[ We have a giveaway at the end of this short post! Remember to check out the contest mechanics below! ]
The all-new SONOS Play:5 has entered our lives for almost 3 months now and we can’t stop listening to it and playing with it. The staff in our office are fighting to take control of this new Sonos player and many times we end up changing each other’s playlist and overwriting each other’s “Now Playing” song. We love it so much, we fight over it.
And that got me thinking – why is that?
I casually asked my colleagues over the office table and did a quick survey of why we had to fight over the SONOS Play:5. Here are some reasons we concluded:
1. “It sounds amazing!” The first resounding answer we got (almost simultaneously) is that it sounds amazing.
What can I say? They echoed the first thought in my head.
The Play:5 is decked with three tweeters, each angled for optimum soundstage and catered for off-axis performance. But what makes it stand out amongst any other speakers is three mid-range long-throw woofers, making the speaker sound like an entire concert. The bass response from the Play:5 is tight yet incredibly deep sounding. It’s no wonder we want to hear our favourite songs on this monster of a speaker.
So I went on to ask them, what else, besides the way it sounds?
2. “The looks…” I know it’s superficial, but a speaker is an ornament too. The new Play:5 is sleek with its matte finish and it fits right into any corner, shelf or table-top. One of my colleagues mentioned that this Play:5 “looks better than the old Play:5″. That gave me an understanding why “the looks” is so important. The all-new SONOS Play:5 is modern-looking and does not look outdated. A speaker like that speaks mountains about its owner’s taste and style. The Play:5 yells at on-lookers that its owner is stylish, modern, cutting-edge and knows his (or her) audio. It’s not just superficial, it’s an image to uphold.
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So what do you think of the new SONOS Play:5? What features do you love the most about the Play:5?
We would like to know what YOU think of this new SONOS speaker!
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The new Play:5 comes in a choice of white or black.
Sonos was arguably the first to hit the scene with multi-room audio, but there were some limitations in their earlier products – you needed an additional Sonos Connect unit to reliably play to multiple speakers, and the speakers didn’t feature HRA (High Resolution Audio) support at the moment, leaving them behind competitors like Lenco and Sony.
Well, that’s all changed with the new Play:5 though, and despite the lack of change in naming, the new speaker is being described both as “the future of Sonos” and as their “smartest speaker ever”. We were told that every single part of the speaker is designed by Sonos, with the aim of delivering a world-class speaker product that fits readily into people’s lives.
Every driver is custom built.
The Play:5 has six custom-designed drivers that are perfectly synchronized, with three mid-woofers for smooth mids and deep bass, and three tweeters for crystal clear highs. All of them are powered by dedicated amplifiers, and that allows the mid-woofers to create sounds as low as 27Hz. For reference, that’s about as low as the Sonos Playbar goes, which is pretty impressive when you consider how much smaller the Play:5 is.
The new Play:5 speaker gives a focused, intense sweet spot in vertical orientation.
The drivers have been specially designed so the speaker can work equally in three orientations – vertically, horizontally, and as part of a stereo pair. When placed as a stereo pair in horizontal orientation, the Play:5 speakers offer a large stereo image for better room-filling capabilities.
When placed vertically though, the Play:5 speakers offer a focused, intense sweet spot for more intimate listening, something we noticed when we were treated to Firestone by Kygo. This is a dark, moody track that picks up the beat pretty quickly, and we were quite impressed to hear the clarity in the speakers on some of the higher electro synth notes, as well as to feel the deep thump of the grounding bass beat.
Design updates
The buttons on the original Play:5.
The touch sensitive LED buttons on the new Play:5.
You can also see that the overall design has a more new-age look and feel to it.
The new Sonos Play:5 features touch sensitive controls unlike the buttons on the old model, these work with smart sensors within the speaker to ensure that the volume-up button is always oriented properly, making it easy to use regardless of how you choose to place the speaker. The speaker grill is curved to optimize the speaker’s acoustic projection for a large sound stage, while the grill features almost 60,000 holes to ensure transparency of sound. Even the “Sonos” label is perforated, which goes to show the extent Sonos has gone to optimize the capabilities of the Play:5.
Even the label is perforated for optimal sound transmission.
Compared to the old Play:5 speakers, the new Play:5 speakers are a bit shorter and slightly narrower, but also quite a bit deeper too. It features a polycarbonate shell that reduces wireless interference and allows the Play:5 to endure high-humidity conditions like kitchens and our tropical climate, so that should mean the speaker can last a lot longer.
From the side it’s more evident: the new Play:5 speaker (foreground) is definitely deeper and shorter than its predecessor (distant background).
Performance: Old vs. New
Interestingly enough, Tat Chuan Acoustic had a Play:5 from the old series present, and switched between the old and the new Play:5 set to let us hear the difference. Clearly, the new Play:5 speakers demonstrate better resolution and clarity over the entire audio range of the speaker. Vocals on the old speaker sounded a little muddy in comparison, and the low bass notes lacked the detail brought forward by the new speakers, so evidently Sonos has done quite a bit of work between generations!
They look similar, but sound vastly different.
Next up was a more interesting demonstration: Tat Chuan invited a local singer by the name of Deon to perform one of his tracks live – after we heard it play on the Play:5. The idea being is to show that the Play:5 was capable of rendering audio so realistic that we would barely be able to tell the difference. We took a short listen to the track (Winter), and then Deon took to stage to perform it live.
The result? Well, there is a certain palpable energy to a live performance that comes from both the vocals and musical instruments of the performers that doesn’t quite translate to recordings, so that was definitely lacking from the Play:5’s rendition, but otherwise, we must say the little speaker performed most admirably. Here’s a short video clip of the test so you can judge for yourself:
Trueplay gets your system going the right way
We all have different rooms and spaces, so Trueplay helps you get optimal audio without special equipment.
