| Specs at a glance: Sonos Play:5 | |
|---|---|
| Size | 204mm length, 364mm width, 154mm depth |
| Weight | 6.3kg |
| Amplifier | Six Class-D digital amplifiers |
| Speakers | Three long-throw mid-woofers, three tweeters |
| Connectivity | 802.11b/g 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, 10/100 Ethernet |
| Supported Audio Formats | MP3, iTunes Plus, WMA (including purchased Windows Media downloads), AAC (MPEG4), AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, Audible (format 4), Apple Lossless, Flac, WAV, AIFF |
| Supported OS | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android |
| Price | £429, $499, €579 |
Sonos, where have you been all my life? I know, I'm really late to the Sonos wireless speaker party, but after a spending a week with the new Play:5, I'm about ready to empty my wallet directly into Sonos' bank account to kit my entire flat out with these things—it's that good. Not only is the Play:5 the best sounding all-in-one speaker I've ever heard—even better than the legendary Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin—it's one of the best sounding audio systems I've heard full stop. Sure, you can go nuts with valve amps and floor-standing speakers and dedicated DACs (as I've done in the past), but for something so elegantly designed and simple to use, the Play:5 is unmatched.
In fact, there are few bits of tech that I've encountered—outside of Apple stuff—that's as easy to set up as the Sonos Play:5. Within just a couple of minutes of taking the Play:5 out of the box it was up and running and streaming music from the Internet via Spotify. There was no convoluted wireless setup, or syncing issue, or complex software to decipher: I simply downloaded the Sonos app on the Google Play Store, pushed the sync button on the back of the speaker, and it did the rest. When you can describe the entire setup procedure in a single sentence, that's something special.
That said, while there are some excellent free options like SoundCloud and TuneInRadio, to make the most out of the Play:5 you need to subscribe to at least one music streaming service, or have a bunch of music stored locally on a PC or NAS. My music service of choice is Spotify, but the Play:5 works with Amazon Prime Music, Google Play Music, and Tidal, to name but a few. Entering your details to log into your chosen streaming service is pretty much the only fiddly thing you have to do during the initial setup, other than deciding where in the room to place the actual device.
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