I was actually in a furniture shop the other day, and heard music playing, I turned to my friend and said that sound system is amazing, it almost feels like a nightclub sound, although it was on a low volume. I saw the speaker sitting on one of the pieces of furniture and was gobsmacked at the sound, I quickly asked the manager about the system, and told me it was a few speakers dotted about the shop, and they were sonos gen 2. That was it for me, I've bought just one to see how the sound is in my restaurant. So excited to get this sorted tomorrow.
I own the 5.1 sonos surround system - the sonos subwoofer, two play one’s, and the playbar. Bloody expensive but well worth the investment. It seriously feels like being in the cinema and the room shakes with the sonos sub - Awesome! Listening to music is also a great experience. The set up was ridiculously easy and took 10 mins, if that!
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ru-vid.comUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
Has Sonos since the early days. Original units (inc ZP'x' plus various Play'x) still going, running the latest software and still sound great. Cant fault the product and customer support is brilliant...
I had a 2 month old Play:5 fail. Sonos replaced it very quickly. Great service and I’ve added more since, including a Beam and Play:1 pair for TV. Excellent sound.
@@jamesk7777 Then you wouldn't be living in reality. Great service is being sent a replacement quickly and free of charge. DOA happen to every piece of technology in the world.
pro tip you don't HAVE TO buy a new device every time a new model is out. Your phone is not going to keel over during the announcement of the new one, neither will your speakers.
Bought my first 4 Sonos Units in 2004 and all four units are still going strong. I have added units and speakers over the years. I now have 11 units through out my house and it has easily been the best tech investment I have ever made in my life and I tend to purchase top of the line high end tech. I am disappointed that they discontinued the Play 3’s as I have 2 of them paired in my living room and would have bought more of them had I know they were going to be discontinued. I have 2 first generation Play 5’s. The 2 Sonos Amps I have from 2004 I actually liked better better then later, new generation Sonos Amps bc they had an audio out connection allowing them not only to power speakers on their own, but to also send a wired signal to a stereo to power all its speaks which was amazing. I was pretty annoyed when the eliminated that future on future Amp models, but I understand why they did it. I have 2 white first generation play 1’s in my bathrooms. I also have 2 first generation non amp units plugged into stereos powering outdoor speakers around my pool. Sonos products are pretty amazing in quality, sound, build, and durability.
This wasn't the analysis I was hoping for. I want to know what physical components are inside that make it expensive. Is their speaker material premium (is that even a thing)? Do they use gold plated wiring (does that even matter)? Things like that.
Sonos invented multi room audio? B&O introduced their master control link system in 1982. Yes, it was wired, but it did give you your music in any room in the house with full remote control ability. And what about the Squeezebox system, which predates Sonos by a number of years?
Not sure what technology B&O’s system used, but Sonos does have the patent on multi-room audio over WiFi, almost all modern smart speakers that sync over WiFi are based on Sonos’ patent, even devices like Google home.
Two other points that can be made for Sonos is the solid build quality of the speakers they make in terms of look and components inside. If you look for example at the Arc and the number of speakers it has and how they function compared to other sound bars they don't compare as so many seem to throw a lot of speakers in the box and there you go. The number of amps alone is 11 in the most recent Arc and in the low priced product it may not even be self powered (built in amps). Things to consider...
Got rid of my Klipsch Quintet 3 home theater system on both TV’s. I have the playbar and sub, going to add 2 -play1 for surround on one tv.. The other tv has a beam with Alexa command built in along with 2-play 1 for rear speakers. Also use a play 3 in kitchen, Sonos one with Alexa in bedroom, also a play 1 in office. As you can see my house is totally hooked up for Sonos on all levels, and love it over having wires running all over just plug in and pair on the app and ready to listen. Can listen throughout the entire house or something different in each room and in fact I take the play 3 outside for music listening or ball games or whatever just plug in and go through your smartphone.
Been a Sonos customer for about 10 years. Hands down, they are the BEST pieces of electronics I have ever purchased. Ever. Nothing even comes close. Definitely worth the premium.
I had a problem setting up my Samsung One remote to my Playbar, Sonos tech help were absolutely brilliant in helping me to get it working. It's the same old adage in life, you get what you pay for!
I agree! Currently have a Sonos playbase and two Play:1, but it's becoming extremely difficult to convince the wife a $700 sub is a necessity. I just want my 5.1 surround sound!
