This article is more than 1 year old

We turn Sonos PLAY:5 up to 11

Great sound, but it'll cost you

How do they sound?

The volume span ranges from whisper-quiet to house-shaking. You will never need the maximum volume these things can pump out unless you are using them inside a concert hall. Overall the PLAY:5 provides a richly detailed and balanced soundscape with powerfully reverberating deep bass, rounded mid-tones and beautifully clear high notes.

Here are first impressions of various pieces played through the PLAY:5s. I’m coming at this from having heard these pieces played through entry-level PLAY:1s, mid-range PLAY:3s and a PLAYBAR*/SUB combo:

  • Promontory from the Last of The Mohicans has extraordinary flat drum sounds, distinct stereo separation and superb strings.
  • We had to try Jefferson Airplane’s "White Rabbit". You’re in the room there with the band with startlingly bright edges to the guitars and Grace Slick’s extraordinarily expressive voice.
  • Carmina Burana’s "Ave Formosissima" has its slow build-up with subdued drums and the violins climbing up high with their notes. Then O Fortuna steps up with a choral and orchestral blitzkrieg; every component from voices, to drums, to strings, brass and cymbals seems clearer and has more impact than ever before.
  • Mogwai’s "Kids Will be Skeletons" shimmers with extra depth and is almost stately in its progression to the driving climax and then relaxes down to the reflective billows at the end. You just drown in the all-enveloping curtains of sound being wrapped around you.
  • Harry Christopher’s version of "Spem in Alium" is breathtaking, pumping out lovely, rounded yet sharp-edged, voices from the component choirs in a gleeful assault on your ears.
  • The Waterboys "Whole of the Moon" has thrilling richness and impact with bright blasts from the brass. The strings, the keyboards, the horns, the drums are all crystal clear; the whole thing lifts you up.
  • The 14th Diabelli Variation has bass piano notes that almost seem to shimmer as they suddenly come at you, the keys having been struck like a hammer, whereas softer chords arrive with a delicate, velvety texture.
  • Bach’s "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" lets the PLAY:5s stretch their legs; you could be sitting in a cathedral hearing the bass notes come at you through the stone floor with the high notes fluttering and soaring up in the vaulted ceiling. The combined impact of the deep organ sounds with the mid-tones and silvery high notes is intensely dramatic.
  • Iguazu by Gustavo Santaolalla has driving, lifting ripples of notes contrasted with deep droning bass sounds. The sound has such presence you can almost feel the fingers plucking the strings of the instrument.

It’s like re-discovering your music collection all over again. The stereo separation is great. The overall listening experience better by far than the PLAY:3s, and we’re left thinking 'who needs a sub?' – the bass is that good.

Two PLAY:5s provide a better stereo experience than a PLAYBAR. As with PLAY:1s and :3s you can add two PLAY:5 speakers to a PLAYBAR and SUB for a surround sound experience that should make blockbuster movies shake your block.

Sonos is also adding a TruePlay software facility for phone and tablet users to enable them to have their mobile device listen to Sonos speakers as the walk around a room and have the speaker configuration adjusted to provide a better listening experience.

The price for a PLAY:5 is $499** meaning (gulp) a thousand dollars for a stereo pair with $2 left over for a delivery guy tip. Sonos is accepting early orders with 25 November availability. Happy Christmas hopeful music fans. ®

* PLAYBAR is Sonos’ Soundbar.

** Pricing in other currencies: C$549, A$749, €579 and £429.

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like