Trueplay is now available for the world to try and we’d love to hear what you think about the tuning. Have you noticed a change in your home? What are your impressions?
Personally, I first set up Trueplay in the worst possible situation I had at home, an original PLAY:5 sitting half behind a hollowed out speaker tower speaker which was used as a table for a record player (it’s a long story). The room has stone floors, high ceilings, and a few couches. The difference was immense.
After my dance around the room the PLAY:5 sounded like a completely different speaker. The highs were much clearer, and the lows resonated better throughout the room. Friends in the house couldn’t believe the difference either.
The next room I tested was much better off. The PLAY:3 in there was in a better place already, sitting toward the corner of the room, on top of a table. Wood floors, much smaller room, lower ceilings. There was still a noticeable change, as Trueplay really does help out the PLAY:3, but it wasn’t as big as with that first room.
Let us know how it goes! We recommend testing out 5 tracks that you know very well and seeing the difference. What rooms did you try it out in? What did you notice? What are your experiences? Share your stories here.
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In my time using Trueplay I have had some truely fantastic experiences with music and the way I listen to music!
My main setup consists of two PLAY:1's and a SUB (which receive a line-in signal from a CONNECT:AMP). This is in my room and what I thought was a great sounding room and environment for my players. I have always thought the sound from my setup was exceptional and the only thing I ever tweaked was the SUB volume (because I like a little extra house shaking bass). I've always been impressed with the sound these little PLAY:1's put out, and the excellent bass production from SUB.
My other tuneable player is a single PLAY:5 in a bigger living room. Over the time I have been using TruePlay this has changed location about 3 times. I always found the original PLAY:5 to be a little flat to my ears. It just didn't have that whole room experience to me and it never seemed to really immerse me in sound. It was very bass heavy and (of course I liked that), the highs were kind of flat. This could very well be the locations I had it in but it just never satisfied me like my two PLAY:1's have.
So now we get onto Trueplay.
I've tuned my room numerous times to see how it would change the way it tunes each time, when putting into account me moving in different directions around the room each time, and having SUB in different locations. Overall, every single time I tuned I got the same consistent experience.
This experience is actually one of the most satisfying I have ever heard from Trueplay. Almost every single aspect of my speakers has been improved. Highs, mids, lows, clarity, fullness, atmospherics, soundstage, precision. Everything I could think of has had a tune up. I really did not expect this when I first tried it and at first I thought "Wow. Those sound sharper.", until I turned Trueplay off while playing a song. WOW! What a difference it made.
I realised just how bad my speakers sounded before tuning them (in comparison). I noticed there was very, very flat highs. The mids were kind of soaking the rest of the audio and had a kind of muddiness to them, and the bass was very boomy. It was like a huge punch in the face of bass (which of course, can't complain there). - With TruePlay on those highs went crystal clear and the mid range was cut back considerably and also became more accurate in it's reproduction, it sounded very precise and accurate. The lows were cut back too, now the bass from the SUB still has a very impactful sound but for every kick it sounds as I believe it should, without the boomy splash that it did before (unless it needs to be). I am just truly impressed with just how damn good these speakers sound now, and I thought they were good before this. I also noticed the soundstage became a bit more accurate and more spread. I could now hear certain effects or instruments right near my ears, instead of in-front of me placed on the soundstage. This to me sounds excellent and gives the music another dimension where each sound really has it's own place in the environment.
So for the PLAY:5, it actually said there wasn't much it could do for the tuning. At first I didn't notice the difference, but I turned Trueplay off while playing a song and realised that it tightened up the bass considerably. It was really punchy now and thick and had a good dimension to it. Even some lows sounded more audible than before. The highs changed a ton. They were completely audible over the top of everything else now. A lot more pronounced in the mix, whereas before the mids drowned them out. In saying that, the mids were tuned ridiculously. Just the changes it made to the mids made this sound like a new speaker. It made everything else clear. It wasn't as big of a difference as the PLAY:1's + SUB but it did bring a new life to what I thought was an okay sounding PLAY:5, and it specifically focused on reducing the mids and increasing the highs, which is EXACTLY what I always thought was off. Overall, it now sounds a lot more accurate and fills out the area a bit more in all ranges.
I have also tried Trueplay with two SUB's and it was one hell of an experience. Trueplay seems to be so accurate that even the crossover and other dynamics between both SUB's were tuned accurately enough that there was no frequency clashing or issues or lost range. It was all perfect, and I've definitely noticed both one SUB and two SUB's play a very, very more audible 30Hz down to 25Hz frequency range now. I can actually hear that rated 25Hz and it has a very precise presence. Never heard those lows so well before. In one of the rooms I tested the SUB in, it would shake and rattle windows a lot. After I tuned it the window rattle was gone. The bass was still powerful but something about it was different because the windows now sounded quiet.