But where is the DTS, DTS-X, Dolby Digital Plus, or dare I say, Atmos support for the Beam and Playbar. Only supporting Dolby digital 5.1 in 2019 is crazy. I get that home theatre is just one of the use cases for these, but so frustrating given they have ceiling speakers that could function as overhead channels, but not be possible simply due to lack of codec support. I love the idea of a full sonos setup in my new home but I'm struggling to justify the money for what seems like a step back in many regards, even if sound quality is top notch.
Sean Tymon I’m in the same boat atm I love the playbar and play 1s in surround but hate the codec support but they do give great sound in DD! Now most receivers do Apple air play I’m thinking of get a proper home theatre again and selling the playbar while they get good money and still sync my play 5 gen 2 and move and the receiver via AirPlay just wonder if it would be perfect sync?
It's a fair point. I'm having to accept that the Playbase and two Play 1s which we have in the lounge sound great but the lack of these common, high quality formats are simply not as good as the Atmos set up, which I am lucky enough to have in the garage conversion. Convenience and neatness from the Sonos set up are big plusses for regular, daily viewing (the wiring for the Atmos set up with 4 ceiling speakers was a complete pain!) but, as good as the Sonos set up is (and it is really good), it can't match a good AV amp and a job lot of speakers for bigger, movie events. Plus, Atmos through Sonos, even if the coded was set up, would require 1 x Playbase/Playbar/Beam, at least 2 x Ones or even Play 5s AND 2 x Sonos Amps, as each can only drive 2 speakers - that's the best part of £3k before you buy the actual ceiling speakers, which would probably be another grand on top of that!
B&O did multiroom audio starting in the 80s wayyyyy before anyone ever did, with their master control link system and then later, their masterlink system. But nobody knew about it...
Great sound quality? The sound quality of Sonos is mediocre/mid range at best, another big downer is that it doesn't support DTS formats (some of us still prefer physical mediums and players). Other high price systems have other issues though B&W and Bose don't have upfiring speakers and B&O doesn't have support for rear speakers. Because I'm this critical it would probably be best for me to buy a cheap system first and upgrade when one of the 3 mentioned brands has caught up.
I've got an amazon echo and also a sonos beam. The sonos products have much better sound and a much higher price tag but the built in alexa capability is poor compared to the echo. When the speaker is playing you have to shout at the beam for it to recognise you and it also doesnt have all the capabilities of the echo provided alexa. I guess the poorer recognition must be down to less microphones or poor noise cancellation but whatever, it's one area where the echo is really impressive and the sonos products are weak. You can literally whisper at the echo and its comprehension is very good.
Interesting point you make that Sonos is not for everyone. Definitely not for me. The logic behind the design is excellent however, the sound delivered could not be adjusted to my taste. This has led me to revert to a basic analogue system. This is not really the fault of Sonos and to be fair the overall software and streams available are good. Digital eq together with compression issues just made it not for me.
12 years of use & 8 zones in - Sonos is hard to beat, especially now it's smoothly integrated in with Alexa for room grouping and IFTTT for more creative applications.
@@jamesgrantham1743 Hi James. When you open up the Alexa app on your phone, go to 'devices' and create a group. Call that group whichever room you want to create and add the appropriate devices. You can then choose 'preferred speaker', if you want to add a Sonos. As for the lights, once you've done this, you can just say 'turn the light off' in that room, as long as there is an Alexa in that room and you've added it to the group. and it knows which room to turn the lights off without you specifying. It is pretty cool! Hope that makes sense?
I built my first distributed sound system in 2004, around itunes, and Apple airport express gen1s when they first came out. Since then my system has been configured around a mish mash of different equipment and technologies from different suppliers. There have only been a few times in the systems existence where it has been easy to use, and I doubt it has ever been intuitive. But because of the amplifiers and speakers I have used the audio quality has always been excellent. When Sonos first came out, I was very confident that my system was superior and definitely cheaper, but the world has changed, and the quality of my audio gear aside that's probably not true any longer. You make a really good case for the Sonos gear.
Hi Can you pls suggest is Sonos ear 100 is better or Bose revolve plus 2 Sonos is a last year product and Bose is last 3 year product if I go for Sonos can I get any trouble in using this speaker pls suggest which I one go for ??
Never considered them to be expensive, always thought they were are the cheaper end of the Hi-Fi market, though guess they are not really Hi-Fi quality?
The Beam needs 2 dedicated Play 1s for surround sound so it’s really $800. I got rid of my Beam, reclaimed my Play 1s for music and replaced it with a Yamaha sound bar. No regrets.
