Sonos Play:1 - Compact Wireless Smart Speaker - Black (Discontinued By Manufacturer)

Sonos Play:1 - Compact Wireless Smart Speaker - Black (Discontinued by manufacturer)

• Small yet powerful speaker for streaming music and more. Get rich, room-filling sound with Play:1, and control it with the Sonos app
• The compact design fits just about any space. Put it on your kitchen countertop, or tuck it away on your office bookshelf
• Go from unboxing to listening in minutes with just 1 cord and step-by-step guidance in the Sonos app
• Pair 2 Play: 1's in the same room for stereo separation and more detailed sound.\"

Buy Now : Sonos Play:1 - Compact Wireless Smart Speaker - Black (Discontinued by manufacturer)

Brand : Sonos
Category : Electronics,Portable Audio & Video,Portable Speakers & Docks,Portable Bluetooth Speakers
Rating : 4.4
Review Count : 4834
SalesRank : 0

Sonos Play:1 - Compact Wireless Smart Speaker - Black (Discontinued by manufacturer)

• Full disclosure, I am a Sonos user and have fully adopted into their wireless speaker ecosystem. I currently have two Play 5s (Dining Room & Great Room), two Play 3s (Living Room, Guest Bedroom), and a Sonos Home Theater setup in my Media Room (one Sonos Playbar, one Sonos Sub, and two Play 1s).After hearing all of the pre-release hype about the Denon HEOS Wireless speaker system, I want to compare it to my Sonos system. So I picked two HEOS 3s up this weekend and tried them out.In my opinion, the Sonos Play system provides a slightly better overall experience and value for the money you spend. However, the Denon HEOS system has a distinct edge over Sonos - not requiring the $99 Denon HEOS Extend Wireless Range Extender just to use the system. News reports have leaked that Sonos is working on a solution to remove the requirement of their $40 SONOS BRIDGE Instant Set-up Solution for SONOS Wireless Network, but until that software/firmware release comes, I can definitely see why the HEOS system will be a serious contender and solid alternative for some households.MUSIC SOURCES:Both Sonos and Denon work with the following music service providers:- Pandora- Spotify- Rhapsody- Tune-InHowever, Sonos is able to work with the following additional music services:- Amazon Cloud Player,- Google Play Music- Beats Music- SiriusXM Internet Radio- Slacker- Stitcher SmartRadio- Songza- Rdio- Last.fm- iHeartRadio- SoundCloud- Audible- and many more lesser known digital music sourcesAs of the date of this review, Denon has only been able to gain partnerships with Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, andTune-In. That\'s nothing to sneeze at, however if you are a subscriber to any other music service, you may want to wait before giving the HEOS system a try. In my opinion, just having access to Google Play Music is a deal maker for me with Sonos. And the ability to control what plays through my Sonos speakers with the native Google Play Music app (versus having to be in the Sonos app) is a serious step in the right direction to satisfy my needs as a customer.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE LOOKS:Cosmetically, the look of the Sonos Play 1 is considerably more traditional versus the HEOS 3. The HEOS 3, measuring 10.7\" x 5.1\" x 6.5\" is taller, sleeker, and stylish than the 6.36\" x 4.69\" x 4.69\" cylindrical Sonos Play 1. However, in my opinion, the Sonos Play 1 has a more solid feel with its metal mesh front plate and and smooth lines with no major edges. It also has a denser feel than the HEOS 3, packing in just over 4lbs of audio hardware in such a small casing.Depending on your personal style and if you want your speakers to blend in to your room, the winner of the looks category is totally up to you. While I like the minimalist look of the Sonos, the clean edges and sleek design of the Denon is very eye catching. And if you like to have cool lines in design to draw attention to an exceptional piece of audio equipment, the Denon is a clear winner. So for being different by blending elegance with a touch a touch of flash, the winner for this category is Denon.** Point Goes to Denon **UNDER THE HOOD:Both speakers house two class D digital amplifiers pushing a tweeter and mid-woofer that generates a crisp, clean sound for both higher frequency vocals and mid level bass tones. There is no doubt that both Sonos and Denon installed great amplifiers and speakers into their systems as they both generate a solid range for all genres of music - equally.The HEOS 3 does have a ported designed enclosure, which the Sonos Play 1 does not. I found that the ported enclosure was a nice touch to add a little more depth to the bass, but for certain music tracks played through the device, it seemed the sound was muddier than the Play 1. Nothing horrible, but very noticeable depending on where you have the Play 3 placed in the room.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE APP:Sonos recently changes their app\'s user interface for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. This was another big development for Sonos as the old user interface for their controller looked like it was stuck in the early 2000s. And while it still leaves mush to be desired, the Denon HEOS controller app is not much better. It adds features like grouping rooms by dragging widgets together within the app and other functions that seem to be geared towards easier control. However, depending on the phone you are using, pinching and dragging are more cumbersome than tapping to select. Again, this is not a big issue, but something I found slightly clunky and annoying with my smaller iPhone screen.Again, this is a personal preference. I like the new Sonos controller app, but can definitely understand why Denon went a different direction. Denon seems more built for a tablet experience, in my opinion as some of the key actions call for pinching, dragging, and precision dropping.