Despite its age and the fact that it has a successor in the Era 100, the Sonos One remains one of the best smart speakers on the market.

Sonos One (Gen2) The powerful smart speaker with built in Sonos One (Gen2) The powerful smart speaker with built in

Other rivals have emerged, and the Audio Pro Addon C3 is a worthy alternative, but if you're set on Sonos, the Play:1 is still a great bet. READ NEXT: Best Bluetooth speakers 2017: Portable, indoor waterproof and budget Bluetooth speakers Sonos Play:1 review: Sound quality When we first heard the One we suspected it was a slight sonic upgrade on the Play:1 but, having listened to both in our testing rooms, the two speakers sound pretty much identical. We’d suggest the One is particularly good as a kitchen speaker. We have loud music playing from the One in the kitchen and can still get Alexa’s attention from the adjoining room with only a slightly raised voice.

Others take a different approach. For example, the Riva Arena sounds a lot more detailed and refined than the Sonos Play:1 at low volumes. It has a more hifi-like timbre, and greater finesse. Sonos is also less closed-off than it used to be. Until 2016, all music selection for your Play:1 had to be done through the Sonos app.

Introducing Sonos PLAY:1 | Sonos

Any speaker the size of the Play:1 has to deal with a compromise or two. But Sonos has nailed it here. One great thing about Sonos speakers is that if you buy two you can set them up to blast your favourite tunes in stereo. But what do you do if your speakers refuse to work together?Why did Sonos create a second home entertainment device? The team did extensive research into how people used their Playbar at home and found that most people didn’t wall mount their televisions or Playbars. To that end, the Playbase was created to allow people to set their televisions right on top of the speaker, allowing for a compact home theater solution. If you're using a Windows Phone, the bad news is that you're still left out for now with no official Sonos Windows Phone app available just yet. Let's hope that changes soon. Verdict For more information on Sonos PLAY:1 including where to buy, technical specifications and more, please visit sonos.com/PLAY1. Pair two PLAY:1 units for amazing stereo sound, or use two PLAY:1s as rear speakers with PLAYBAR and a Sonos SUB™ to create 5.1 home theater sound for your TV.

Sonos sales and deals for October 2023 The cheapest Sonos sales and deals for October 2023

The layout of your room and the positioning of your speaker can have a surprisingly big impact on the way you hear music. It’s a very enjoyable listen, with enough finesse, a rich enough tone and more than enough punch to make you forget the size of the speaker you’re listening to. This little guy sounds unusually at home playing at high volumes, and I believe many people would be happy to use this as their main music source. It’s something to consider if the price of the excellent Play:5 is off-putting. Position them roughly eight to 10 feet apart from each other and yourself between eight and 12 feet away from both devices The One’s weight makes for deep, solid bass for a speaker this size, and there’s enough rhythm to just about keep up with Trivium’s Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr, and enough tonal shading to make the most of Flea’s finest Red Hot Chili Peppers basslines.

How does the Sonos One (Gen 1) sound?

The touch-control panel on the Sonos can be disabled via app settings, and the status light can be turned off if you find it distracting – all small yet useful features. Of course, if you want to add voice-activated smarts to the SL without purchasing a Sonos One, adding an inexpensive Echo Dot would also allow this. Sonos is the premier smart sound system that makes it easy to enjoy all your content where and how you want. Only too keen to show that rhythmic fidelity isn’t left trailing, its agile, athletic posture keeps up with the sprightly keyboard cadence in Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s cover of Blinded by the Light, the cymbal-tapping galloping precisely and punctually alongside. Adjust the wireless channel the router is using (If ‘Auto’ is enabled, disable it and use channel 1, 6 or 11) Podcast fans may find their app of choice isn’t supported. Sonos’s solution is TuneIn Radio, the most popular internet radio app and also a good way to listen to podcasts. It comes ‘preinstalled’ in the Sonos app.

Sonos One SL: The Ultimate Wireless Bookshelf Speaker | Sonos

Two Sonos Ones can be combined to create a stereo pair capable of filling a room with hi-fi-like focus, and for the money that would be quite an accomplished little system. When the One launched, we thought it a shame that you couldn't form a stereo pair consisting of one One and one Play:1 – after all, buying two smart speakers for one room feels like overkill – but at least you can now pair aOneand One SL in stereo. Add more PLAY:1s or combine with other Sonos wireless speakers or components around the home for the ultimate, multi-room HiFi system.When the Play:1 launched, the accompanying app was one of our main criticisms. It was clunky and limited in functionality, but Sonos has made some big improvements since. The Sonos Play:1 is the most accessible Sonos speaker. It offers all the convenience of its streaming brothers in a smaller, cheaper form.