Overall, absolutely fantastic experience!
I am also definitely not saying I think my speakers sounded like crap before, I loved how they sounded, but now in comparison they do sound like crap without Trueplay. 😛 If you know what I mean! :P
To whoever reads this whole thing, I thank you for your patience and would love to hear your thoughts! 🙂
My main setup consists of two PLAY:1's and a SUB (which receive a line-in signal from a CONNECT:AMP). This is in my room and what I thought was a great sounding room and environment for my players. I have always thought the sound from my setup was exceptional and the only thing I ever tweaked was the SUB volume (because I like a little extra house shaking bass). I've always been impressed with the sound these little PLAY:1's put out, and the excellent bass production from SUB.
My other tuneable player is a single PLAY:5 in a bigger living room. Over the time I have been using TruePlay this has changed location about 3 times. I always found the original PLAY:5 to be a little flat to my ears. It just didn't have that whole room experience to me and it never seemed to really immerse me in sound. It was very bass heavy and (of course I liked that), the highs were kind of flat. This could very well be the locations I had it in but it just never satisfied me like my two PLAY:1's have.
So now we get onto Trueplay.
I've tuned my room numerous times to see how it would change the way it tunes each time, when putting into account me moving in different directions around the room each time, and having SUB in different locations. Overall, every single time I tuned I got the same consistent experience.
This experience is actually one of the most satisfying I have ever heard from Trueplay. Almost every single aspect of my speakers has been improved. Highs, mids, lows, clarity, fullness, atmospherics, soundstage, precision. Everything I could think of has had a tune up. I really did not expect this when I first tried it and at first I thought "Wow. Those sound sharper.", until I turned Trueplay off while playing a song. WOW! What a difference it made.
I realised just how bad my speakers sounded before tuning them (in comparison). I noticed there was very, very flat highs. The mids were kind of soaking the rest of the audio and had a kind of muddiness to them, and the bass was very boomy. It was like a huge punch in the face of bass (which of course, can't complain there). - With TruePlay on those highs went crystal clear and the mid range was cut back considerably and also became more accurate in it's reproduction, it sounded very precise and accurate. The lows were cut back too, now the bass from the SUB still has a very impactful sound but for every kick it sounds as I believe it should, without the boomy splash that it did before (unless it needs to be). I am just truly impressed with just how damn good these speakers sound now, and I thought they were good before this. I also noticed the soundstage became a bit more accurate and more spread. I could now hear certain effects or instruments right near my ears, instead of in-front of me placed on the soundstage. This to me sounds excellent and gives the music another dimension where each sound really has it's own place in the environment.
So for the PLAY:5, it actually said there wasn't much it could do for the tuning. At first I didn't notice the difference, but I turned Trueplay off while playing a song and realised that it tightened up the bass considerably. It was really punchy now and thick and had a good dimension to it. Even some lows sounded more audible than before. The highs changed a ton. They were completely audible over the top of everything else now. A lot more pronounced in the mix, whereas before the mids drowned them out. In saying that, the mids were tuned ridiculously. Just the changes it made to the mids made this sound like a new speaker. It made everything else clear. It wasn't as big of a difference as the PLAY:1's + SUB but it did bring a new life to what I thought was an okay sounding PLAY:5, and it specifically focused on reducing the mids and increasing the highs, which is EXACTLY what I always thought was off. Overall, it now sounds a lot more accurate and fills out the area a bit more in all ranges.
I have also tried Trueplay with two SUB's and it was one hell of an experience. Trueplay seems to be so accurate that even the crossover and other dynamics between both SUB's were tuned accurately enough that there was no frequency clashing or issues or lost range. It was all perfect, and I've definitely noticed both one SUB and two SUB's play a very, very more audible 30Hz down to 25Hz frequency range now. I can actually hear that rated 25Hz and it has a very precise presence. Never heard those lows so well before. In one of the rooms I tested the SUB in, it would shake and rattle windows a lot. After I tuned it the window rattle was gone. The bass was still powerful but something about it was different because the windows now sounded quiet.
Overall, absolutely fantastic experience!
I am also definitely not saying I think my speakers sounded like crap before, I loved how they sounded, but now in comparison they do sound like crap without Trueplay. 😛 If you know what I mean! :P
To whoever reads this whole thing, I thank you for your patience and would love to hear your thoughts! 🙂
Well I have one play:1 in the kitchen, and two pairs as stereo pairs in office and bed room, and I have to say it's amazing the difference! Just sound more natural and open, although the app said I'd did not change much, turning true play off the on, you can really hear the difference!! Thanks Sonos! Can't wait for my new play:5's for the living room!!!!!
