SONOS, the worse system ever

  • 11 April 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 173 views

I am a retired sound engineer, technical manager of several recording and post production studios. I began my professional life as an electronic engineer in a hifi company, and finished it as a network administrator and web designer.
A friend of mine had the bad idea to offer to me his old sonos system, composed of a NAS, a bridge, a Play3 and a Play5.
I had spend two days to connect them. TWO f… full days. I had never seen in my life such a stupid system, so badly designed, so badly explained and so many bugs in one single app. Nothing was working as expected. And I’m not alone to think this: just see the ratings of the Sonos1 app in ‘Play Store !!!

And the sound quality: No comment :-(

I'm on the verge of throwing it all in the one room where this whole mess will work properly: the trash can!

Just for the record, I own a pair of Kef 50 Wireless. It took 10mn to set them and the sound quality is just day and night: How can somebody pretend a single enclosure like Play5 to be ‘stereo’ and  have the nerve to speak about sound stage !!!
 


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4 replies

Bridge is old and now unreliable tech and discontinued years ago. Nobody talks of sound stage with a single Play speaker (two can be stereo paired).

If you really don't understand the difference between the type of wireless speaker that a Kef is and what Sonos is, it is no wonder you are having problems. 

 Nobody talks of sound stage with a single Play speaker (two can be stereo paired).

If you really don't understand the difference between the type of wireless speaker that a Kef is and what Sonos is, it is no wonder you are having problems. 

Unfortunately, on its website, Sonos implicitly talks sound stage from a single play 5; when they claim a wider sound stage from a 5 pair in comparison to a single 5. And a 5 offers a sound stage, at up to 2-3 feet distance from the single speaker. In practice of course that does not translate into one for normal listening positions.

I have neither a 5 nor a KEF 50, although I have other KEF speakers. And given the price points, I would compare the KEF pair with a 5 pair + Sub. In that case, I strongly suspect that you will find as many fans of the Sonos set up as you will for the KEF set up, where sound quality is concerned. Especially because as a mini monitor, the KEF simply cannot do what the Sub does on the lower frequency front.

Thanks Kumar. I stand corrected on the sound stage point. I think that is an unfortunate claim. 

On the other points, I maintain that it is impossible to judge Sonos on the basis of a networking device that Sonos recommends no longer be used, and speakers that are inferior to the current range, andused singly

 

On the other points, I maintain that it is impossible to judge Sonos on the basis of a networking device that Sonos recommends no longer be used, and speakers that are inferior to the current range, andused singly

Yes to the single v pair comparison being inappropriate, but no to that with the older speaker range being used. I had one of the original play 5 units and for that, if used as a pair + Sub, my comment in my earlier post as to that set up’s sound quality would still apply, I believe.