A new feature in the Sonos app that will soon be available to all Sonos speakers, Trueplay is a piece of audio tuning software that uses the microphone on your iPhone or iPad to capture test tones emitted by a Sonos speaker. The system uses these tones to analyze how sound reflects off all the different surfaces in the room and then calibrates your speakers so they take these into effect. The end result is that your audio will be optimized for the room your speakers sit in so they sound their best. That’s an important innovation as now you won’t need to be an audio engineer or spend thousands of dollars to fix your room to get the best sound, simply run the app, follow the instructions, and you’re done. It’s certainly a useful feature, and we’re glad to hear that it will be slowly rolled out to all Sonos products.
At the end of the day, we have to say the Play:5 really did impress us, so we’re eager to put it in our labs to see how it stacks up against the rest of this year’s competition. Multi-room audio is certainly heating up, and that can only mean better sounding music to the ears of audio lovers every where.
The Sonos Play:5 will be available at all authorized retailers from 25 November for S$999.
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Blog by Hardware Zone (http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/m/feature-sonos-unveils-its-smartest-speaker-ever-their-new-play5)
Oprah has recently revealed her famous list of Favorite Things for 2015 and she says this year’s 87 gorgeous gifts “just might be the most versatile and fun ever.”
Not surprisingly, the all-new Sonos Play:5 gained an audience with the great O herself. As she sat through the exclusive presentation of the all-new Play:5, she had to have this in her list this year. Here’s what Oprah has to say:
“For the music lover in your life, the crème de la crème of wireless speakers delivers sound quality like no other by analyzing a room’s acoustics and adjusting accordingly. Tunes can be played from a streaming service or a music library from a smartphone, a tablet, or a computer.” — Oprah
You can get your hands on these too.
Pre-order now here.
The problem with music lovers today is that they pay for premium music streaming services to get better quality music, yet they settle for sub-standard Bluetooth or docking systems. Sometimes, even settling for the standard comes-with-the-phone earphones or laptop speakers. What’s the point then?
Thus, this November, Sonos introduces the all-new Play:5 – the ultimate smart speaker.
So what can this new monster of a speaker do?
We’re gonna summarize with 10 Things You Need To Know about the all-new Sonos Play:5:
#1: Trueplay – Your personal sound engineer Trueplay is an in-built room calibration technology that is available on the Sonos Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5 (both Gen 1 and this one). Many people spend hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars to get their speakers to sound great and ensure their rooms are renovated to become the perfect “music and sound room”. Calibrate every Sonos speakers to get the best possible sound for any room you place it in within minutes.
#2: Massive sound, resonant bass The new Play:5 is packed with 3 tweeters + 3 long-throw woofers. A total of 6 drivers with dedicated amplifiers. These drivers are strategically positioned in the speakers. Two of the tweeters are side firing to increase the soundstage, and the three proprietary long-throw woofers give you bass that goes as low as 27Hz – as low as the Sonos Sub.
#3: Ultra-responsive touch sensors Sonos has done away with buttons to interact with music. The all-new Play:5 allows users to simply tap on the touch controls of the speakers to Play, Pause, and control Volume. What’s new in this speaker is the ability to go to the next song or previous song with a simple swipe across the play/pause touch sensor.
(Image Courtesy of pocket-lint.com)
#4: Incredible power efficiency We do not know what magic Sonos has put into these speakers, but its idle power saving of <2.5 watts is the lowest of all their speaker range. Even lower than the Play:1 (3.8 watts) and its predecessor Play:5 (8.0 watts). Your utility bills ain’t gonna rise with the all-new Play:5.
#5: Smart triple-orientation & Stereo pairing Everyone already knows that some of Sonos’ speakers have smart orientation built-in and can be paired as stereo. Like your smartphone’s accelerometer, it adjusts itself based on the orientation it is in. The all-new Play:5 has those features as well, but in addition, it can do the standard horizontal orientation or any vertical orientation. Changing its orientation also creates a different soundstage when paired in stereo – depending on what you prefer or require.
#6: Wireless performance of a Sonos Boost 6 strategically located antennas are built into the Play:5. It also has the advanced interference rejection to prevent frequency clashes from other wireless signals such as baby monitors and cordless phones.
#7: Polycarbonate Shell Super durable, scratch-resistant and it looks extremely sleek with its matte finish. Most importantly, because it isn’t made of metal, it greatly reduces wireless interference. Its design is meant to fit right into any room like a missing puzzle piece.
#8: Perforated Grill The grill has a curvature to optimize sound stage and acoustic projection. In addition, almost 60,000 full-holes perforation on the grills ensures transparency of the sound. If that’s not enough, the Sonos tag is also micro-perforated so that the middle tweeter is not compromised.
#9: Humidity-resistant Because of its non-metal composite, the all-new Play:5 can withstand high-humidity conditions such as bathrooms, kitchens and the unforgiving tropical climate.
#10: Most powerful surround speakers ever Yes, this time, the all-new Play:5 can be used as surround speakers for your Sonos 5.1 home theatre set-up. This will ensure that the surround sound of your home theatre system is unrivalled in any way.
Bonus: Built for the future Here’s your reward for reading this post – the all-new Play:5 has two microphones built into the speakers and it is not functional yet. In other words, Sonos has something up their sleeves and you can be sure more features are coming your way. Sonos mentioned in their behind-the-scenes video that this speaker will last you the “next 10 years” and it truly is “generations ahead”. Check out the video below.
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Our team has tried out the all-new Play:5 and we were absolutely blown away by its quality, technology and massive sound. We are excited to see how this is going to improve even more with future software updates.
If you can’t wait for it, then PRE-ORDER now by clicking here.