Whacked on V6 and immediately ran Trueplay in the three rooms I've got with Play-5's. First impressions - pretty epic.
After doing the setup the screen read words to the effect that "The speaker placement didn't seem to make much difference and only minimal changes were needed" - I was a bit miffed !
But the changes I'd say are immediate and noticeable. Master Bedroom is about 15ft square, lowish combed ceiling and settee as well as bed and furniture. Much bigger sound, clearer high notes and much more bass. Overall a much more room filling sound.
Kitchen is about 17ft and 25 ft, high ceiling. Same effect, much bigger sound with better defined bass and clearer highs, much improved. Starts to sound thin when I get the volume up to a level that might kill fish but that no disrespect to what's a pretty small speaker for a room of that volume.
Overall - I'm fairly impressed with Truplay.
Advice: Listen to a favourite track immediately before running Trueplay so you're better able to compare.
Sonos - Still the best !
After doing the setup the screen read words to the effect that "The speaker placement didn't seem to make much difference and only minimal changes were needed" - I was a bit miffed !
But the changes I'd say are immediate and noticeable. Master Bedroom is about 15ft square, lowish combed ceiling and settee as well as bed and furniture. Much bigger sound, clearer high notes and much more bass. Overall a much more room filling sound.
Kitchen is about 17ft and 25 ft, high ceiling. Same effect, much bigger sound with better defined bass and clearer highs, much improved. Starts to sound thin when I get the volume up to a level that might kill fish but that no disrespect to what's a pretty small speaker for a room of that volume.
Overall - I'm fairly impressed with Truplay.
Advice: Listen to a favourite track immediately before running Trueplay so you're better able to compare.
Sonos - Still the best !
I think trueplay really shines when it comes to the Play:1. After trueplay tuning for me it sounded much more like the untuned play:3. Of course the play:3 was even better still with trueplay tuning. My play:5 in an open room was not as noticeable a change. Of course this makes sense in that the worse the room and more obstacles - the more the trueplay adaptation.
Just tuned my Play:3/SUB combo & boy...what a VAST improvement!
I've enjoyed my Play:3's for about 2 years with complete satisfaction, but with all the raves about the SUB, I recently added that to my system. It was great, like going from 9/10 to 9.5/10...a great investment. My living room with the Sonos is a spartanly furnished 14 by 16 foot room with an 8 foot ceiling. Hardwood floor with no carpet.
Now with Tuneplay, it is even better. Like upgraded speakers. I listen mostly to lossless acoustic jazz & folky pop. After my initial astonishment, I made a playlist ranging from old faves & newer classics. When doing an A/B comparison of tuned/untuned, it seemed like a veil was lifted off of the speakers. Degauzed, all the instruments seemed to pop & have separate identities in the mix. More like live music. It was at once warmer & more crisp. For me the difference in sound is more noticeable than when I first added the SUB!
And finally, all of the above applies equally to the streamed music from Amazon Prime. Even though these streams are compressed (I assume) the music still retains the robust soundstage.
It is obvious that a lot of research & development went into this beyond spreadsheets & graphs.
My ears thank you.
I've enjoyed my Play:3's for about 2 years with complete satisfaction, but with all the raves about the SUB, I recently added that to my system. It was great, like going from 9/10 to 9.5/10...a great investment. My living room with the Sonos is a spartanly furnished 14 by 16 foot room with an 8 foot ceiling. Hardwood floor with no carpet.
Now with Tuneplay, it is even better. Like upgraded speakers. I listen mostly to lossless acoustic jazz & folky pop. After my initial astonishment, I made a playlist ranging from old faves & newer classics. When doing an A/B comparison of tuned/untuned, it seemed like a veil was lifted off of the speakers. Degauzed, all the instruments seemed to pop & have separate identities in the mix. More like live music. It was at once warmer & more crisp. For me the difference in sound is more noticeable than when I first added the SUB!
And finally, all of the above applies equally to the streamed music from Amazon Prime. Even though these streams are compressed (I assume) the music still retains the robust soundstage.
It is obvious that a lot of research & development went into this beyond spreadsheets & graphs.
My ears thank you.
Just tuned my Play 1,s, Play 3 and Play 5 paired with a sub.
All reported only subtle changes after using Trueplay.
The Play 1's sound better to me with a fuller vocal range and more clarity. EQ was set to centre on both bass and treble.
