SonosPlay: 5 Wireless Speaker for Streaming Music (Black) (Gen 1)

Fact: I'm a 50+ yr. old audiophile. I am beginning to be left behind because I resist change. I still like physical mediums like CDS. I think speakers, in order to be considered proper, must be of a certain size and in no less than a stereo pair. And finally, prodigious amplification is one's assurance of projecting a glorious sound as long as the other components are worthy.The Sonos Play 5 flies in the face of all of this. First, most users will be feeding it wirelessly with something like their own iTunes library and a subscription service such as Spotify. This is already music at a disadvantage to an audiophile since someone (it must the folks called "they" because "they" know everything) has decided I can't hear some stuff so they thrown it out...plus, I didn't need to hear some other stuff, so it had to go too. Taking this less than wholesome sounding version of music and further compressing it so it can be sent wirelessly to an underpowered pseudo-stereo (i.e. MONO) speaker really sounds like just about the last word in ruining whatever pretension of high-fidelity one's music may once had. Why would anyone in their correct mind want such a horrible music solution?Well, it's Christmas 2013 and guess what my 29-yr. old daughter, the Doctor, wants the Sonos Play 5 from her mom and dad for her present. This presents a bit of a problem to a "know-it-all" audiophile. I mean, it's Christmas and a parent wants to give a present their child will really use and relish. So, I have to go against everything in audio I know to be true and right. I have to make it more convenient for my daughter to listen to that crap (i.e. Kayne West) she thinks is good music. In her defense since she has somehow lost her musical way (we used to listen to Zep, ELP, and Pink Floyd together) I guess no matter how poor the fidelity of the Sonos wireless system is Kayne can't sound much worse than he would if I heard him on Mark Levinson's personal home rig?Now, I've went through the phases of digust, disbelief, anger, denial, etc. and I'm ready to capitulate and buy my daughter's Christmas present as requested. First, there isn't a store in my town of Cullman, Alabama that has the Sonos 5 in-stock. I will have to drive to Birmingham or Huntsville which either way is an hour of my time and associated petrol cost in a hungry Audi V8 equipped blitzkrieg mobile (RS4). Ah, I'll see what Amazon has to offer in the way of the Sonos low-fi audio debacle...blah, blah, blah. Oh, not only can I have this travesty of aural pleasure complete with the needed "Sonos Bridge" in a package deal I'm actually going to save substantial time and money! Yep, Amazon Prime free and fast delivery to the front, plus this package deal with an Amazon credit back makes it almost like getting the Sonos Bridge for free. Excellent.Now, here's where I have to get humble and eat some crow. I just visited my daughter at her condo post Christmas 2013 for the first time and I saw the diminutive Sonos Play 5 speaker along with the mostly invisible Sonos Bridge. Her boyfriend had graciously gifted her the Sonos subwoofer than looks like a glossy square O. She showed me her iPad and had Spotify running. She told me to select whatever I wanted to listen to. I chose some Big Star, Led Zeppelin, Paul Simon, and of all things Trapeze (Mel Galley, Glen Hughes, and that classic LP Medusa). My jaw dropped when I heard the first refrains of Big Star's "In The Street". It didn't sound like dog feces! It sounded fairly articulate and nuanced. But wait, how? I mean it appeared the speaker was too little and being a single speaker, mono? Hey, isn't this stuff compressed repeatedly and suffers the equivalent of a multiple rape and pillage? But still, it sounds...Well, it sounds pretty nice and I'm totally blown away by the convenience and the unobtrusive size.I always marveled at how The Bose Corporation packaged sound just good enough to make the masses ooh and ah over it. I mean it sounded good enough and now it was coming out of these small speakers. Well, this is the new extension of that and I'm kinda surprised Bose missed the next revolution and let Sonos leap-frog them. True...For a dyed-in-the-wool audiophile like me I'm not going to ever have a Sonos Play 5 as my main system, but I'm admitting I think it is more than good enough to be a young condo/apartment dwellers main system and I stand absolutely admitting I was wrong about Sonos in general: this stuff does have some pretension of music fidelity. It does sound mightily impressive given it's diminutive size and wireless nature. It does change the audio paradigm as we get further away from physical media, our own stored music, and head into that stupidly named "cloud". I am glad I bought my daughter the Sonos 5 system from Amazon. I mention Amazon because of the combination of convenience and saving money was fantastic. I want to say a word about Amazon Prime. It's an excellent service. It doesn't always work out as 2-day due to circumstances beyond the control of Amazon, but it has always been within three days and I find that is acceptable in all but extreme instances. Next, for me at least I didn't have to drive an hour with associated risks and costs. I appreciate that. Finally, the package from Amazon was "right-on" for me because I needed The Sonos Bridge too and the package deal pretty much netted me a free Bridge. Here's the last nail, and it's the controversial one. I am a merchant serving my local town retailing shoes. I rightly collect sales tax on every sale which in turn does help my community. This is as it should be, but like most things over many years the right those who we give power to have abused that right and now in most communities sales taxes serve to cumulatively oppress everyone and particularly those who may least be able to afford it. That's an issue for each community which is kind of being addressed as most communities have close to 10-percent sales tax which pretty much is a brick-wall point where all but the most rational see if anymore is added it becomes so over-the-top oppressive and ridiculous that, at least for now, there is a slowing down of this type of abusive taxation. Back to me being a merchant...I should on one hand demand Amazon to collect sales tax on every place in the known universe. BUT, I DON'T! I will refer you back to what I have mentioned as sales tax has become oppressive and Americans are at the limit of the sum-total of what is bearable tax-wise. Therefore I see Amazon's tax-free sales as one of the last bastions of the freedom that made the founding hoards come from Europe and build this country. I hope Amazon can keep up this option that I know is far from perfect, but I'd rather have an ounce of imperfect freedom than a hint of oppression. I love shopping with Amazon as they respect me as a customer. In the case of this Sonos 5 reviewed here I am more than happy with my purchased from Amazon and recommend if you need any of the Sonos products to give Amazon at least a comparative look.

