Spent a decent amount on your system? want a reality check?

[PhilofCas]

Can you pair these things for proper stereo the way you can with the Apple equivalents? I’m fine with mono for the bathroom (I just have an old Roberts FM radio), I guess the same if I wanted something in the bedroom or kitchen, but for ‘serious’ listening (or for TV) I need a good believable stereo soundstage.

FWIW I’m convinced I could live perfectly happily with my JR149 near-field system, so I’m not a ‘high-end snob’, but I do like a soundstage as well as decent tonality etc!

I’ve never heard the Apple things (can’t remember what they are called). I bet a couple of them setup properly on decent stands would be pretty good, though the price is getting on for a pair of active studio near-fields (Genlec, Neumann etc), which would likely be my choice if on a tight budget and buying new.

You can Tony yes, apparently elevates their performance by a good amount.

(HomePod is the Apple equivalent)

 

[manicatel]

Yes you can stereo pair any of the sonos speakers as long as they are 2 of the same models. ie you can’t stereo pair a play1 with a sonos1, or a 3 with a 5 etc. Play1’s at £129 each atm.
The play3 has been discontinued, as a pair of ones sound better than a single3.

 

[I.D.C.]

Go buy a SONOS One and see what you think.

Could happily live with one of these and enjoy my music.

Something this small cannot sound this good, but it does!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, is this a result of hearing a tuned active speaker?

My daughter has one and its good. Her favourite band brought out a new album recently The Foals a band I like also. She asked to come over for a listen. Her words after a listen , you hear so much more ,big sound stage and more detail. Sonos is good so is a mini Denon system if it gives you what you want all and good but my HiFi is going no where use it daily .

 

[suzywong]

I was running our Denon mini/QAcoustics kitchen system for a couple of hours yesterday while cooking. It’s good, but totally outclassed by our big systems (biamped Sibbles and triamped Briks)

 

[YNWOAN]

The premise of this thread reminds me of a couple of old threads in which the protagonists commented on how good their telly sounded compared to their hi-fi’s. As in those cases, if your Sonos speakers do give your hi-fi a run for its money then your hi-fi is seriously underperforming!

 

[radamel]

The premise of this thread reminds me of a couple of old threads in which the protagonists commented on how good their telly sounded compared to their hi-fi’s. As in those cases, if your Sonos speakers do give your hi-fi a run for its money then your hi-fi is seriously underperforming!

Hear, hear!

 

[evand]

One of these...

Plugged into one of these:

and you'll have better casual listening sound than you could imagine from an active speaker that size.

Whilst it's very listenable (IMHO way ahead of the Sonos) it's not hi-fi. Great for having tunes around the house though. I've got one at my bedside, and another in the study, both streamed to via Roon.

 

[matt j]

I've got a Play 1 next to the bed for late night/drifting off and early morning radio, for what it is it's a cracking little thing and worst case scenario I could probably live with it as a main source of music. The Hi-Fi still walks all over it though.

 

[PhilofCas]

The premise of this thread reminds me of a couple of old threads in which the protagonists commented on how good their telly sounded compared to their hi-fi’s. As in those cases, if your Sonos speakers do give your hi-fi a run for its money then your hi-fi is seriously underperforming!

It performs very well thank you , but would say the little SONOS is highlighting the law of diminishing returns to great effect, it really is very listenable.

(It’s sown the seed of me looking into some kind of DSP and active speakers, just maybe these two aspects of the design are what’s making the seemingly impossible, possible).

 

[Del monaco]

It performs very well thank you , but would say the little SONOS is highlighting the law of diminishing returns to great effect, it really is very listenable.

(It’s sown the seed of me looking into some kind of DSP and active speakers, just maybe these two aspects of the design are what’s making the seemingly impossible, possible).

To be honest I’ve always thought it overpriced.

 

[PhilofCas]

Well, a few week in, and............it’s very very enjoyable!!

What a tremendous little speaker this is, SONOS have engineered something special IMHO.

Laughably good.

 

[PhilofCas]

Slightly back from the dead....

Just took the Sonos upstairs while i was painting, plonked it on the landing windowsill, started playing and thought it didn’t sound great, so, quick EQ retune with TruePlay, and off we go again, the little Sonos chucking out some great sounds, nice!

 

[h.g.]

I think perhaps we have a different idea of what constitutes a decent sound.

I suspect it depends on training to some extent. When I was a child I would enjoy listening to music over extraordinarily low fidelity sources and for hours on end. Today after becoming accustomed to listening to music on higher fidelity sources the reproduction over something like tiny plastic PC speakers is sufficiently irritating I will turn them off. Speech is usually OK but not music. Increase that to a competent media speaker with say a 4" midwoofer and a tweeter and I will hear the music without a significant amount of distraction. Fatigue may set in earlier compared to a decent full blown hi-fi system but I am enjoying listening to music.

 

[gavreid]

I have a Beam and a pair of Ones - great for telly and keeps the kids off my Well Tempered They've just come out with this little device for integrating to a 'traditional hifi' - it'll be interesting to see just how good it is as a little streamer if I can find the cash.

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/shop/port.html

 

[Philim]

One of these...

Plugged into one of these:

and you'll have better casual listening sound than you could imagine from an active speaker that size.

Whilst it's very listenable (IMHO way ahead of the Sonos) it's not hi-fi. Great for having tunes around the house though. I've got one at my bedside, and another in the study, both streamed to via Roon.

Buy the t5a with Alexa built in and it's even simpler.

 

[manicatel]

They've just come out with this little device for integrating to a 'traditional hifi' - it'll be interesting to see just how good it is as a little streamer.

https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/shop/port.html

Looks like a replacement for the Sonos Connect, which has been out for quite a while.
Not sure what it does over & above the connect, but if you just want a Sonos streamer added to your existing Hifi,(& why not, it will do the job nicely), it may be worth looking for Connects going cheaply soon as the newer model comes in.

 

[gavreid]

Looks like a replacement for the Sonos Connect, which has been out for quite a while.
Not sure what it does over & above the connect, but if you just want a Sonos streamer added to your existing Hifi,(& why not, it will do the job nicely), it may be worth looking for Connects going cheaply soon as the newer model comes in.

I'm not that fussed, but the app for the rest of the family might be good. I use a PC through a Chord 2qute at the moment with jRiver for control