Sonos Play Review: 5, a beastly speaker for your home

When it comes to home speakers, multiroom, and sound quality over everything, Sonos is a brand that always stands out. With its wide range of products has options for all pockets and room sizes, and we had the opportunity to test one of their best speakers, completely renewed, the Sonos Play: 5.

Robust, with excellent power and indisputable sound quality, it is at the discretion of most experts of the reference in its category. With an imminent update that will make it compatible with AirPlay 2, this Sonos will also become an alternative to the HomePod to keep in mind. We have tested it, and we have compared it with the HomePod, and we will tell you about it below.

Design and Specifications

A Sonos is a Sonos, and it can be identified remotely, without having to look at its brand. The design of this Play: 5 is absolutely consistent with the trend of the brand, and as you can see in the image you are only going to see a huge front grille with a rectangular structure with rounded corners, in this case white (you also have it available in black). From the moment you open the speaker box, you know that you are in front of a quality product, and when you have this heavy device in your hands, you confirm it.

Minimalist and imposing, this Play: 5 can occupy any corner of your house, although you want it to be a privileged place where anyone who enters can see it. Only a small logo on the upper front part where the touch controls also go break the surface of the speaker. At the bottom you will find some small legs to protect the surface, the same ones that you will find on one of the sides, because this Play: 5 can be used both horizontally and vertically.

If we talk about internal specifications, the first thing is that it is a WiFi speaker, no Bluetooth. The same "defect" that many attribute to the HomePod is this Play: 5, but a speaker of this type to listen to music via Bluetooth is a sin, sorry but I think so. One 3,5mm audio input and ethernet connection on the back complete the possible connections for this speaker. Of course, it's a wired speaker, no built-in battery, like the HomePod.

Three midrange and three treble speakers are what offer us the sound in all its quality, with six class D amplifiers and a design that makes the sound flow in all directions: left, right and center. It's the most powerful speaker in the Sonos family And although we will talk about the sound quality later, we can anticipate that the power and quality are beyond all doubt, and yes, above the HomePod.

Configuration and operation

The configuration of the device is very simple, although for this it will be essential that you download the Sonos application that you have available both in the App Store and in Google Play. Pressing the rear button on the speaker will start the pairing process with your device, and from there you just have to follow the steps that are indicated in the app on your smartphone.

One of the steps that you will have to perform to complete the configuration from an iOS device is called TruePlay. It is a process that captures sounds from all corners of the room to tailor the speaker's audio so that it is heard in the best possible way throughout the room. PTo do this you must move around the room moving your iPhone (or iPad) so that its microphone captures the sounds emitted by the speaker. It is only a minute but it is a strange process. I have not tried to listen to the Play: 5 without this configuration so I do not know if it is something that is noticeable in practice.

And we move on to what is the use of the Sonos application. It is an app that includes a multitude of streaming music services, including Spotify and Apple Music, as well as TuneIn Radio, which will allow you to listen to your favorite radio stations over the internet. For Apple Music users, it is the only way to listen to music on the Sonos, since it does not have AirPlay (at the moment). The app is simple to use, although it has some design flaws such as covers that do not load. It is not the best designed app but to use it as a player it is not bad. Of course, you will not have to do anything in the app, since it will take all your lists, albums and songs directly from Apple Music.

If you are a Spotify user, things change, since you can use the Sonos app but also the Spotify app itself from which you can choose which Sonos speaker you want to send the sound to. In this way At the moment it is more comfortable to use Spotify with your Sonos than with Apple Music, although this will change when the update that provides it with AirPlay 2 arrives., because you can directly select the speaker from Apple Music and even use Siri to control it.

Sound quality

The sound quality is simply spectacular. The power of this Play: 5 is enormous, and how the highs, mids and lows sound even at high volumes it is an absolute delight whatever type of music you listen to. If we start looking for a problem, it would be precisely its power, since it is a speaker that likes to listen to high volumes, perhaps too high if there are more people at home or you have neighbors.

It's inevitable to compare the Sonos Play: 5 to the HomePod, even though we shouldn't as they don't compete in the same category on price or size. The Play: 5 beats the HomePod hands down in quality and power, which is no wonder just looking at the size of both speakers. Yes indeed, at low volumes (and this is a debatable opinion, I know) I prefer the HomePod, which seems to me to offer a more detailed sound than the Play: 5. But as soon as we raise the bar, the winner is clear, very clear.

Editor's opinion

The Sonos Play: 5 is considered by many to be the best speaker in its class, and it is on its own merits. A design that everyone loves, excellent sound quality and scary power in a premium speaker that will delight anyone who is willing to pay for it. The only thing that can be improved is its application, with a too simple design, but that and even Apple's virtual assistant, Siri. With a price of about € 530 on Amazon (link) you won't find a better speaker in this price range.