- 5 integrated speakers powered by 5 digital amps for room-filling sound
- Unlimited music, wirelessly play iTunes, free Internet radio, Pandora, Napster and more
- Wireless control with free apps for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
- Simple setup and wireless expandability to play different songs in different rooms
- Requires high-speed Internet connection and wireless router
The FLEXIBILITY and EASE OF USE are equally impressive. Each zone can play any independent track or other music choice, or be instantly grouped (synchronized) with any number of other zones. Even when zones are synchronized, it's a snap to control (a) the volume of any individual zone within the group or (b) the volume of the entire group while automatically maintaining the relative levels you've previously set. The ability to simultaneously play different tracks in different rooms from a single iTunes library, attached to a single computer, is an impressive technological feat that can not be achieved only with standard AirPlay speakers. (You can also play music from multiple libraries from one or more computers). Any or all of those zones can be beautifully controlled by a single iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android, PC, Mac or by any number of such controllers.
[ UPDATE : A note about PROTECTED ITUNES TRACKS on sonos: iTunes tracks bought after 2008 are not protected, and WILL work on sonos and other devices. If you have a lot of earlier, protected, iTunes tracks, they can ALL be converted for a one time total fee of $25: Just subscribe to iTunes Match ($25/yr) and apple will upgrade your tracks to unprotected. Apple allows you to keep your upgraded tacks if you later cancel iTunes Match, but the $25 will not be refunded. IMO, that $25 is a nice price for converting a large library to "play anywhere", and independently, you might decide to keep iTunes Match as I have. ]
I also have an Apple AIRPORT EXPRESS linked to a sonos line-in, so that my friends can stream ANY iTunes or APP music to my sonos system using Apple AIRPLAY from their iPhone. That works well, but sometimes a streaming iPhone will loose its WiFi connection as you move about the house. (Of course, iPhone/Airplay WiFi streaming glitches are not sonos related problems. This is more of an illustration of how a WiFi streaming system is likely to work.) Nonetheless, it's great to have Airplay available for friends. Some of this can now be accomplished without an Airport Express, since newer versions of the iPhone/iPad/iPod SONOS APP can stream the iDevice's ITUNES tracks (but not other app music) directly to your sonos system over wifi.
My Sonos system has been absolutely flawless, with a CONSISTENT, INTUITIVE INTERFACE, and my iPhone, with its Sonos controller app, is always right there in my pocket, ready to go.
Setup for all of the Sonos zones has been a snap, and the system has been a total joy from day one.
SONOS Play:5
Sounds every bit as good as, or better than my Bose Sound Dock. Looks great. Sets up in seconds, and moves easily between rooms when needed. It can really be cranked up in VOLUME WITHOUT DISTORTION. Perfect.
One requirement to be aware of is that you'll either need to buy a $50 ZoneBridge OR connect this Play:5, OR any other ZonePlayer (ie, a Play:3, Play:5, Sonos-Connect, or Sonos-Connect:Amp) anywhere in your home, directly to your router or LAN with the included ethernet cable. Only one sonos device needs to be hardwired to the router or LAN.
ADVANTAGES in BUYING A SINGLE PLAY:5 (or Play:3) rather than a Bose SoundDock or other docking speaker, if you already have an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Android:
1) CONTROL FROM YOUR SEAT: It's an absolute pleasure to have complete control over what you're listening to, right where you are, keeping the iPod or iphone in your hand or pocket. You don't have to stand up to choose any specific track, playlist, artist or radio station, or to see what's playing. And because your iphone is only the controller (you're streaming from your desktop computer hard disk or from the internet, rather than from your iPhone, -with the airplay exception as noted above) you're not using up valuable iphone battery life or suffering mediocre sound quality, as you might be otherwise. Further, your iPhone is still with you for answering phone calls or using other iphone apps, with no disruption to the music system.
2) INTERNET RADIO: Sonos probably has the worlds best remote control user interface for internet radio. Listen to Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius, last.fm, Spotify, ALL of your local radio stations (local radio is quick to find, given it's independent menu item. A very nice touch.), or about 100 thousand other internet radio stations, organized by location (country, state, city), or searchable by genre, sub-genre, station name, station number, or radio SHOW name.
3) UPGRADABILITY: Add another zone (or multiple additional zones) at any time in the future and you're set with a multizone system. Also, the system will continue to be just as valuable if you change your phone from an iPhone to an Android or vice versa, which would not be the case with a phone docking speaker or an airplay system.
(I should point out that there are, of course, some benefits in going with a single Docking Speaker instead:
1) Cost Savings:
2) Can be used just as easily away from the home.)