Very Interesting. I've been a Bose fan for 4 years buying Soundtouch 300 and 2x Soundtouch 10 units. ST300 has been replaced twice, connectivity or control has often been behind other products. Too many updates when you most want to use them and now I find the Soundtouch models are discontinued. The worst part is the new 500 model will not talk to the Soundtouch models. Sound quality was, however, excellent. I've read the Bose forum and they just say it wasn't possible to advance the 500 and keep it talking to the Soundtouch models. Surely they can't expect their customers to replace all their multi-room speakers every 5 years? Will be trying Sonos now as their ethos is far more appealing. Thanks for providing these videos from a uk position.
Ever since the release of 10.4 software my entire SONOS setup has sounded terrible. I have been going round and round with tech support for over a month now with no luck.
Selling more product does not necessarily mean it's a better product. The 70% figure means absolutely nothing. I got caught up in the hype and bought a Sonos beam which eventually got replaced with a real sound system. Let me just say that there was no comparison. The wireless is very convenient but that's about it.
Thanks Jonathan. I appreciate your reviews of the Sonos products. Some of the products are currently unavailable in the Philippines where I’m from so I’m wondering if you have any idea of the duties and taxes and shipping cost to have that shipped to my country.
Hi Oliver, thanks for the comment what a Shane you can’t get the products where you are. Unfortunately we can only ship to the UK but you should be able to find a retailer who can ship them but as you mention be careful of the duties.
Whilst I appreciate and agree with many of your points I think you may be slightly biased. I do like Sonos products and I know they are high quality but my early connect amp and bridge unit are no longer supported meaning I have to pay out a small fortune (again) in order to stay current so no difference to your Alexa example you used. I am thinking of purchasing a Sonos Arc sound bar and that will require another App (S2). Technology is great but it continually costs….
As an ex salesman, *Don't ever say Cheaper* LOL, always say *Less Expensive* trust me, our boss would have blown a gasket if we told a customer that brand is cheaper. It's like a put down to the other brand.
I just replaced my HT setup 5.1 pioneer with large tower speakers sub, center etc... with a pair of ones and a beam, and I´m not missing my old setup and now my livingroom looks sleek. Sound is great, app is great, conection is great, ease of use is excelent, no need to power on/off my AV reciever, change inputs and then start watching movies. Just say, Alexa turn on the tv, find a movie and start watching.
You don't answer the question, is it the engineering costs that need to be built in to the product?, Components? who makes those ? Sono's or an contract manufacture, and if they are dealing with China their products are already being ripped off. Licenses agreements, Spotify others? At some point the hardware will not be able to take advantage of software up date, so if your forward thinking what types of electronics do you have to put into your products that lay dormant until the technology catches up with them and they can be triggered on, what are the costs of components that are installed but not yet used? Don't get me wrong they make a great product for the type of market they are in. There big advantage as far as I see it is not only sound but the plug and play aspect of the product the ability of each line item to recognize new product that is being brought into the current eco system. What are the costs of those aspects of the business. How tight is their QA methods and what does that do to the cost of the product. They will have to work double time to stay near the top of their game what does that cost? Failure and the stock price goes to zero. Referencing an Amazon or Google product is just pain stupid they are not even in the same food group.
I have a Sonos One speaker. I love it but I have to continually re set it and re install via Alexa. Many people have had the same issues. The Alexa response is much slower on the Sonos One compared to my Echo Plus.
Folks don’t realize the internal components in audio products including Sonos. The build and technology included will be costly. I think most want big sound for little money… lasting products usually cost a bit more
I want something that sounds very crisp and loud but nothing to do with streaming or internet connection. Crisp classical music at 120 dB with plenty of bass and with maybe a 2 tb harddrive integrated for my flac files. That is usability.
I'm deciding what soundbar to buy today (28/08/2020). It seems pretty clear that the Beam is the device to get. I have a couple of Google hubs in the house and the fact that support for that is now in place for Google assistant is the thing that's tipped me into the Sonos camp.
Don't forget build quality, all of the Sonos range is solidly engineered and a cut above a lot of the disposable tech we chuck out each year. My Playbar is 5 years old and if it broke, you know what, I'd actually pay someone to fix it.
As a Customer of the Sonos bar, Sonos base speaker & Sonos move for me personally the sound is Amazing & I used to be a sound engineer. The App on the other hand has gone from being fantastic to problematic. There has been 2 updates on the App over the last couple of years & each time I've hates using the App. I wanted to turn my base speaker off recently and just have the main bar working so I thought as per normal just open the app to switch it off, a day later when I wanted to switch it back on via the app it said there was an issue 😟 I had to waste half hour going through the new app, rebooted my base speaker & modem, the reconfigure the base speaker to the app again 🤔 what should have taken 2 mins took an hour ! Why the hell do *SONOS* have to keep screwing around with there App ? If it wasn't for the high quality & cost I would have probably swapped to another brand by now. Not a happy customer !
