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Sonos Play:1 review: The best multiroom speaker is now better value than ever

Our Rating :
£117.97 from
Price when reviewed : £169
inc VAT

A great addition to the Sonos range, which sounds great on its own or as part of a stereo or multi-room system

Pros

  • Great sound quality, glorious build
  • Most affordable Sonos player yet
  • Incredibly flexible and future proof

Cons

  • Not much
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It’s important to remember that Sonos has a clever trick up its sleeve: stereo pairing. This lets you combine two players of the same type together, with one taking over the left channel and one the right. Add two Play:1 speakers together and you’ve got yourself a room-filling stereo system.

In this mode, the difference is both immediate and dramatic. By using two completely separate speakers, which you’re free to place them wherever you like, as they’re wireless, you get proper stereo separation and an increase in sound quality and volume. We’ve been using our pair like this since launch and the sound is absolutely stunning. You get all of the musical fidelity we talked about with a single speaker, but this time with proper stereo.

Sonos Play:1

Gone are any of the minor issues we had with a single Play:1. Wish You Were here is played in all of its majesty, while Enough Space’s intro swirls and loops around you just the way it should. Pairing two Play:1s together also delivers far better bass. Rock tracks just have that extra thump and immediacy that helps you get into them. We found classical tracks sounded that bit more detailed and involved as well.

As a comparison, we think that two Play:1s are better than a single Play:3, largely because of the stereo separation you get by being able to place the speakers apart. Of course, two Play:3s sound better again, although the difference isn’t quite as immediate or obvious and you’ll pay a lot more for the privilege. Overall, we have to say that while one Play:1 sounds great, two is our preferred combination.

Sonos Play:1 review: Sonos SUB

If you want that proper low-end drive, you can also add a Sonos SUB into the mix. It may be expensive, but it’s one of our favourite subwoofers ever, particularly as you can lie it on its side and slip it under a bed or sofa, so you get proper bass but without the issue of working out where to put it.

What’s clever about Sonos’ system is that adding the SUB automatically tunes the EQ on the subwoofer and your Play:1 speakers so the transition between the two matches perfectly. And cleverly, by moving a lot of the bass on to the SUB, the Play:1s can actually go louder, so you get clearer and louder sound all round.

If a stereo pair is great, a stereo pair with a SUB is amazing. The combination of the two means you get excellent detail, with that full thumping bass that a lot of tracks thrive on. The sound is much richer and fuller using this kind of set-up — it’s another huge step up. Perhaps the ultimate experience is two Play:3 speakers and a SUB, but this is eye: expensive; for the best combination of price and performance, two Play:1 speakers and a SUB is our ideal setup, particularly as the Play:1 is easier to place neatly out of the way.

Sonos SUB front view

Sonos Play:1 and Sonos Playbar for home cinema

Of course, you don’t have to use the Play:1 for music. It’s also possible to combine more than one with the Sonos Playbar home cinema soundbar. In its default configuration it’s a 3.0 system, but you can add the SUB for extra bass and two other Sonos players for the surround channels. While the Play:3 was a little expensive and a little overpowered to do the job of rear speakers, the Play:1 is perfect. It even has a wall-mounting point at the rear so you can fit it in the right place.
Sonos Playbar wall mount

In this configuration, the Play:1 puts out the high sound quality that’s required for the incidental effects and music pumped to the rear speakers. If you have a Playbar and want to expand for to surround-sound, but were put off by the price, now’s your chance to extend on a more reasonable budget. Continues on Page 3

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Hardware
Speakers2 (mono: 1x tweeter, 1x mid-range)
RMS power outputNot disclosed
Audio inputsNone
Audio outputsNone
Dock connectorNone
NetworkingSonosNet (802.11n dual-band), 1x 10/100 Ethernet
NFCNo
App supportiOS, Android
Battery capacityN/A
Dimensions161×11.9×11.9mm
Weight1.8kg
Streaming
Streaming formatsSonosNet
Supported serversUPnP, SMB
Audio formatsAAC, Flac, MP3, Ogg, WAV
Internet streaming servicesAupeo, Deezer, Napster, Rdio, Spotify, internet radio
Buying information
Price including VAT£169
WarrantyOne-year RTB
Supplierwww.sonos.com
Detailswww.sonos.com
Part codePLAY:1

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