This is a We Own it review!
Sonos is an American company founded in 2012, all they do is audio equipment their mission is to: “Fill every home with music and make listening a valued experience again”
What does the Sonos Wireless Speaker do?
Sonos is a wireless speaker or multi room audio system to give it its full name.
Plug in the speakers, connect them to the internet then stream a vast selection of services including Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Apple Play, Google Play and sound cloud. Note you do need to pay for some accounts these are not included in a Sonos purchase.
Alternatively you can play your local music collection from a NAS, network attached storage.
You can have up to 32 speakers per setup, each with the ability to play the same music all in time seamlessly or all play different music. This is pretty impressive, as it allows you to create music zones, brilliant for parties or just enough different music in different rooms.
The app has a feature called True Play that plays a sound whilst you walk around the room allowing Sonos to ‘listen’ to the room and balance the sound to make it perfect for every room its in.
Sonos fits into three categories
Upgrade
This range contains the Sonos Connect allowing you to connect non-Sonos equipment to Sonos. This is brilliant if you already have good speakers and don’t want to replace them.
As well as the Sonos Connect Connect AMP, this is the same as the Connect but has a built in Amp.
For your music
This is the main range for Sonos and comprises of 3 players:
Play:1 – This is the smallest speaker in the range, two can be paired to make left and right.
Play:3 – Medium speaker with stereo sound, again two can be paired
Play:5 – Most powerful of the range, boasting deep base as well as a line in.
One great feature of all the Plays is the physical controls on the top allowing you to easily control volume or pause the music.
For your TV
Sonos Sub – As the name suggest a powerful sub woofer
Sonos Play Bar – Connects to the TV via optical cable to create cinema sound
Sonos Playbase – The latest addition to the range, same as the Play Bar but designed for the TV to sit on it, supporting up to 35kg TV’s.
Addons
Sonos Boost – This is if you have issues with your wifi or want to not rely on your wifi signal.
Sonos One – Voice Controlled Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa Built In
How does it work and What is the tech?
A few years ago you needed to use a Sonos Bridge to add connectivity however they improved their software with its 5.1 release meaning you no longer need a Hub or a wired connection to the router.
If you choose to use the optional Sonos Boost the system works via its own mesh network SonosNet.
How easy is it to set up?
Very easy!
1. Plug in
2. Download App
3. Follow App instructions – it took us less than 3 minutes!!
What’s the connectivity?
This is one of the lacking features of Sonos. It is a closed network and they do not allow any 3rd Party Apps to communicate with it. That said some have managed to for example Sonos Voice however as these are unofficial integrations they could stop working at any point.
There is also no Bluetooth option so if your friend comes round a simply must play a something from their phone the only solution is a 3.5M Jack into a play 5. For this very reason we always have a jack plugged into our Play 5. If you do this you can also play in other rooms, you’re not limited to playing on the Sonos Play 5 your connected too.
How much does it cost?
Sonos is not cheap:
Play: 1 – £199
Play: 3 – £299
Play: 5 – £499
Playbase – £699
Playbar – £699
Sub – £699
Connect – £349
Connect Amp – £499
Boost – £99
What’s it like living with it?
Epic! Being able to listen to your music in every room, or different music in every room is amazing. Where the system really comes into its own is parties or BBQ’s where anyone can add a song to the play list like a JukeBox with an endless repertoire of songs. Perfect for that ‘oh I want THAT song’ moments.
We have had two problems with the system after moving house, one device kept dropping off. However Sonos support were brilliant and spent 2 hours talking us through how to fix it. The system can generate detailed logs to send to support in real time allowing them to help you fix anything.
What are our final thoughts?
This is a great bit of kit, it is expensive and without doubt competitors do offer similar setups cheaper however the Sonos App, functionality and range overcome that. One brilliant feature is that you can easily add to it so no need to kit out the entire house at once!!