I just love premium products, simple design and great customer service which is exactly what you get from Sonos. Premium does mean a high price but if I'm happy the price is justified.
I’ve got 2 ikea Sonos lamps and 2 shelf speaker’s but wish I’d chose another make because you can’t do the most basic thing which is connect the tv! Get better sound and more music available using my JBL headphones-shockingly I can listen to the tv with them!!
I am currently debating between the Sonos Playbar vs the JBL 5.1. I want to play music through RU-vid, RU-vid Music. Pandora. I watch movies and TV shows, I want versatility Which do you recommend ?
Actually environmentally SONOS doesn't make sense. Its a closed system (only works with its own app) doesn't even have an aux in... Get a speaker which doesn't lock you down in using a specific app etc ...
I was given a One, a Five and a Beam by Sonos and I have no idea why anyone would pay for them, they are average sounding at best, definitely not for an audiophile....
@@TemujinScott80 Yeah I know a guy who has a $100,000 amp and every one of his 7.1 channel speakers cost him $10,000 or more each. Does it sound amazing? Yes it does... does it sound like $200,000 compared to my $3000 Sonos setup? No. He's chasing the 1% - I'm thinking my ears are probably not capable of detecting the 1%.
the question is, why are they so bad sounding? A friend has a Sonos paper weight, he payed over $300 for it and it sounds like the stere in a bad chinese car...
Hi. Thanks for the review. I'm considering buying one to compliment my existing Sonos collection. Probably a stupid question but... If I'm using the move on Bluetooth will it also connect to and play other speakers in my house? I'm thinking of the odd occasion when WiFi drops out.
Hi there, if you are listening to the Move using Bluetooth, unfortunately this becomes a standalone speaker and the audio cannot be shared on the other Sonos speakers. You can only group music when you are on WiFi. Thanks for watching!
I was hoping that you would talk about how Sonos implemented a "mesh network" to manage the speakers. This was the initial feature of Sonos that got me interested (hooked?). I now have a nice collection thru out my home; some Play 5's, some Play 1's, a Move, a Sub, a Sound Bar and a Beam. As for considering cost; these are some of the least expensive speakers I have ever owned and the only ones that can make my internal organs moved while streaming Korn or Tool.
@@areliablesource2848 I was specifically responding to this: "least expensive speakers I have ever owned" But I can imagine very few scenarios where spending thousands of euros on sound is considered a smart investment, especially considering most people have their tv and music playing at
@@jesperburns Yes, it does seem like a contradiction (least expensive but costing thousands) but the way I "value" that purchase is to include the "value" I get from it. I have music playing almost all the time when I am at home and I am very please with the "value". Now, as for "most people have their tv and music playing at
They are expensive to make people think they are the best. They use marketing to brainwash people into thinking they are the best. They do not sound good. At all.
Was given a sonos, not a fan at all.. Endless networking issues preventing me from being able to choose songs though the speaker is still streaming music perfectly well, regular occurrences of 'this track is not available in your country' despite being able to play that track on the same app on my phone, and sound quality that just doesn't live up to a real hifi setup of the same price.
We call these people shills in Australia. How can someone who represents a store that stocks Sonos give an honest justification of their price. Anyone who passed first semester of a marketing degree knows any company has a duty to sell products for the highest price a customer can justify parting with their money for.
I don't think it is an either/or thing between say Amazon Echo and SONOS. I have products from both families and in some cases I replaced a SONOS with an Amazon device as they became available and/or my needs changed. For example I could never really enjoy the music quality of the Play:3 I had in my bedroom without fear of disturbing the neighbours and at bedtime I tended to only listen to audiobooks and speech radio anyhow. The Amazon Echo is fine for that, is smaller and is a great bedside alarm plus I can control the lights with it. That leads me to another SONOS plus however. If you do want to sell one, all those qualities mentioned in this review helps get you a really good price. I have sold three different SONOS speakers on eBay and got about 2/3rd of the original price (before fees) for each. They are on a level with Apple stuff for ease of resale. Aside from the Play:3 I sold a 5 (replaced it with a Playbar) and a Play:1. I replaced the latter with the latest Echo Dot for my office which is a tiny room and I only ever listen to background radio there. Oh and last note - it's not fair to suggest you must sell your Echo device as a replacement is released. It's not as if they stop working or are less than 100% Alexa compliant all of a sudden. I did choose to replace a first generation Dot with a new one but the old one is now in my workshop. With such a cheap unit I don't worry if all the wood dust will stop it working one day.
