Sonos is another brand that we love for quality in sound. Just like companies such as Bose and B&W, Sonos is well known for their successful lines of speakers that not only sound good, but also feel and look good, and are very durable.
The Sonos Play:1 wireless speaker is yet another great product by Sonos that really nails the nail on the head. The sound it outputs is very nice, very full/rich and experiences no troubles with wireless reception.
The speaker can be controlled via app to stream music from your iTunes library, online music services as well as internet radio. It can be controlled via Android and iOS devices as well as your PC or Mac. They do indeed also make applications for Windows mobile devices as well, that are created via 3rd party sources. This gives you a lot of options in controlling your music.
You can simply use one speaker, or you can add a speaker to every room in the house and control them all so that you have a network of music running all over. This gives you the option of playing the same music (in sync) to every room of your house (or, you can select different music and mix it up if there is multiple listeners).
You no longer have to have an iPod system installed running through your walls to in-ceiling speakers all over. This saves you a ton of money and a ton of stress.
The Sonos Play:1 can connect to your network directly (wired to a router), or you can connect wireless via a Sonos Bridge which allows you to control multiple speakers situations and advanced setups. If using a bridge, they could even be combined to create a surround sound system for your living room. They can also connect to each other as well to share information and even pair to provide a stereo experience. Beyond that, you only have to plug each speaker into power, allowing you to display them with minimal cord mess and even hide them behind plants and other surroundings.
They can connect amongst themselves or can be combined with other Sonos devices such as the Play:3, Play:5 or Playbar and Sub to really create a custom atmosphere.
The speaker is comprised of 2 custom tuned drivers, including a 3.5″ mid-woofer and tweeter, powered by 2 dedicated digital amplifiers. The speaker delivers rich sound and offers a high enough volume to fill any small to mid size room, while being able to still be noticeable in a larger environment as well.
The Sonos Play:1 is also resistant to humidity allowing you to locate it in a bathroom to provide a quite enjoyable experience while taking a long-hot shower or bath. Better yet, step up by placing one in a spa room to really relax.
You have a wide selection of online music services that can stream to the Sonos speaker such as Rhapsody, tunein, Amazon Cloud Player, SiriusXM, Pandora, Songza and Spotify. Obviously in order to stream music from online services and radio, you will have to have a broadband internet connection.
The Sonos speakers can also be connected/included with a z-wave home automation network to really take your speakers to a whole new level.
The only other competing speaker that we could agree on that puts up a good fight is the Logitech UE Smart Radio. The Logitech is even more versatile when it comes to streaming options since after you set it up, you can control everything directly from the radio which is very useful. You don’t have to use an app (although you could) since the radio has a built-in display and navigational buttons. It is also cheaper. The downside is that, although you get great sound, it doesn’t compare to the Sonos products. It’s the equivalence of comparing a nice Toyota Camry to a high-end Lexus (it looks nice…but it just doesn’t feel the same).
Inside the box you will find the speaker, power cord, ethernet cable (if your connecting directly to your router), warranty information and a quickstart guide.
Our Conclusion
We definitely like the Play:1 and are happy with it’s sound, design and feature list. It comes with a lot of versatility and it really lives up to its name. When setting up a network of audio throughout a home, it really can save you money and hassle when comparing it to a hard-wired system so that earns a lot of points as well. We decided to give the Play:1 an 8 out of 10, which is a great score. Obviously the Play:3 and 5 are going to be louder, richer speakers in the mix, but we haven’t been able to sit down with those models yet to be able to compare and contrast.
We look forward to testing other Sonos products in the future.
Additional Images:
Are you a manufacturer or vendor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
1 Comment
SONOS PLAY:3 Wireless == AWESOME