If you happen to have $699 burning a hole in your pocket, as well as an overbearing need to improve your home audio visual experience, then Sonos may just have the product for you.
The company has officially bolstered its family of speakers with the introduction of PLAYBASE, its first hardware release since September 2015. The PLAYBASE acts as a TV and music speaker, dressed in a stunning black or white finish complete with touch-sensitive controls.
First of all, you would actually be thinking that Sonos already offers a similarly priced $699 TV speaker in the PLAYBAR range, and you’d be right. However, the PLAYBASE has been designed and launched to offer a similar experience, but with a different form factor, and a 10-driver speaker system compared to the PLAYBAR’s 9-driver speaker system.
This new contraption has been designed to be used in conjunction with different TV audio setups. Sonos suggests that around 70% of TVs in the home are not actually mounted onto a wall, with the new PLAYBASE being marketed towards those individuals who want an accomplished speaker with a very slimline form factor.
And the form factor is probably something that will appeal. The speaker can support TVs weighing up to 75 pounds, and comes with dimensions of 2.28-by-28.35-by-14.17 inches, which instantly makes it the thinnest speaker offered in the Sonos range. It’s still a fairly sizable piece of kit, but it’s great to see that that business is making improvements where possible with each hardware release.
Owners of the PLAYBASE can connect the hardware to a TV via the optical audio input, with the product itself coming equipped with Dialogue Enhancement and Night Mode settings that have been custom designed as an attempt to improve the audio coming from the TV.
With it being an official Sonos product, there’s also an immediate integration with more than 80 music services that already connect to Sonos, including the extremely popular streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. So if you have those account subscriptions, you’re instantly going to be able to get that music blasting out through the PLAYBASE.
That’s not all though; the Sonos SUB and two Sonos PLAY:1 speakers can also be paired with the PLAYBASE for a complete 5.1 surround sound experience.
Sonos is telling us that it will be rolling out Amazon Alexa support for the PLAYBASE later this year, allowing users to control the speaker using the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Tap devices.
Those looking for an enhanced Sonos experience will be able to purchase the PLAYBASE from April 4 for $699.
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