Back in late 2009, Sonos launched their 1st Hi-Fi speaker w/ the ZonePlayer S5 speaker later dubbed the Play:5. It was the speaker that would begin to catapult their presence in the market. Several speakers/products later, Sonos would become more of a household name in the minds of audiophiles & consumers alike.
Late last year, Sonos refreshed their original speaker w/ a new look and internals for better sound quality. After spending a few weeks w/ it and placing it several places in my home, time to talk about it. Is it a worthy revamp or not?
Setup/Software
As you no longer require the Bridge accessory at all anymore, there are now much less steps to get started. So only a few short steps are required via the Sonos app and just like that, you're connected and ready to start playing. Just connect to your Wi-Fi network, hit the button on the back to Link it, and you're good to go.
If Sonos had an Achilles heel, it would be their software. Their UI has improved but the overall navigation to go through steps can be a bit tedious. You still have to play everything through the Sonos app and still takes one step too many to access an album or a playlist. Not a huge flaw but not my favorite part of the experience.
Since I don't have any working iOS devices at the moment, I wasn't able to test out the new Sonos Trueplay software. It is supposed to tune your speaker by utilizing the mic on your iOS device alongside the app. Perhaps another time, we can provide some insight to that.
Design
Believe it or not, the overall look matches that of the original Play:5 but more refined. No more physical buttons as we now have capacitive buttons to navigate around on the actual speaker. Rubber feet to prevent scratching and such on whatever surface you place it on. It still has its rectangular shape but instead of the 5 speaker layout inside, now its a 6-speaker one. You now have 3 tweeters (1 in the middle & 2 on the sides) and 3 dedicated mid-woofers - all 6 equipped w/ their own amplifier. The new-and-improved Play:5 just has an overall clean look to it. Now onto the actual audio quality.
Sound
Like any other Sonos speaker, the sound quality is amazing on these. No real surprise here in case you were thinking I was gonna say something otherwise. But if you're coming from a Play:1 or a Play:3, it is definitely a bigger sound for bigger space. Other than having more drivers than its smaller brethren, you really feel the bass on this thing. Not to the point of it rattling everything in your home but feel the bass pump throughout the air. Not sure if that makes sense but its the best way to describe it.
For the 1st week, I was rocking out to only music like Yeezy's The Life Of Pablo, Kendrick's Untitled Unmastered, and a few created playlists. I got nothing but positive adjectives to describe my time w/ it. During my 3rd week, I took advantage of the Line-In jack by plugging in a 3.5mm audio cable from my TV to it and used it as a sound bar. While playing catch up on The Walking Dead on Netflix and other weekly shows, the sound quality is truly pristine w/ movie theater-like bass for explosions, gunfire, and such. Definitely another reason to add why this Play:5 is that damn good.
The new Play:5: Part speaker, part soundbar - all amazing.
TG 2 Cents
Sonos definitely made sure that the revamp was worth it. While I only had one to test out but if you grab 2 of these bad boys and add a Playbar or Sub into the mix, you can get that official 5.1 home theater surround sound experience. There is a noticeable difference when it comes to this and the Play:1s but w/ Sonos (and every other company), you want that premium sound, you're gonna have to fork over more $$$ for it. Trust me it will be totally worth it.
The revamped Play: 5 will cost you $499 and w/ its new line-in jack, it makes it worth it as you can plug damn-near any source into it (audio/video) to pump out that big sound. With this latest addition, its hard to not want this in your abode. Sonos truly has the best wireless home audio solution and this Play:5 just sealed the deal.
