Sonos Studio workshop and Play:5 review

As GadgetyNews is pretty much just yours truly there are times where I can’t get to all the events I am invited to. So, short of cloning myself and I really don’t think the world needs more than one of me, sometimes I reach out to my gadgety family for assistance. This is what happened when Sonos kindly invited me to the launch of their new Play:5. Fortunately Eric, one of my good friends from the Little Red Block crew, was able to step up and stand in.

Here is Eric’s review of the Sonos Play:5 launch and Speaker Building Workshop.

Jay

All-in-all, it was a good day out.

Obviously the Sonos team were there to show off their new baby but it was interesting.

The Trueplay feature is awesome

They demoed it by placing a Play:1 underneath a sofa with it facing the back wall – obviously the sound was awful. But, when they enabled Trueplay it modifies the speaker settings so that it sounds the best it possibly can given its environment. It actually felt like someone turned the speaker around. Trueplay also knows the distance between two paired Sonos speakers and balances the output levels to give you proper stereo sound.

Trueplay is a revolutionary system that gives music lovers confidence that they’re hearing what their favourite artists labored to produce, independent of the room’s acoustics and speaker location,” said CEO John MacFarlane. “Finally there’s a simple, reliable process that delivers studio-quality listening experiences in each room of the home.”

Initially, Trueplay will be available on all Sonos Play:1, Sonos Play:3, Sonos Play:5 products and iOS controllers, and will continue to be added to the Sonos lineup over time.

The speaker building exercise was fun and there was a price of a bottle of bubbly for the winning group. My group didn’t win.

The Play:5 sounded really good too

If I had the dosh I would invest into two Play:5s (the bass lacked a bit though in my opinion).

Compared to the old Play:5 it sounds and looks a lot better.

They have also changed the iconic Sonos buttons to a single flush touch sensitive button.

Now you can swipe across to replay or skip tracks on your playlist.

What was a surprise was the addition of an accelerometer in the speaker so it will know if it’s on its side or not and the sound is adjusted accordingly.

This is the first time that Sonos Play:5 has three orientations. This flexibility, combined with Trueplay tuning, means that the speakers will sound their best in any room. In addition to horizontal orientation as a standalone speaker, two Sonos Play:5s paired together vertically deliver excellent stereo sound with a focused and intense sweet spot. Paired horizontally, they create a larger stereo image for a more immersive, room-filling listening experience

As a custom installer Sonos is always the go to product for a wireless streaming Home Audio system and with the new Play:5, they still lead the pack (but the Denon Heos is hot on their tail).