SoundGuys put up a piece arguing that when you pick between Sonos and Bose for a home theatre, the deciding factor is not how the bar sounds on day one but what you plan to bolt on later. I think that is the correct frame and it is the one almost nobody uses in the shop.
Both of these are ecosystems before they are speakers. You are not buying a soundbar, you are buying a set of rules about what your next purchase can be. Rears have to come from the same family. Subs have to come from the same family. Firmware decides when features arrive and, occasionally, when they leave. The bar you demo is the cheapest part of the commitment.
So the honest first question is whether you intend to expand at all. If the answer is no, if this is a bar under a TV in a normal room and it stays that way for six years, then buy on sound and on how much the app annoys you, and ignore everything about the ecosystem. Plenty of people are in that position and get talked out of it by forums like this one.
If you do intend to grow, price the whole endgame now, not the entry point. Bar plus sub plus a pair of rears is a different number entirely, and once you are at that number the wired options start looking a lot less inconvenient than they did.
The part I have no patience for is anyone claiming either brand is objectively the wrong answer. They solve the same problem with different trade-offs.
For those who did expand: did you actually finish the set, or is the bar still sitting there alone two years later?
Both of these are ecosystems before they are speakers. You are not buying a soundbar, you are buying a set of rules about what your next purchase can be. Rears have to come from the same family. Subs have to come from the same family. Firmware decides when features arrive and, occasionally, when they leave. The bar you demo is the cheapest part of the commitment.
So the honest first question is whether you intend to expand at all. If the answer is no, if this is a bar under a TV in a normal room and it stays that way for six years, then buy on sound and on how much the app annoys you, and ignore everything about the ecosystem. Plenty of people are in that position and get talked out of it by forums like this one.
If you do intend to grow, price the whole endgame now, not the entry point. Bar plus sub plus a pair of rears is a different number entirely, and once you are at that number the wired options start looking a lot less inconvenient than they did.
The part I have no patience for is anyone claiming either brand is objectively the wrong answer. They solve the same problem with different trade-offs.
For those who did expand: did you actually finish the set, or is the bar still sitting there alone two years later?