The Play 3 as above but a little tinny so after increasing the bass by one click to the right it sounded better. EQ treble and balance centred.
The Play 5 and sub I found a little disappointing. Whilst I'll admit I like a little bass with my music and it's an expensive bit of kit so I want to hear it!.
On the test songs I know well which go quite low and have a little kick, after Trueplay the bass was lacking. EQ settings all centred with my change to the sub settings being three clicks to the right and I'm happy again.
I did retest moving around just the seating area rather than the whole room as mentioned earlier only to have the same results.
My lounge is a large room with the sub in a corner so I guess it's difficult to tune room acoustics.
I would also like to say thank you to Sonos for the HLS stream fix and their ongoing commitment to updating and supporting their excellent products.
All reported only subtle changes after using Trueplay.
The Play 1's sound better to me with a fuller vocal range and more clarity. EQ was set to centre on both bass and treble.
The Play 3 as above but a little tinny so after increasing the bass by one click to the right it sounded better. EQ treble and balance centred.
The Play 5 and sub I found a little disappointing. Whilst I'll admit I like a little bass with my music and it's an expensive bit of kit so I want to hear it!.
On the test songs I know well which go quite low and have a little kick, after Trueplay the bass was lacking. EQ settings all centred with my change to the sub settings being three clicks to the right and I'm happy again.
I did retest moving around just the seating area rather than the whole room as mentioned earlier only to have the same results.
My lounge is a large room with the sub in a corner so I guess it's difficult to tune room acoustics.
I would also like to say thank you to Sonos for the HLS stream fix and their ongoing commitment to updating and supporting their excellent products.
Ok, I was really disappointed when all my rooms came back with 'minimal difference to your settings. ...... until I then played music. Was my setting so far out before?
Well done Sonos - after 5 years its still my favourite gadget!
Well done Sonos - after 5 years its still my favourite gadget!
I thought my Play:1s sounded perfect before tuning them. After the tune, Sonos reported subtle changes, and I fired them up and they sounded on par with what I (thought) I was hearing before... until I turned off TruePlay. WOW! What a difference... such a full, well-rounded sound now. Fantastic job, gang!
we really need true play for player home theatre set up that would be epic
What we think matters a lot less; what sounds better to you IS better for you.
As to the sound of the original recording, no one outside the recording studio knows what that is, and even not many there do. The mastering process involves many recording engineer decisions of what he/she thinks the music should sound like, taking into account what most people find pleasing.
Which gets us back to - whatever that sounds more pleasing to your ears is the way to listen to music. Trueplay is the Sonos version of what the recording engineer does, with the EQ sliders there for you to customise that to your tastes if felt necessary. And, a Trueplay toggle to turn it off if you still can't come to agreement with this Sonos opinion.
As to the sound of the original recording, no one outside the recording studio knows what that is, and even not many there do. The mastering process involves many recording engineer decisions of what he/she thinks the music should sound like, taking into account what most people find pleasing.
Which gets us back to - whatever that sounds more pleasing to your ears is the way to listen to music. Trueplay is the Sonos version of what the recording engineer does, with the EQ sliders there for you to customise that to your tastes if felt necessary. And, a Trueplay toggle to turn it off if you still can't come to agreement with this Sonos opinion.
Android actually has more features where applicable like ability to connect to sonosnet direct. To imply Sonos doesn’t care to support android fully is without any merit.
Any truplay hope on the horizon for those of us who don't drink the apple juice?
I can't try beacuse for andorid isn't present 😞
1 x Play 1, 1 x Play 3, 1 x Play 5 trueplay definitely improved sound on all three each in their own room's. Most improvement is with Play 1 in the bathroom (safely wired and located away from moisture); a big sound in this bright, hard walled room.
I have one Play:5 (gen1) and I heard of trueplay and couldn't imagine how it should work so well. I read reviews online before it was released and it was highly praised... Then when it came out I had a friend with his iPhone over and we tuned the Play:5. at first I didn't hear a difference... But when I turned it off again I wondered how i was able to listen to music before although the app only reported "minor changes"! Much clearer sound than before! Keep going Sonos!
So I tuned 3 rooms after upgrading to the version 6 controller software. In they case of each room, the differences were subtle - but noticeable.
All I can say is that after tuning the music sounds ---- well more musical! The vocals are more pronounced and the bass is more taught and with more punch. My wife noticed that the music sounded better but could not put into words. "That sounds really good"
I would look at it this way: all speakers interact with the rooms they are placed in. Manufacturers have no way of knowing where or how the speakers will be placed in a room and the volume of the room. Some rooms are soft and plush - absorptive - while other rooms are hard and reflective. TruePlay is Sonos answer to helping mate their speakers to rooms through innovative engineering. I think it is awesome. With a relatively simple procedure, one can improve the frequency response of his/her speakers just by walking around and waving your phone in the air. How cool is that.
