It may have taken a while, but Sonos has released a new product and it is the Playbase speaker. It sales for about $700 and begin shipping on April 4th. The Playbase is the thinnest Sonos speaker yet with dimensions of 2.28x28.35x14.17. The Playbase connects to a person’s television via optical audio cable. It can also wireless connect to over Sonos devices like the Sonos Sub and the Sonos Play: 1 speaker to create surround sound.

The Playbase speaker is surprisingly not voiced controlled

The Playbase speaker, however, is not voiced controlled. This may come as a surprise to many because for the past few years Sonos has been claiming that it would come out with a voice controlled system.

Amazon started the trend of voice controlled system with the Echo, and in turn, broke new ground. Understandably, since then many companies are also been coming out with their own voice controlled devices to try and cash in on the trend. Unfortunately, it appears Sonos fans will have to wait a little while longer before it releases anything similar to Amazon’s Echo despite repeated promises to the contrary.

It is meant for TVs that are not mounted

That is not to say that Playbase speaker does not have its advantages. The great thing about the Playbase speaker is that sits under a television set. That is great news for the 70 percent of people that do not have a wall mounted television. Most people just set their TV up on some kind of stand, and Playbase is designed for them.

The Playbase can supports TV up to 75 pounds so people should be aware of how much their TV weighs before putting it on top of the Playbase and crushing their $700 investment. Also, it not recommended for TV that has legs on both sides of them. Sonos evidently chose to stick with what they are good at since the Playbase it largely the same thing as their previous product the Playbase, with the same name. They even cost the same amount of money for the time being at least. So one one should look to the Playbase speaker as a replacement for what they already have, but rather as an alternative.