Retired Sonos Staff

Now Playing Trueplay - Your Impressions

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
November 10, 2015
94 replies
11820 views

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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Troykm

Avid Contributor I

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.

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

chicks

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?

Chris

Lead Maestro

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??

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

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Kumar

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.

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mike1000

Lyricist I

Here's my Playbase experience with Trueplay. Following the instructions for mic position I got a bit more thump out of the bass but voices take on a kind of hollow sound - kind of like they are out of phase. Anyone familiar with what adjustments Trueplay makes? Both amplitude and phase at the various frequencies? Not so noticeable on rock music but the dialog in TV source mode can be like voices from a bottom of a barrel. Choosing to leave Trueplay off for now.

MDC

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mike1000

Lyricist I

BTW, my TV source is an LG OLED optical in PCM mode.

MDC

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Zee

Lyricist III

Personally, I like the Trueplay concept, my only issue, as with a lot of these “auto-tuning” things, is that it doesn’t allow for the room where you are just sitting in just a single seat. Ie - I shouldn’t have to walk around my bedroom waving my phone around, when I am tuning my bedroom speakers (Playbar, 2 x Play 3 and Sub), when there are only two very distinct “seating” positions, very close otgether, where my partner and I lie when we watch our TV shows an dmovies a tnight.

Would be nic eto have a “localised” or “single location” tuning option. WOnderful for th elount or sitting room, where it’s an open area and people could be just about anywhere, though.

Mind you, seeing as I actually do high end home theatre tuning, with calibrated microphones and stupidly expensive software via my laptop, I also know that it’s all a big compromise. Having said that, for the general user, I think it’s of great benefit, as otherwise, there would be no tuning at all, which likely would sound much worse than a compromised tuning for a room.

Z...

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Zee

Lyricist III

Any truplay hope on the horizon for those of us who don't drink the apple juice?

The issue is, Apple has a limited number of devices, so it’s very easy to calobrate for the microphones (though, even between “identical microphones, there will be variation). Android, on the othe rhand, has hundreds of devices, with very different hardware, often just for a single manufcaturer. Multiply that by hundreds of manufacturers... It’s impossible to calibrate for all devices.

The ideal solution, would be a USB/line level condensor mic, sold as a “Sonos Trueplay calibraiton mic”, that can then be sold for any Android device (probably could have one for Apple, too), for, say, $50, or $100... It would go a long way to making all customers happy on the Trueplay front.

Personally, I have a “Mini DSP” USB callibraiton mic, have downloaded the mic specific calibration files from the company that sells them, and it compares very well to my *much* more expensive condesnor mic that I used to use (near identical, in fact). It was about $80, and connects via USB. I’m sure Sonos could find a device like that, rebrand/adjust firmware to suit, job done. Add a nic emarkup, because, a business needs to make money, and everyone is happy.

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AlanK

Lyricist III

Just bought a Play5 this week in addtion to two 1's which i have had for 2&3 years now, I did do trueplay when it 1st came out but haven't had it for a while since either a firmware update or moving the speakers lost the tune.

Did trueplay on all 3 speakers yesterday & there was no noticeable difference to me when I toggled the trueplay on & off- does it switch on & off as soon as the toggle button is pressed or only when you come out of the menu in ios? I did do both to check but asking for future reference as I will keep trying it due to many good comments here regarding trueplay- having said that i'm happy with the sound quality i'm getting but as with most things there is always room for improvement.

Chris

Lead Maestro

I don’t notice a huge difference in the play:5. It depends on the room conditions. In all cases my Play:1 trueplay tuning is noticeably different.

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

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