One thing people should try is pick several of your favorite tracks and then enable/disable TruePlay tuning for that room and close your eyes. I have done this and much prefer the tuned version as opposed to the previous default EQ. I think the vocals is where I notice just sound more life-like. Even when listening to NPR over the radio - they voices just sound more natural.
A great big thanks to all the Sonos engineers that made this a reality. Over time it will get even better.
I think this is a real game-changer!
Rock on.
All I can say is that after tuning the music sounds ---- well more musical! The vocals are more pronounced and the bass is more taught and with more punch. My wife noticed that the music sounded better but could not put into words. "That sounds really good"
I would look at it this way: all speakers interact with the rooms they are placed in. Manufacturers have no way of knowing where or how the speakers will be placed in a room and the volume of the room. Some rooms are soft and plush - absorptive - while other rooms are hard and reflective. TruePlay is Sonos answer to helping mate their speakers to rooms through innovative engineering. I think it is awesome. With a relatively simple procedure, one can improve the frequency response of his/her speakers just by walking around and waving your phone in the air. How cool is that.
One thing people should try is pick several of your favorite tracks and then enable/disable TruePlay tuning for that room and close your eyes. I have done this and much prefer the tuned version as opposed to the previous default EQ. I think the vocals is where I notice just sound more life-like. Even when listening to NPR over the radio - they voices just sound more natural.
A great big thanks to all the Sonos engineers that made this a reality. Over time it will get even better.
I think this is a real game-changer!
Rock on.
Further to the above, I went back to see if I have missed something subtle in Trueplay in a duet album of Houston Person and Ron Carter. I toggled Trueplay, but I did not hear anything different from either. Toggling the Sub on the other hand makes a subtle but very palpable difference in how present Carter's voice is in the room because of the Sub.
I read it! And I love it. Thanks for the detailed write-up kmjy! We're all really glad you've had such a great experience with Trueplay so far.
My experience has been underwhelming.
I first ran this in a small bedroom with a single play 1 unit. Tuning done easily enough, reported only minor changes and on toggling back and forth there wasn't anything different.
In a larger open plan living room, for a 1 pair + Sub it took some time, the fourth attempt. The first three were aborted halfway through by an error message of "can't communicate with your player, try again" or some such. The successful attempt returned a similar report as above and similar results on a back and forth toggle - nothing audible.
In both places my starting eq for best sound was centre positions for the sliders.
I first ran this in a small bedroom with a single play 1 unit. Tuning done easily enough, reported only minor changes and on toggling back and forth there wasn't anything different.
In a larger open plan living room, for a 1 pair + Sub it took some time, the fourth attempt. The first three were aborted halfway through by an error message of "can't communicate with your player, try again" or some such. The successful attempt returned a similar report as above and similar results on a back and forth toggle - nothing audible.
In both places my starting eq for best sound was centre positions for the sliders.
True play is awesome, I have two play 5's paired as a stereo setup; downside is the app still doesn't support for the iphone 8 😕 have to borrow my friends iphone 7
Troykm
Kumar can you remember how to see the difference metric for trueplay? I’ve forgotten.
You can't anymore; Sonos has taken away access to that information in the matrix. Among many other bits of information, for alleged security reasons.
Interesting question chicks?
They have been a little slow to verify and do update allowing iPhone 8 and iPhone X to work with Trueplay ... I wonder if that team has been busy with a new more complicated project??
They have been a little slow to verify and do update allowing iPhone 8 and iPhone X to work with Trueplay ... I wonder if that team has been busy with a new more complicated project??
Now that the Ones have multiple microphones, and given that the upcoming Apple widget will supposedly use its mics to self-tune to the room it's in, I wonder what plans are in Sonos' room-tuning future?
Kumar can you remember how to see the difference metric for trueplay? I’ve forgotten.
Interestingly while on phone to support I did a before and after diagnostic on two of my speakers and the kitchen play 1 had a massive change in the trueplay result going from 12 to 8. Also we learned that the iPhone produced a wildly different result to the iPad, something that should not be the case according to support so they were interested in that too
Loudness setting doesn't matter. And after relocating a play 1 after a year, my retune showed a bigger difference, with a slightly stronger bass line as compared to Trueplay left off in the new space; last year, there wasn't any noticeable difference. So if an iPhone is handy, it is worth the 5 minutes of quiet it takes to retune with no downside to it.
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