[Just_Me_D]

According to the Sonos website, Bluetooth is music on the go whereas Sonos is music for your home. Do you agree? If so, what makes Sonos different from a Vizio Bluetooth soundbar that's clearly for the home?

Source: https://forums.imore.com/e?link=http...token=0gj5imuL

[bevcraw]

I don't have a Vizio soundbar. I tried using my Samsung soundbar to play my music, but there were just too many limitations for me. I tried loading some music on a flash drive that I plugged into the soundbar. But I found that the display on the soundbar did not provide much information about the file names and it took forever to move though all the files to find the music that I wanted to play. I also tried connecting my soundbar to my tablet via bluetooth to access the music on my tablet and also to the music that was stored on my desktop drive. It was much easier to find and access the music files through the tablet. But connecting my tablet via bluetooth disconnected the subwoofer from the soundbar (which was also connected via bluetooth). I am not a bass junkie, but no bass at all was too much of a compromise.

So I bought a Sonos Play 3 and I am very happy with the rich sound and the ease of accessing the music on my hard drive. I have also surprised myself by how often I use music streaming instead of selecting the music from my hard drive (mainly Pandora and Amazon Prime Music).

[James Falconer]

On the Sonos vs. Bluetooth thing... there are some very important differences in my opinion.

While both will connect to mobile devices, that's really the only area where Sonos and Bluetooth match up.

Sonos has tremendous wireless range, will keep playing when something happens on your phone (phone call), you're able to play different tracks on different speakers with total control over everything... and in my opinion, the speakers simply sound better.

I've got a few Bluetooth speakers kicking around my house, and generally use them for outdoor use. Am very much jonesing for a Sonos outdoor speaker. And headphones. And, probably something else I haven't thought of yet.

[Peepo68]

Sonos speakers actually have little computers in them that do the streaming. All you are doing with the phone or desktop Sonos app is connecting to the Sonos and telling it what to do. For example, If you tell it to stream a station from Apple Music, it will do that for an indefinite amount of time all on its own - you can turn off your phone, go on a trip, even upgrade your phone and it doesn't care because the phone really has nothing to do with the Sonos playback once it starts.

They also create a mesh network in your home and this allows more reliable signal and allows them to have different zones/rooms and/or pair with each other (eg. stereo pair, sub, 5.1 etc.).

To answer your soundbar question, one could compare that to a Sonos Playbar. With the Playbar it has an optical input so it can play audio directly from TV. Instead of Bluetooth it uses Sonos to stream music from your sources. It can also be upgraded by adding a Sonos Sub and a couple Sonos Play 1 speakers for surround. Your Sonos equipment is reusable and say, for example years from now, you don't need the surround system because now you have a dedicated home theatre and wired setup, no problem and then you can repurpose the play 1's and sub for something else and the playbar is still a good sounding speaker that can be placed in a room, if needed. Some people like using Play 1 in bathrooms or Kitchens.

I just got into Sonos and started with the Playbar and a Play 1 for another room. I am getting the sub and a couple Play 3's for other rooms.