SONOS PLAY:1 Smart Wireless Speaker, Black

Product Information

Pair two PLAY:1 units for amazing stereo sound, or use two PLAY:1s as rear speakers with PLAYBAR and a Sonos SUB™ to create 5.1 home theater sound for your TV. All in all, the Play:1 is a seriously tempting proposition, particularly since it works seamlessly with the rest of Sonos’ portfolio as well, allowing users to expand their sound systems to improve sound quality or combine them with the Sonos Playbar for a full surround-sound system. This gives it plenty of flexibility, and its gorgeous looks makes it stand out in your living room. Although it assuages those that hate voice control, this microphone-less smart speaker can actually receive music from an iPhone that itself is being controlled via Siri. It’s really about avoiding replication. Able to be stereo-paired with a One and also used as home cinema rears if you’ve got a Sonos Playbar, Playbase or Beam, the One SL avoids you having to pay for features you just don’t need.

Sonos Play:1 - Expert Reviews

Learn about why your Play:1s may be outputting surround audio at a low volume when you’re watching TV. The quality of the microphones makes the One less likely to mishear your requests and instructions – we find it makes fewer mistakes than our third-generation Echo Dot. Correctly hearing the request is only half the battle, though, and Alexa is still capable of misunderstanding.Others take a different approach. For example, the Riva Arena sounds a lot more detailed and refined than the Sonos Play:1 at low volumes. It has a more hifi-like timbre, and greater finesse.

Sonos OS and Controller App | Sonos S2: The Sonos OS and Controller App | Sonos

The Sonos One and Sonos One SL follow closely in Play:1's footsteps, offering a very similar design but with a few refinements. They too have rounded edges, tapered bottoms and grills surrounding them, but the top panels are flat with a capacitive control pad rather than indented with physical buttons. Position them roughly eight to 10 feet apart from each other and yourself between eight and 12 feet away from both devices The additions of SoundCloud and Google Play Music have perhaps been the biggest wins, while the support for multiple Spotify accounts is another welcome addition. There are still limitations - it doesn't officially support iTunes Radio or AirPlay streaming - but the list of supported services is much more comprehensive than it was in 2013.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. We’d recommend going to the effort of TruePlay tuning the One with a compatible iPhone or iPad if you have one, as it opens the sound up. Unfortunately for Google users, TruePlay via Android devices isn't supported for the One – only for the Era 100 and Era 300 speakers. The Play:3 and Play:5 can be positioned horizontally and vertically so you’ll want to make sure they’re in the same orientation if you plan on pairing them.