Final Verdict: I really do love my Play:5 and my entire Sonos system.
Buy SONOS PLAY:5 All-in-One Wireless Music Player (S5, Black) Now
Just got the S5 about an hour ago. Setup couldn't be easier. Step 1 connect the power cord to an power outlet. Step 2 hit the Mute and + button to get the S5 added as a new zone, Step 3 hmmm....I don't think there is one. Just hit play and enjoy pure bliss.This is my 4th Zone player (see my other gushing review of the Sonos system on the Sonos bundle page), and anytime my wife asks, "how many of these white boxes you really need?", the answer is always "one more".
Portability is the key feature of S5. Moving it from Kitchen to backdeck is just a matter of unplugging the power cord and replugging at the new location. It's all in one box. And the sound quality is not bad either. With all 4 zone players on party mode some connected to very expensive Klipsch towers I have ran around to compare the sound quality at various locations. The verdict this little guy stacks up nicely against the big boys.
And the iPhone controller is not too shabby either. Don't see the need to buy the new touch controller (CR200).
Awesome product. Pure genius. Just get it.
Read Best Reviews of SONOS PLAY:5 All-in-One Wireless Music Player (S5, Black) Here
I just purchased the s5 with a zone bridge and the CR200. The combination is absolutely amazing. Installation was easy and operation is intuitive. There is plenty out there on how these things work, so I won't go into details on that. But I do have two observations to share:1) In addition to the s5, I also picked up a NAS drive so that I could stream my 5000+ track mp3 library. After all, streaming my collection with a touch screen remote was one of the main reason I looked at Sonos in the first place. But, after setting Sonos up I decided to give Napster a try. The Napster/Sonos combination gives you access to 8 million tracks on demand. For example, Napster has over 60 Bob Dylan albums, which is pretty much his whole discography. If you want to sample the latest (obscure) music, Napster also has most of the albums Pitchfork reviewed this week--pretty neat.
So, despite my deep investment in my personal mp3 collection, it only took me a couple of minutes to realize that it was completely obsolete. Deciding between $5/month for a 8 million track library vs. a $200 NAS for my 5000 track library was a no-brainier. The NAS got packed up and sent back; my mp3s are now strictly for iPod use.
2) As an NPR fan, the other great feature I didn't realize Sonos included is the ability to search and play archived NPR shows. From the Splendid Table to Fresh Air, it is all there on demand--awesome.
_____________
Two-year update: This thing is still going strong. We use it everyday to catch up on NPR or listen to the latest releases via Napster. For instance, just yesterday, I read a review of the new Sigur Ros album and 10 seconds after finishing the review, I had the album streaming through my S5 with a few touches of the controller. I also find it extremely useful to be able to listen to non-local radio stations. If we sleep in and want to catch Morning Edition, or get home late and want to catch Marketplace, we just tune into Wyoming Public Radio (we are in Atlanta) and presto. (While the NPR shows are archived, they are usually not accessible until one day after broadcast).
Another note is that I have downloaded the Android App, which works very well. The only slight frustration is that it takes my phone a few minutes to ramp up the WiFi connection. Because of this, I still almost exclusively use the CR200 or my laptop to control the music. I'd say the CR200 is worth the expense in order to have a dedicated controller that always works without delay.
Want SONOS PLAY:5 All-in-One Wireless Music Player (S5, Black) Discount?
After attending a demo on the Sonos system at my local A/V shop I decided to order a setup for myself. One thing repeatedly stressed by the Sonos rep was their stellar customer support and universal customer satisfaction. Feeling comfortable with this reputation I ordered the bridge, the Sonos 3 and the Sonos 5.Fit and finish
I received all the units promptly with no issues, as I've grown to love with Amazon. The products were well protected and packaged. The Sonos 5 was quite a large box between the size of the unit and the large amount of styrofoam. The closest I can compare to the fit, finish, and packaging is that everything was very Apple like. Very clean lines, no surprises. Things were looking good.
Initial setup
After getting everything hooked up, I installed the software on my Mac mini and proceeded to ID my individual Sonos units on my network. I have a quirk in my setup in that my music serving Mac is located in my home office, which is about 300 feet away and up a flight of stairs from my house. Not really a big deal except that as you load each Sonos unit, you first put the software into a "searching for Sonos players" state so it's scanning the network for new units. You then press two buttons on the player itself to activate it's "find me" function. Oh, and you have two minutes to find a new unit or it times out. So three trips back and forth, 300 feet each direction, flight of stairs each direction, and hurry, you have two minutes. This would have been solved by having someone on the phone pressing the buttons for me, or taking the units to my home office, activating them, then taking them back to the house. However I wanted this to be as clean of an install as possible so I did it the old fashioned way. I didn't have someone to press the buttons for me at the time. Meh, I needed the exercise anyway but at least now you know what to expect. Btw, everything worked well, but not perfectly the first time. I'd say I made 5-6 trips to get three working.