We are currently in a rental house with a new puppy, but really needed to update our sound system. It's our main form of entertainment. All we previously had was a receiver, CD player and one set of speakers in our living room. We really didn't want to put a lot of time and cost into running a system in a rental. Nor could we have a lot of wires running everywhere, with our new pup around. So, I started researching wireless speakers and the Sonos popped up. Initially,the cost seemed excessive, but I kept going back due to the great reviews and the apparent ease of installation and future expansion. I must admit that the idea of being able to play free internet radio stations from all over the world was rather tempting as well.I am so glad we finally decided to go with the Sonos! The sound is amazing and set-up was just as easy as described. We love having so many options of what to listen to and being able to have all the household speakers synced.This is going to be a very basic review, just because I hope that we aren't the only non-tech savvy people in the world that want good sound in their home.What we ended up getting:1 Kindle Fire1 Bridge1 Connect1 Play 51 Play 31 Bridge1 ConnectYes, the first item is a Kindle Fire. I see no reason at all to pay $350 for the Sonos Controller. I suppose if you are going to have a huge, complex system it might be worth it, but for $200 you can get a Kindle Fire and just download the app. The Kindle does a perfect job of handling all of the components and can still be used for many other things. Yeah, basically I used this as an excuse to get a Fire!All of the software, cords and plugs needed were included with the Sonos items. (Except the Sonos App for Kindle Fire. It's available in the Amazon App store as a free download.) Once I loaded the software on my computer and Kindle I was able to use either to set up the system in no time at all. Trust me, it walks you through everything (which is only a very few steps) and there is really no way to get confused. I spent more time looking for outlets and deciding where to place items than I did getting everything online.The Bridge was hooked up first, by plugging it into our router. We needed this item because we were not going to place a Play 3 or Play 5 in the same room as our router. If you want to place a speaker next to your router, the Bridge is not necessary. Basically, you just need one item to plug into your router for the household wireless to work.All of the components get added in a similar manner. The Bridge has one button you need to press within two minutes and the speakers/connect have you press the "Mute" and "Volume +". Basically, that's it, other than naming your speakers (Such as Kitchen, Den, etc.) and then grouping them together if desired. We grouped everything in about 3 minutes and now have the same music playing throughout the house. We both love the fact that the volumes in different rooms can be controlled independently through the Kindle App. or on the speakers themselves if you don't want to go find your tablet.Our Connect was used to hook up to our existing receiver and speakers in the living room. Again, it couldn't have been simpler. Just a two plugs in the Connect for Audio Out and two in the back of the receiver for Audio In.Finding music is a breeze. We're still checking out the free radio stations and finding new favorites. What a pleasure to be able to tune into Irish radio when we are in the mood for Celtic music and then be able to hop over to Jamaica if we want to listen to some Reggae!Now, to get down to the real stars of the show. The sound in the Play 5 is absolutely amazing! We have it on the bar in our large kitchen/laundry area and we truly can't get over the quality. It is also easy to move, so we can put it in a window when we are working in the back yard. It's a heavy, expensive little "box" but truly is worth the investment. We've also been very pleased with the Play 3 in the bedroom. I think I would have been quite happy with the sound IF I hadn't heard the Play 5 first. The Play 3 is perfect for a smaller room and to provide quiet background music for sleeping. It's fine to crank up when I go in there to clean or something as well. However, the Play 5 is well worth the extra $100 if sound quality is of real importance to you.We also both love the fact that we can continue to add to this system, easily, as we can afford it. And it won't be a problem at all when we are ready to move again. I hope to eventually add several more Play 5's and Play 3's. The speakers can work either alone in a room, or you can use a pair and set them to play Left and Right for surround sound.I hope this was helpful!