When comparing Sonos Playbar vs Yamaha YSP-5600, the Slant community recommends Sonos Playbar for most people. In the question“What are the best soundbars?” Sonos Playbar is ranked 1st while Yamaha YSP-5600 is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Sonos Playbar is:
This system's combination of nine individually amplified speakers creates a very detailed and clear sound. It has great soundstage and instrument separation, which is quite beneficial for music listeners (and also film watchers too).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great for playing music
This system's combination of nine individually amplified speakers creates a very detailed and clear sound. It has great soundstage and instrument separation, which is quite beneficial for music listeners (and also film watchers too).
Pro Wall mountable, with automatic calibration
This soundbar is wall mountable and has a position sensor to recalibrate the soundbar if the position is changed from horizontal to vertical.
Pro Supports digital surround signal
The Sonos supports digital surround signal, like Dolby Digital.
Pro Very upgrade friendly
Most people will find this soundbar’s audio output to be sufficient, but if you want to add extra bass or surround sound, it’s possible to do so by adding Sonos speakers. Furthermore, setting them up is easy to do, as the Sonos mobile and PC applications will recognize the new speakers and will automatically recalibrate everything for optimum sound quality.
Pro Easy to set-up and use
This soundbar is made for simple use, with a very straightforward setup. It has just one optical input port for sound and two Ethernet ports for network use. All you need to do is connect the optical cable to your TV, an Ethernet cable to your router and install the Sonos Controller app on your smartphone or a PC. The app will help you go through all the necessary steps to pair your TV remote with the system, add additional speakers, sort your music library in the network or connect the soundbar to an existing Sonos multi-room setup.
Pro Wi-Fi support
The Sonos supports Wi-Fi, for music streaming.
Pro Good surround effect emulation
Yamaha has implemented Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support in this soundbar, meaning that the audio not only has width and depth, but also added height. It has 44 built-in speakers that help achieve the surround effect.
Pro Wide variety of connection ports
The soundbar has four 4K HDMI inputs, an HDMI ARC output, one coaxial, two optical inputs, an infrared in/out, an analog input and a subwoofer output. Even the most demanding customers with lots of equipment will be able to connect virtually anything.
Pro Easy to setup
This soundbar has a full on-screen menu via HDMI. With the included Intellibeam microphone, the setup is a breeze: just follow the walk-through instructions, mount the microphone and the soundbar will do the rest.
Pro Wireless support
The YSP-5600 supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so you can stream music wirelessly. Wi-FI can also be used for a multi-room setup.
Cons
Con Expensive
The Sonos is a quite expensive soundbar, definitely not aimed for those on a budget.
Con Limited connectivity
The soundbar only has one dedicated optical input to connect external devices.
Con Aluminum parts can get warm
The aluminum used in the unit’s body works as a radiator for the speakers, so the aluminium pieces can get warm.
Con No support for high resolution audio formats
This soundbar does not support high resolution audio formats, like Dolby TrueHD. You can work around this limitation by streaming the signal in a different format to the soundbar, but this degrades quality.
Con Lacks bass power
The Sonos lacks the room-shaking bass effect that's essential for action packed movies. For that, you’ll need to buy an external subwoofer.
Con Surround is not as good as with a system with actual rear speakers
Even though this soundbar does fairly well at emulating surround sound, it still falls behind proper surround systems with actual rear speakers.
Con It's not slide-proof
There are no rubber stoppers under the soundbar, so you have to take caution to keep it from sliding along the surface it's placed on.
Con Needs an external subwoofer to reach full potential
Since the soundbar itself lacks decent bass, you will also need to connect it to an external subwoofer to get its full impact.