After getting the players themselves loaded, it was time to load the music. Be warned, you have to have the players loaded before you import your music. I spent some time chasing my tail on this one. Logically it makes sense, but my real concern was importing my music for reasons that will become obvious. I tried that first and the option was basically greyed out with no real explanation for why. Actually reading the instructions would probably have saved me some time but in my case I figured this out on my own.
So it's time to load the music. I have a really large music library, somewhere around 64,000 tracks. This is why I was concerned about loading music onto Sonos because I was concerned it would take hours, which imports often do. I also wanted to see if the software would blow up before I did all the hardware installs. Eventually I was able to import my library into the Sonos library. A quick 300 feet jog and I confirmed that I was able to play music from my library. Sweet! So onto playlists, which Sonos imports from iTunes. When I pulled up playlists all that was available was "imported playlists" which were all labeled "playlist.m3u" Odd. I tried playing one of the playlists to see if I could tell which one mine is. Errors. I tried reimporting. Nope.
Now understand, when your library in measured in terabytes, you need iTunes and the genius playlist. Sitting down and hand building playlists would be a nightmare. Pick one song, hit genius, and 100 great songs are magically built into a playlist in one second. Being able to pull that together from the tens of thousands of songs is awesome. Anything I use has to support playlists to work.
So, online chat for tech support. Sonos has fantastic tech support, remember? "You are in line for a tech, your wait time is projected to be 15 minutes." Ok, that works. 45 minutes later I finally get someone. The time estimate doesn't work. Don't plan on it. But I have someone finally who says to submit diagnostics data to Sonos through the software so here we go.... and my computer locks up. Probably not their fault, can't be helped although it was their software that was active when it locked. Who knows. Reboot, reload iTunes, sign into Sonos, wait in line again. Gonna be 15 minutes, 60 minutes later I'm #1 in line and.... 6pm. Tech support is closed. No sorry, enter your case here, request a call back, just bang, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. Ok, that one is their fault. Give up, try again later in the week. Go through the 15 minute expected wait, 60 minutes later I get a live person on chat. And the answer is, submit your diagnostics. Aha, I already have. A couple of rounds of convincing said person that I actually already did submit the data and it hasn't changed in two days and he finally looks for the diagnostics. His solution? Your library is too large, delete some of your music. Now it took 30 minutes of back and forth trying to get an alternate answer but the end result is, there is a physical limit to the amount of index data the Sonos units can hold, and somewhere around 62,000-65,000 items and it just stops loading. Whatever hasn't loaded yet, doesn't exist. Sorry. So I asked, any way to load in a different order so playlists are first? No. Any way to skip podcasts? I don't need podcasts loaded. No. Anything I can do besides unburn the boxes these things came in and ship them back. Um, not really. Disappointing. Especially since this product is pitched to audiophiles who tend to have crazy libraries of music.
User interface
One of the really nice features of Sonos is the ability to operate any or all of the units from an iPhone, iPad, etc. I have both and the software works nicely. It's really cool to be twenty feet from the unit and skip a track, change the volume, etc. It especially is nice to play with, impress your friends, scare the kids, that kind of stuff. The user interface is well done. I have an issue that is probably related to my large library again but now I notice that when I try to scan artists to build a playlist manually, routinely the tracks cannot be found. I know they are there, Sonos simply cannot see them when I look. So basically you look by artist, that leads to all your artist names. Pick ABC band. A sub-menu opens showing ABC band's albums. Pick an album and you dive down to the tracks. Normal, except the tracks aren't there even though I know they are.
One thing that did throw me for a loop is shuffle. Locating it requires you to press on an area of the screen which is displaying track data, which brings up a sub-menu where you can select shuffle. It's not entirely intuitive since it's basically a hidden sub-menu. To make things even weirder, the iPad version isn't exactly like the iPhone version so I end up hunting around a bit depending on which device I am using. Not a deal breaker but it sure was annoying in the beginning.
