SONOS PLAY:1 Smart Wireless Speaker, Black

Product Information

Sonos is behind some of the best multi-room speakers on the market, but that doesn’t mean you won’t encounter any problems using them. Here’s a guide to some of the most common Sonos problems and how to fix them. How do I set my Sonos up with a new router? It looks and feels different to the original, but fits in perfectly with the company’s other more recent additions, such as the Sonos One and Sonos Beam.

Still, if you’re a dedicated Sonos fan looking for a lounge speaker that you can plonk your telly on, there’s loads to like about the Playbase. Just don’t expect perfection if you buy one. Head into the drop down menu at the top of the screen labelled ‘Room Settings for’ and choose the speakers you’d like to pair The rear of the Sonos Five reveals its power cable, Ethernet and 3.5mm ports –so your turntable is catered for too. (Image credit: TechRadar) Sonos Five review: Features Although it's about the size of a large shoe-box (and heavier than it looks, at 6.36kg) the Sonos Five isn't quite a cuboid since its grille portion is slightly bigger than its rear end and the baffle is slightly bowed out and angled upwards too, to aid with sound dispersal.There’s just one traditional button on the whole thing - a round, recessed little number on the left-hand side you use for linking the Playbase to your network and any other Sonos speakers you might already have. The Sonos Play:1 is a great little speaker. We have no hesitation in recommending the Play:1 if you find the Play:5 too pricey. It works just like any other Sonos Play-series speaker, and offers excellent sound for both the size and price.

Be sure to move around as much of the room as possible during the tuning process to cover the whole space. You’ll need to grant Sonos permission to use the microphone on your device for Trueplay to work so make sure you’ve agreed to that in your settings. When you connect a Sonos Boost to your router, all of the other devices in your house will continue to connect to your router as usual except for your Sonos products which will be redirected to the Boost on a dedicated wireless network. If you’ve splashed out for more than one speaker, your Boost will actually daisy chain the wireless signal from one device to the next. This can significantly improve the signal quality – especially in larger homes. Trueplay is rather like the mic-based setup that you’d use to automatically fine-tune a home cinema amplifier, but here it uses the iPhone’s own microphone (Android phones aren’t supported because there’s apparently too much variance in the microphones) and tunes the sound not just for your TV-watching position but also for the room as a whole. Having previously focused on devices designed to connect electronics and speakers made by other companies, the Play:5 was the company’s first all-in-one unit. All told, this is a punchy, dynamic and fairly detailed performance, particularly when compared to the Playbar. But that isn’t to say it’s perfect.

Podcast fans may find their app of choice isn’t supported. Sonos’s solution is TuneIn Radio, the most popular internet radio app and also a good way to listen to podcasts. It comes ‘preinstalled’ in the Sonos app.

Sonos still has many advantages over Audio Pro, from the breadth of its range to the flawless app and thorough feature set (hi-res support notwithstanding). Head into the dropdown menu at the top of the screen labelled ‘Room Settings for’ and choose the speakers you’d like to pairThe Sonos Beam Gen 2 is simply the best Dolby Atmos soundbar at this price point. The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor (below) but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost. The decision by Sonos to use processing power and forward-facing drivers to recreate Dolby Atmos has paid off with a more capable and effective handling of the format than many more expensive soundbars with upward-firing drivers. For sound quality, the Sonos Five actually isn't just good value, it's absolutely great value. But it's a case of different strokes for different folks; if Bluetooth streaming is important to you and you own an Android phone, you should look elsewhere. See those little feet –on the side?! It can be positioned upright too, you see, to create a stereo pair comprising two Fives or as part of a home theater system with a Sonos Arc, say. (Image credit: TechRadar) Sonos Five review: Sound quality

Under the hood, the speaker array remains exactly the same as its Play:5 predecessor –and Sonos actually makes no bones about this. You're getting the same six custom-designed drivers driven by six class D amplifiers for a combined power output of 120W: three high excursion 10cm mid-woofers across the bottom of the unit and three tweeters above them, two of which are angled outwards. On its own the Sonos Play:1 is an excellent small speaker, offering pretty much class-leading sound quality for a wireless speaker of this price and size. The ability to go loud (and we mean loud) helps, but there’s so much space to the presentation that even at lower volumes this sounds like a much bigger speaker than it is. Design has never been taken lightly at Sonos, and every inch of the Play:5 is there for a reason. It can be orientated in three ways – horizontally or vertically either way up. This means the design has to work across all orientations and, as a result, it leans more towards the more simplistic styling of the Sonos Play:3. However, if you’re going to listen at low volumes you might also want to consider the more refined, slightly more flexible Riva Arena. VerdictSonos was created upon the belief you should never have to choose between quality sound and an easy way to access all your music at home," said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. "The PLAY:1 makes getting started with Sonos even more accessible to music lovers than ever before." The app will tell you either to hold the Play/Pause and Volume Up buttons at the same time or to hold the dedicated Join button