** Sonos & Denon Tie **THE SETUP:Both Denon and Sonos are extremely easy to setup and both customer service teams are OUTSTANDING. However, given the fact that Sonos currently requires more steps in their setup process (connect a Sonos Bridge), the point goes to Denon for sure.During the initial setup of your first Sonos speaker, you must either connect it directly to your network router or purchase a Sonos Bridge, connect the bridge to the router, then wirelessly connect the speaker to the SONOSNet network created by the Sonos Bridge. Did that sound confusing? Well, it may be for the first time user of novice electronics buyer. The really nice people at Sonos customer service had to hold my mother\'s hand in setting up her first Play 1 and it took almost an hour as she was not familiar or comfortable with making changes to the router the cable company had installed in her home - true story. On the other hand, once you have a bridge set up, adding additional Sonos components is extremely easy.Denon, on the other hand, has an extremely easy setup from the beginning. Plug the speaker in the wall, download the app, use the supplied cable to connect the speaker\'s AUX jack into your phone\'s headphone jack, follow the in-app directions to connect to your network, unplug the speaker from the phone, place the speaker in any room, blast music from the app. Simple!** Point Goes to Denon **EXPANDABILITY:Both the Sonos and Denon systems allow for multiple speakers to be added. Additional speaker may be played independently, paired as a group, or paired as a stereo pair. In my test, I only purchased two HEOS 3s. So, I cannot speak for pairing different size HEOS speakers together.The biggest advantage regarding expandability goes to Sonos. With a playbar and subwoofer in their arsenal of components, Sonos has a huge advantage for users who also want to bring the wireless music technology to home entertainment. The Sonos Playbar and Sonos Sub can run as a 2.1 home theater or 5.1 home theater system when paired with two Play 1s. And believe me the sound is amazing. So, with Denon only building an ecosystem for music based consumption, I think it leaves room for growth to catch up with Sonos\' expandability into home entertainment. Again, this is not a deal breaker for getting into the HEOS ecosystem, but should definitely be considered before going too far down the Denon rabbit hole.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE RESULTS:The Sonos Play 1 is a great, compact speaker that will definitely bring attention to your home\'s sound system. It has a bigger sound than you would expect from such a small speaker and having two play 1s paired together can fill most rooms with a crisp, clean sound.The Sonos Play system does require a Sonos Bridge (for now) and that is the biggest negative that I would give it in my book. But that is not a deal breaker as the Play ecosystem as a whole is much more powerful than the Denon HEOS ecosystem is currently.At a $199 price makes me give the Sonos Play 1, 5 out of 5 stars. I definitely don\'t think you will be disappointed with the performance or functionality of the HEOS system. I just believe that you can get more for your money with Sonos.
• or sonos for dummies.this is not about the sound quality. its good. or good enough. big eyeroll for the word audiophile. yes, I am sure that there are better sounding systems and if you could immediately switch between them in your home, you could hear a difference, since you only have one system, this one is more than adequate. (I think the content of the sound is missed with some people because they are analyzing some quality that is lesser in some area compared to another system.) so sound is good from such small, unobtrusive boxes.I am a nerd. home automation nerd. not a classic nerd because I want technology but not for technology\'s sake. I want ease of use, simplicity and reliability. and seamless integration. so over yet another purpose built boxes with yet more flashing led lights. that is what sonos is. built to stream music from the internet, your pc or tablet/phone. controlled from yet another single purpose \'app\'.upside for sonos. you can turn off the led light.the speakers connect wirelessly in one of two ways. your home Wi-Fi or through a proprietary sonos wireless network. the latter requires (you guessed it) another sonos box. sonos claims their \'boost\' box punches out a strong signal so I went into sonos with one from day one. huge strength for sonos is the synchronization and signal reliability. I have never had any signal dropouts or speakers that were not perfectly synchronized. the boost box connects to your home router. there is no other input source on the box. you download the app to your pcs, tablets and phones to control the system. the speakers only need a power connection.another strength of sonos is the ease of setup and reliable synchronization across \'apps\'. every app synchronizes so when you change something on one app, the other apps reflect that change immediately. the ease of setup is a strength but also a huge weakness. after adding a speaker, you can define two speakers so that each speaker plays only the left or right channel of stereo sound. you can then break that pairing and reconfigure the speakers. reconfigure however you want as long as you have a power source.the app allows you to fade from one song to another when playing from your music library and randomly shuffle the order that it plays the songs. as you would expect. or stream from an internet source like Pandora. with I heart radio, you can listen to most any radio station. streaming from internet sources obviously uses your internet connection, something that might impact those with limits on their connection (though its small). sonos does update their apps periodically and that update is NOT optional. you must update when they say or your system will not play. why is this a problem? because you are at the mercy of sonos\' contractual agreements with those sources. if the ability to stream from Pandora is the reason you buy this, hope that sonos does not have a spat with Pandora. the next update might yank it away from you. seems to have happened with audible books. on the upside, no continuing license fee for the apps. (the speakers themselves have updates to their software, which is good news because sonos does not seem to abandon their products each year and require you to buy new boxes.)there are other ways to have input sources. they involve either a play 5 speaker (and only a play 5, not the play 1 or play 3 speakers) or yet more sonos boxes or the sonos playbar.I am not buying any $500 play 5 speakers so its line-in connection is not relevant to me. (I\'d prefer two play one speakers for the separation.) And I don\'t have an input source where I want to place a speaker.the $350 connect box has line-in connections. coax, optical and rca. not sure if it supplies one connection or if all three can be used for different inputs. not paying $350 to connect a source.you can get input from your tv with the playbar. something I was interested in. its nice to have the play 1 in your bathroom play your tv audio while preparing for your day each morning. until reading that sonos only supports formats they are interested in. $700 and no dts support. nor is sonos interested in providing that support. their claim is that simplicity is they altar they worship and tvs don\'t supply these formats from their optical connections. (not true. visio has for years as do most sony televisions.) sonos is dedicated to providing only one way to connect their playbar, via optical connection. the \'simplicity\' marketing advantage must outweigh the loss of sales to people that opt for other soundbars because we expect support for all sources when we pay $700 for a soundbar.add another $700 for the subwoofer...I would have paid it IF the playbar worked for me.bummer that sonos keeps a tight reign on their retailers. a $200 play 1 will be $200 anywhere you buy it. unless its Christmas and they allow a discount everywhere.admirable that they offer a way for you to connect your expensive speakers to the sonos system. I do have some killer speakers but have not taken the plunge because for $500 I get 55 watts per channel.advantage that they are \'always on\' and ready to go. I am willing to pay the power bill for that cost.seamless and ease of use. alexa. amazon\'s echo. at the risk of sounding like a malcontent, I will point out why mine are not connected.it seems there are two ways to integrate with alexa. via \'skills\' or a closer integration that requires more work than a \'skills app\'. with the skills app approach, you direct alexa to \'tell\' devices what to do. a closer integration is MUCH more natural and minimizes any learning curve to have alexa do what you want. my lighting is closely integrated so \'alexa turn off the kitchen lights\' will turn off the kitchen lights. \'alexa set the temperature to 75 degrees\' does just that. with the sonos \'skill\', directions to alexa get formulaic. \'alexa tell sonos to...\' increases the learning curve to have alexa control sonos. really impacts the acceptance of the technology. ecobee went to the trouble of closely integrating their thermostats which is why I have them. so did my lighting devices. to be sure, there is more that could be done to improve alexa\'s control of your house but she is remarkably good at understanding speech and figuring out what you want her to do.I am not satisfied with single purpose apps on tablets and phones. opening an app for temperature control and a different app for music and another to mute the movie volume is not good enough. in my experience, people will accept telling alexa what they want done but would prefer yet another remote control to using apps.what would make me a sonos fanboi? expanded function. I do not want speakers for the tv and speakers for music and speakers for alexa and speakers for the security system and speakers for audible and speakers for computers and and and. while dreaming, throw in telephones. I was hoping sonos would be inching us closer but its not as flexible as I hoped it would be. sonos has their niche and happy in it. its just not something I do enough to pay the sonos price. sonos has also decided that their marketing message of \'simplicity\' makes them more money than added functions. probably true.I like simplicity to a point. depends on the cost in terms of loss of function. a little more complexity on the setup is a tradeoff I am willing to make if the payoff is reliability and ease of use.I have eight sonos play 1s. bought to provide the music at a Christmas party. Worked great. perfectly synchronized music in every room at a reasonable volume. I just don\'t listen to music enough to pay this price and have yet more boxes sitting around cluttering my home that only do one thing.this is not a bash of sonos. they sound good and for what they do, they do it well. you don\'t have to be a nerd to set them up or use them. no speaker wires, they feel substantial when you pick them up. but be aware that audible books support was abandoned so your favorite might be also. updates are mandatory. no support for dts with their playbar and no support planned.the interface to my world will be based on two platforms. alexa and a tablet/phone interface. your option. tell alexa what you want or pick up a tablet/phone. ONE tablet/phone app. i\'ll keep looking for speakers that can get me where I want to be. sonos is not it.

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