also, a Hisense, but only 2 years old) and Roku remote to control the soundbar without issue. The TV is pretty good about remembering to keep the output set to digital/optical cable, which is more than I can say for my Sony Bravia, which costs 7x as much and keeps reverting to TV.
Top Soundbars on Reddit
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Samsung
Q990F
77% positive of 600 users
Value for movies and easy setup, but music falls flat.
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