Another issue I didn't foresee, and this would be true of any application that uses an iPhone or whatever for control. Your controls are almost exclusively on the handheld device. On the Sonos you have volume up, volume down, and mute button. That's it. So say you are playing music and a song comes up that you want to fast forward through to the next track. You pull your phone from your pocket, press the button to bring it to life, swipe to assure the phone that yes you did mean it. Then you scroll to the page that has your Sonos software (you may have done email, a phone call, etc since you originally hit play), you hit Sonos. Sonos must then connect to your network and locate a Sonos player because it lost connection when the phone went to sleep. Not lost your network, just the Sonos player. Give that a few seconds, maybe 5-10. Then you have control. Hit skip and it's magically instant. I mean it's so fast it's magic that it's going wirelessly and still having that kind of response. The problem is, hitting one fast forward button takes about 6 key strokes and about 20 seconds. Kind of annoying if your wife wants to tell you something every five minutes so you have to keep hitting pause, say yes dear, unpause, go back to what you're doing, then wash, rinse, repeat. Or if at the end of the song your kids scream for you to play it again because it's their favorite. After three minutes my phones asleep so it's start over from scratch. It's especially annoying if you are standing beside the Sonos player but have to do all this to hit pause, fast forward, rewind, etc. The units are sexy, but a few more buttons wouldn't have really hurt.
Sound quality
These units, especially the Sonos 5 but the Sonos 3 even sound really good. I wouldn't want them as my home theater but if you want music in your rooms quick and easy, these things are the deal. If you have your music all on MP3, a device like this is awesome. BBQ tonight? Unplug one and plug it in on the deck. Instant party music. If you are an A/V snob, these things are what they are. If you normally shop at Best Buy, these sound awesome. Equal to a Bose, probably better. I haven't listen to a Bose in quite a while. Way better sound than a Logitech Squeezebox, no comparison.
Recommendation
If you don't have a stupidly large library like me, then I'd say give Sonos a try. Most of my issues are self inflicted. I am quite unhappy that the limitation on total tracks wasn't apparent or published prior to my purchase. To my knowledge it's still an unpublished limitation, which is why I took the time to write this review. If you do have a huge library, the Logitech Squeezebox works just fine.
To me, no other system comes close to what my needs are. I am a tech guy so understanding the system came easy to me. Here are some basic highlights of Sonos:
*** Is Sonos a system for you? ***
If you are spending 500 bucks on a piece of technology, you better read every aspect of it. It's not a Louis Vuitton handbag where brand name matters. It's a price you are paying for a set of features it has to sell. If you want a system that works off your iTunes or your iPad/iPhone music collection then this is not for you. If you want a stand-alone system sitting in your kitchen/living room, then it's definitely not for you. Just one single piece of Sonos is not a "Complete Music System" and it's not "Complete Wireless System", as it turns out, is the biggest complain of the consumers.
*** What Sonos has to offer ***
If you want a Music System for more than one room in your house and you want all these players to use a single music server (where you store your music Windows XP/Windows 7/Mac/NAS) and you also want to control all these players with a single remote Go for Sonos blindfolded.
What exactly did I mean by that? Let's go back to fundamentals.
All (or most) of us like having a music server. A music server is a computer/NAS on your local area network. This is our machine where we buy/save/arrange our songs. It is probably on this machine that we install our iTunes and sync our iPhone/iPad using this iTunes. So, stop assuming that iPhone/iPad is your one-stop music station. It's actually your main computer that we'll call your music server.
Now In comes Sonos...
And let me bust the first myth about "Complete Wireless System". It's technically not. Your first Sonos component (any one of the player) HAS TO BE hard-wired to your local area network. This helps Sonos access your music library from the hardware perspective. Could Sonos have avoided this and connect to the network wirelessly? Maybe, but understand that Sonos's own networking is way powerful and using wireless TCPIP may have caused it to perform poorer. One button click on your Sonos remote triggers activity on multiple systems. Hard-wiring this machine Sonos was therefore a compulsion on its part. Yes I agree an inconvenience.
Let's complete the music system...
Once you have hard-wired this one player to your network, you needs to install Sonos Desktop Controller (a piece of Software) on your music server. This is a software parallel to iTunes and not an iTunes byproduct. Sonos has no obligation to pull iTunes playlist into Sonos Desktop Controller. It's an additional feature that Sonos does provide. So, if you are addicted to iTunes and want everything to work around iTunes, don't invest in Sonos. Now, let's say we are over iTunes. Sonos Desktop Controller is a Music Manager that manages your music (like iTunes). It's not state-of-the-art software. Its job is to deliver the songs from your hard drive to your player and it does that brilliantly well. Don't get me wrong it does have a nice interface. It neatly allows you to manage your music. Just don't look for "ITunes Genius" on it. Next step is to sync your Sonos Desktop Controller with the Sonos player (which is relatively simple to do). If you restart your Music Server manually, the Sonos Desktop Controller automatically starts in the background. You don't have to launch it manually. Be advised that this Music Server needs to be up all the time (which is almost always up anyway, how many times do we shut down our machine?). And the Last component is a Sonos remote (which is a waste of money). Sonos provides "Sonos Remote" for iOS and Android. Use this app instead much neater, convenient and free.