Comparisons to Amazon and iphone hardware were misleading, since they both update software features just like Sonos not requiring a hardware buy. The assumption one has to buy upgrades each year is just ingenuous. Iphones in particular is a poor comparison because they are different types of products, Sonos is a speaker, an iphone is much much more whose primary function is not to be a speaker. Mentions of what I believe were GOOD reasons why Sonos is more expensive were certainly addressed but could have been clearer and to the point. Quality hardware to reduce "refresh" needs and continued software development with cross service and compatibility support being the primary reason which are probably good enough reasons.
Have to admit I've been a Bose guy for years and did have a listen to a few early Sonos speakers with a disappointing result in my mind, this cemented my love of Bose! BUT!!!!! Having listened to a friends Play 5 gen 1 made me question my thoughts once again and after going into a Bose shop and having a full demo I actually believe that the Sonos Range is better than the Bose range at the minute as I could hear some distortion in the Bose products at higher volumes whereas I couldn't in the Sonos, also the Bose stuff does sound quite muddy to me now and Sonos is crisp and clear! The only down side I see to Sonos is the lack of Bluetooth as I often listen to music via RU-vid and I don't believe there's a way to listen to RU-vid videos as they are not streaming via a Wi-Fi network! So I've just got to somehow clear out my Bose stuff and replace it with Sonos without the other half noticing! 🤦♂️
Bose has more features though Their home range has all the benefits of Sonos such as two voice assistants, streaming services AirPlay 2 and constant updates. But they also know those features may not last for ever so they build in features like AUX and Bluetooth so when the day comes when the tech can’t keep up all you’d need to do is buy a chrome cast audio or plug in a phone and stream music meanwhile over at Sonos you’ll have a bricked device because Sonos has decided your device is no longer viable for them.
kevin brant Yes and he didn’t mention it so that kind of bugged me. I love the playbase in my living room sounds terrific. I have my 65 inch LG OLED sitting on top of it.
Thanks for the comment Matt. We never remove comments unless they are abusive etc. the comments section is for our community and their thoughts and we would never compromise that. Hope this helps.
This has nothing to do with the video it just bothered me. There were 5 years between iPhone 6 and 11. The order was 6,6s 7, 8/X (came out at the same time) and Xs. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
Jake I just purchased the playbar on sale for 549$ on amazon with a free wall-mount and 20$ gift card. Not a bad deal even if they come out with a new one.
So you’ll be happy with this weeks new product announcements. If I was still in my return window I would have swapped to some new versions in an instant for future prodding my investment. In my opinion no one would get a playbar now for any price. Invest in the new “Arc” instead...
Sonos actually use quality components and they sound good to great... but I feel there is a lot of Marketing we pay for. The Sonos system is pretty good. The boxing isn't cheap so it all adds to the price also. I like the Sonos sound, but it isn't cheap and there are prolly better options out there for one offs.
The sound just isn't 'hi-fi'. If you can put up with a few wires, far better sound can be had for the same money. I use a Sonus in the bathroom (there is not much choice when it comes to battery powered AirPlay 2 speakers), it's only the Roam, but I have heard paired bigger Sonuses and the soundbar. I can only assume people who think Sonus offers high quality sound have never experienced decent hi-fi. The app is nothing special either, it's nowhere near as good as BlueSound's.
I wonder who's replacing speakers every year?.... I had my Echo Dot for almost 3 years, my onkyo 5.1 surround system with reciver for the pass 8 years ! They all fine !! Still working perfectly. and everybody know Echo dot speaker is sucks that's not what you supposed to use it anyway. you don't use it to play a music
Longevity??? I have 5 I paid $199.00 each. After about 18 months sonos changed the software now they never stay connected. Sonos did offer me $30 each toward the purchase of replacements (199 each) LONGEVITY NO.
I wouldn't say Sonos is expensive. There's home audio gear out there that costs tens of thousands. £199 for a hifi quality speaker, an amp for £599. If anything, I would say this was budget range equipment.
@@whiskeywayne91 I totally agree this is cheap rubbish younger generation not interested in sound anymore average person 15 20 years ago would think nothing of building hi-fi 5 to 10000 upwards
If you have a surplus of money, it's cheap. If you are on a low income it can look out of reach. happy with what you can afford and don't try to make other people feel bad.
@@wvanbaarle I get that. But on a sliding scale of speaker prices from £100 to £50,000 the Sonos One at £179 and the Move at £399 are still budget speakers whether you can afford them or not.
