Chasing the White Whale of Surround Sound
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a movie fan, and as such I’ve always wanted a great home theater experience. At the same time I know that this aspiration can quickly turn into a money pit if I let my enthusiasm get the better of me.
In the early aughts I bought a Panasonic 5-disc DVD changer which came with five surround sound speakers. It sounded great when I positioned them properly around the couch, but there wasn’t anywhere to put the wires without punching holes in the carpet (which I wasn’t interested in doing) so I rarely brought out the rear channel speakers.
In the late aughts I bought a proper receiver and surround speakers and ran raceway along the floorboards to solve the wire problem and setup the rear speakers on stands, which I thought would be a good long-term solution. Unfortunately they took up valuable floor space around the couch and my young children were constantly knocking them over. Getting the rear channel speakers installed in the ceiling wasn’t in my budget and the wireless solutions at that time used the same mediocre technology as cordless phones (remember those?), so I eventually threw my hands up and traded my entire audio setup for a sound bar.
For the next decade or so I was content using sound bars and swore that it was good enough, but inside I knew that I was compromising my home audio experience for the sake of convenience.
In December of 2020 I, like many people, had some money burning a hole in my pocket from staying home most of the year and was coming to the realization that I wouldn’t see the inside of a movie theater for a while yet. Warner Bros had released Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max and committed to doing the same with all of their 2021 releases, and Disney was experimenting with making their new release movies available on Disney+ for an extra fee.
So after flirting with the idea for years I finally bought a 65-inch OLED TV, which immediately felt under-served by my reasonably priced sound bar, so I upgraded that to the very well-reviewed Sonos Arc. Well, right after ordering that I realized that unlike other sound bars, the Arc didn’t come with a companion subwoofer, so next I ordered the Sonos Sub which costs almost as much as the sound bar itself.
I managed to stop there for a year, but after receiving a generous Best Buy gift card for Christmas I decided to once again chase the surround sound dragon. I bought a pair of Sonos One SLs and now my two decade long dream of home theater surround sound without wires is finally a reality.
I’ve watched a couple of movies mastered in Dolby Atmos since installing them and I can attest that they were worth every penny. Even my fiancé, who isn’t thrilled with the look of the two speaker mounted above the basement couch, had to admit that they sound great.
Now I can confidently state that I have a wonderful home theater system that I’m perfectly happy with and will never again feel the need to spend large amounts of money to upgrade any part of it… for a couple of years or so.
