I was looking into some new speakers for my home and I did not want some big monster speaker or have a mess of wires to play with. I was looking into the Bose system as well as the Sonos Play series. After reading about each in depth I decided to get the Sonos Play speakers.
I picked up the Sonos Play 5 which is their largest speaker.
I also picked up a sonos play 1 which is the smallest speaker. The smaller Play 1 speaker will be perfect for upstairs to have a surround sound effect while the Play 5 will be down stairs in the living room. You can connect the speakers together to play the same stream or you can set them up to be different and play different music. Everything is done with an app loaded onto an iOS device or Android device. These speakers are very loud! The sound quality is top notch. Setup is very easy to connect the devices to your wireless network. The option to put the speakers together in sync or separate is an easy option in the software. The devices update with any new software needed when they first connect to the network. And it is setup to auto update as needed later on for any new software updated. The other great feature that Sonos has is the True play configuration. You can select the room you will put the speaker in and turn on true play and it will adjust the settings to get you the best sound for that room. I have not even used that feature yet on either speaker but they still both sound excellent.
The app once downloaded is how to control the Sonos System as well as play media to the speakers. The app connects to your local storage of music on the device as well as many common apps such as Spotify and Tunein. All in all there is about 30 different services you can connect the Play to.
The very cool feature about the Sonos systems is that they do not connect by bluetooth. They connect through your wireless network. This keeps your phone free to continue to be used as a phone, or to make sure notifications do not get missed. The music does not stop if you get a call on your phone. The music is streaming through your wireless network. This makes a world of difference. Bluetooth is ok for a small speaker to stream with. But for multi Room sound the Sonos is the way to go.
The Sonos Play one is a smaller model but it fills a room with big sound. All the bass and treble is there along with a rich depth to the music your listening to. When you turn up the sound to max it does not get distorted either. The bass notes stay crisp and thumping and the highs get high without any distortion. The Play one is also designed to resist humidity so you can take it outside for some BBQ music or even in the bathroom to play while showering. (Who needs an LED bulb that can stream music?). This will probably be the way the Play one will be used at my house as my wife likes to play music while getting ready in the morning. The design of the play one is also very bold without being flashy. It was designed to be put in small places like on a shelf or a book case to be out of the way but to give you great sound so your music is always a joy to hear. There is a choice of black or white. I choose the Black for both units as it will go more with the decor we have through out the house. Once I did setup the Play units in their place they did look like they belonged and matched well. If you didn’t know they were there you might mistake them for just some kind of decor!
The Sonos Play 5 is the big bad Boss of a speaker from them and it has some large sounds to come from it. It has 3 large subwoofers and the sound from it is really impressive. It is designed in such a way that you can stand it horizontal or Vertical and the music sounds good either way. I have set my Horizontal and it sits in my living room at the far end. I have an open floor plan and when I crank it up the music flows right into the kitchen and even upstairs and sounds dynamic. If you sit upstairs and close a door it sounds like you live above a dance club. Before I got the Play 1 I went in the back yard and turned the volume up full blast and when opened the screen door, the neighbors wanted to know if they could borrow my system for a party! They said with sound like that you don't even need to bring it over, just open your door and face it outside and let us send you songs to play! Yes this thing can PUMP! I have set up both units so they play together and for the moment the Play 1 is in the office which is around the corner from the kitchen. This makes for a very wonderful sounding setup which you don't need to turn up loud to make sure you can hear it while your doing things in the kitchen. You can also purchase a 2nd Play 5 to put with the first one and then they automatically play in stereo mode with a right and left channel. I listen to a lot of Electronic dance music and rock and both sound so great. All the little sounds that are in a song can be heard clearly even while the bass is thumping along.
If you want to get a speaker that can give you great sound and is easy to setup and doesn't look out of place with your decor the Sonos is the way to go. People asked me why I did not look at Bose for a speaker but I did and I liked the support of more apps and options that came along with the Sonos. Plus the support is top notch. I think if your in the market for a new speaker for your home you cannot go wrong with any of the 3 options from Sonos.
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