This Forgotten Speaker Could Have Been the Future of Home Audio

When Sonos announced the Playbase back in 2017, it promised the future of home audio. Instead it was just a blip.

The device was something called a soundbase, a home theater component similar to a soundbar but larger and deeper so your TV could rest on top of it. At the time, Sonos claimed “up to 70 percent of all TVs” sat on top of furniture, not against a wall.

It wasn’t just Sonos. Several other renowned audio makers, including Q Acoustics, Cambridge Audio, Denon and Panasonic, all offered soundbases of their own.

Sonos

The run of Sonos’s Playbase lasted less than three years. The multi-room speaker giant stopped selling its soundbase in 2020 — the same year it released its first Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Arc. It never made another one.

Today, none of those other major players sell soundbases, either. Q Acoustics, Cambridge Audio, Denon and Panasonic have all gotten out, focusing on soundbars, AVRs and traditional surround sound systems instead.

So, what happened?

Q Acoustics

A soundbar takeover

The soundbase promised many of the same conveniences as the soundbar. It was easy to set up, had built-in streaming capabilities, and it was upgradable; with the Playbase, for example, you could group it with other Sonos speakers and subwoofers to create a more immersive sound system.

Of course, there are reasons why soundbars are super popular today and soundbases are basically extinct. Chief among them is that soundbars are super versatile and don’t need to be wall-mounted. In fact, I’d argue that most people don’t mount their soundbars and have them resting beneath or in front of their TVs.

This effectively negated one of the big advantages soundbase had over soundbars.

Cambridge Audio

A Dolby Atmos revolution

The sound quality of soundbars and soundbases was actually quite similar, although with subtle differences.

While soundbars typically delivered a bigger soundstage because their main left- and right-right drivers were further apart, soundbases delivered more bass thanks to their bigger cabinets.

Additionally, most soundbases had downward-firing woofers instead of front-firing woofers like in most soundbars. This helped them deliver superior bass since there was “a constant, predetermined distance from the surface [they were] firing towards,” explained Alex Munro, brand director at Q Acoustics.

As far as Sonos’s Playbase was concerned, the bigger cabinet allowed Sonos to add an extra woofer and amplifier compared to its Playbar (now discontinued) counterpart. Thus, it literally had an additional bass driver.

Sonos

While the sound quality of a soundbase and soundbar could be debated, a big reason why former didn’t make it was Dolby Atmos’s rise.

When soundbases were at their peak popularity in the mid-to-late 2010s, it right before today’s major soundbar players — such as Sonos, Bose, and Sony — released their first flagship Dolby Atmos soundbars. All of which had upward-firing drivers.

These upward-firing drivers shoot audio toward the ceiling so that it reflects back down and convincingly tricks the listener into thinking that sounds are coming from above them. While soundbars that don’t have upward-firing drivers do something similar, it’s not nearly as effective or immersive.

However, soundbases couldn’t take advantage of these upward-firing drivers for obvious reasons — they have a TV sitting on top of them. Also, it was common for people to situate a soundbar in a media console or in some other TV furniture, which would impede these upward-firing drivers as well.

Cambridge Audio

No more tiny TVs

Maybe the biggest reason that the soundbase hasn’t made it is the simple fact that TVs have gotten so big. While a 55-inch TV was considered pretty substantial a decade ago, it’s now pretty average (even a little small)— the most popular TV size these days is 65 inches.

Because soundbases weren’t wide, you needed a TV with feet fairly close together in order to rest it on top. This meant a TV that was likely 50-inches or smaller. While this was a more common size for TVs when soundbases were in their heyday (during the mid-to-late 2010s), it simply wouldn’t cut it.

“The market for soundbases [has] greatly reduced as the size and typical mounting methods for TVs are a lot less compatible with locating a soundbase adjacent to them,” Munro explained.

“We have currently withdrawn from one-piece audio for video, focussing more on 5.1 and larger configurations of home cinema,” said Munro. “But we don’t rule our re-entering if circumstances inspire us.”

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