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Left/right distribution of the 6 elements of the Play 5 (gen 2)

  • 1 July 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 545 views
S
Hi Sonos,

I just sold of my $3000 passive speakers + amp only to invest in a pair of Play 5s and I'm truly impressed with the sound quality. I'm blown away. I've listened to Sonos before but since the audio quality was beyond bad I never invested. The Play 5 gen 2 however sets a new standard in your products.

Now, I noticed that one of the tweeters turned off when I paired my speakers. Is this because the left and right tweeters are hardcoded to be left/right with the amps or is it because it improves the stereo image. I just wanted to make sure it's not a fault.

Thanks!

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Best answer by ratty 1 July 2018, 18:07

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5 replies

ratty
If you're concerned about hardware malfunction, you can always unpair them temporarily and play some gentle white noise to highlight the tweeter outputs.

Pairing does however change how the tweeters are used. You didn't identify the orientation. In vertical mode both side tweeters are disabled, leaving just the centre tweeter. Overall the stereo image is sharper.

In horizontal mode one would expect that the 'inner' tweeter doesn't do much, the 'outer' tweeter being left active to provide additional soundstage width. In this orientation image width is given preference over sharpness.

A pair of PLAY:5 gen2 can certainly hold their own against traditional separates at similar, or higher, price points. Active speakers with per-driver amplification is an inherently more correct engineering solution. And with the addition of Trueplay tuning, room effects can be substantially mitigated too.
S
Thanks, I did forget to mention that both tweeters do work when the play 5s aren't paired, horizontal position. Although in my case it's the outer tweeter that seems to be disabled in paired mode. I've got a 2m/6ft separation between the speakers. It would have been great to have the choice to choose how to disable/enable tweeters. In my room dimensions it would make sense to have both tweeters active. If you could decide on which would handle left/right.
ratty
Although in my case it's the outer tweeter that seems to be disabled in paired mode.
Okay. My wrong assumption and I'm happy to be corrected on that. I've always mounted my P:5s vertically.

I've got a 2m/6ft separation between the speakers. It would have been great to have the choice to choose how to disable/enable tweeters. In my room dimensions it would make sense to have both tweeters active. If you could decide on which would handle left/right.

As far as I know there isn't any cross-feeding in a stereo pair. The left speaker plays the left channel, and the right the right. Sonos may also do some DSP trickery between the active tweeters within a single unit, so as to project the sound out a bit.
S
You're absolutely right about active speakers with separate amps being the best engineering solution. The frequency response of a passive speaker is useless if the amp can't match that perfectly and of course transient response of the bass will be much better if the amp energy can focus on doing just that.
K
Active speakers allow a more efficient use of amplification. For instance the tweeter can be given just 50 watts amplification while the woofer, 200 watts; the higher power needed to obtain the same sound levels from it as from the tweeter with 50 watts driving it. And the amplifier/driver can be precisely matched by the manufacturer compared to the often hit and miss matching that is done at the user level where passive speakers driven by third party amps are concerned.

Crossovers can be at the digital level and more sophisticated DSP can be deployed, Trueplay being just one example of this deployment.

Finally, the USD 3000 figure is meaningless for an apples to apples comparison for what the two alternatives contain in terms of hardware and software. A large part of the former is paid to fund marketing and other overhead distributed over far lower volumes than what Sonos can obtain, as well as for fancier lower volume and therefore more expensive to procure cabinetry and veneers. Finally, the much lower volumes need a higher per unit margin to obtain a viable ROI for the maker of the lower volume products. Which is why a USD 500 Sonos solution can take on one at much higher price points from low volume makes, and still compete on level terms, and often win.

What the low volume makes do to survive is prey on the mentality that more expensive = better sound quality, by appealing to the snob in all of us.
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