*** What the heck is a bridge then? ***
Most of us will not keep our Sonos player close our computer. Sonos Player would most likely be in our bedroom/living room/kitchen. Our router is not likely available there (it's probably close our Music Server). Now because Sonos mandates us to hard-wire our Player to the network, we need to buy an additional product this is where I bust the second myth of "Complete Music System". If your router is in your basement or your study (most likely close to your Music Server) and you want keep your Sonos Player in your kitchen your need Sonos Bridge to hard-wire to your router (in basement or your study) and then Sonos Bridge communicates with Sonos Player wirelessly using its own networking protocol.
NOTE: I didn't need to buy a Sonos bridge as I have Ethernet cables running to my bedroom from my router. I connected my first Sonos Player to my bedroom's Ethernet port. I thus saved money on Sonos Bridge. I hard-wired my house with Ethernet cables because I wasn't happy with my PS3 connecting to my Media Server (storing my pictures/songs/videos) wirelessly. There was a lag (which is why I sort of defend Sonos's decision to enforce us to hard-wire atleast one device to the router). This Media Server of mine is incidentally the same machine that also has Sonos Desktop Controller.
That completes my system. Now, if that is all you want stop reading further and don't invest in Sonos. If you are going to read further, you'll be very interested in investing on this product. Cos the beauty begins now...
My first investment was ZonePlayer 90. I put this in my bedroom, hard-wired to Ethernet and sent the output to by Bose 321 (which also houses my cable TV's audio output). I then installed Sonos Desktop Controller on my Media Server/Music Server and sync'ed it with ZonePlayer 90. Finally, I installed "Sonos Remote" app on my iPhone and wallah state-of-the-art music system in my bedroom.
With ZP90, you do need a nice amplifier and therefore Bose 321 came in handy.
My next target was kitchen. I got ZonePlayerS5 (now sold as Play5) for my kitchen. Sync'ed it with Sonos Desktop Controller with my Music Server and it makes my kitchen much more fun. How did that happen so easily? My ZonePlayer90 also acts as a Bridge for ZonePlayerS5 (and will continue to do so for every new addition in my house). This is Sonos's strongest point its ability to extend music across your entire house.
My next target was my living room. This is a big room and I knew for certain a Play5 or a Play3 won't be enough. I did not want a new amplifier (so a Connect/ ZonePlayerS5 was ruled out). Connect:Amp (formally known as ZonePlayer120) required me to buy two additional speakers. I somehow couldn't buy that idea. What did I do? And this is my favorite part:
I bought 2 Play3, placed it in two different locations in my living room and make it work like one system. 2 Sonos are now playing a stereophonic sound in my living room.
How does my remote look now? I have "Sonos Remote" app on my iPhone, my wife's iPhone and my iPad. They all work on sync. In other words if my iPhone initiated a song on Sonos, my wife's iPhone can see that I am playing that song. It additionally lists our all the Players (in my living room/bedroom/kitchen) separately. Therefore, using the same iPhone app/Sonos Remote, I can play 3 music systems with 3 different songs and the app on my wife's iPhone and my iPad is well aware what I am doing with my iPhone. A very smart, nice interface too. In addition to that, the remote/app on the iPhone can scan thru multiple FM music stations across the globe (not just US). I am an Indian I can access tons of Indian FM music channels on my Sonos iPhone Remote.
The closest thing that comes to this is Logitech but using my iPhone as a remote for Sonos sealed the deal for me. This is one thing that is not available on Logitech. Without a doubt, quality of sound is better in Sonos. If anything, Logitech is half the price. All in all, I am close to 1000 bucks on my investments. I am a (borderline) music freak. I'll always justfy the price. My wife argues its way over-priced. I ask "as opposed to what?". She keeps quiet after that :) esepcially when I compare her 800 bucks worth of Louis Vuitton handbag with her 400 bucks coach purse.
Oh, last but not the least, Sonos does have a limit of no. of songs it can handle. Some claim that this limitation is gone too but I dont know for sure. If I have over 64000 songs then no one can help me, let alone Sonos. I have almost 15000 songs and it'll take a lifetime to get to 64000 songs. If I am 400 lbs fat guy then its not the fault of my weighing machine if it breaks while measuring my weight. Ok poor and sic analogy but you get my point...
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