Enthusiast I

Sonos Play (2026) - Underwhelmed Sonically

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
March 31, 2026
21 replies
819 views

Is it just me, or is anyone else a bit underwhelmed by how the new Play speaker sounds, especially muddy mids? This could just be my expectation vs. ….

It doesn’t sound bad, it just doesn’t sound $279-ish good. I’ll always remember how great the first listen of my Arc/SL 100s/Sub3 was, now updated with a pair of Era 300s; and still is!

Other considerations:

The build quality is excellent
It was super easy to set up
I’m listening via wifi with lossless codec from AppleMusic
Auto True-play does very little, if anything
It would be nice if Sonos would engineer a multi-band EQ, like every other modern speaker on the market
...instead of relegating us to the bass/treble only

I’ll definitely give it a week, but like with the Beam and Ray my first impression seems to be the one that sticks. Both of those items were returned.

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C

craigski

Local Superstar

I always use the stand alone app, because I can’t save or create playlists within AppleMusic, when I use the app, from within Sonos. I only seem to be able to create playlists within Sonos, which then does not serve me when I’m mobile or not at home.

Curate your AM playlist in AM native App, then play the AM playlist from the Sonos AM music service using Sonos App. If its a frequent playlist, add it to Sonos Favourites. No need for Sonos Playlists for the exact reason you mention, they are not with you when you are not at home.

kdowling

What is the quality difference between “AirPlay” coming from AppleMusic stand alone (iPhone or Desktop). And the lossless or Hi-res lossless coming from AppleMusic within the Sonos app? The later is definitely louder at the same volume setting.

The difference is Airplay isn’t lossless on Sonos.

jnellyAuthor

Enthusiast I

So the Extreme 4 is not really comparable to the Play. It’s more of an equivalent to the larger Sonos portable. I didn’t realize how large the E4 is. Its bass is great for electronic music. The Play sounds better, sans bass however. E4 is going back; it’s to big for my use case.

jnellyAuthor

Enthusiast I

I always use the stand alone app, because I can’t save or create playlists within AppleMusic, when I use the app, from within Sonos. I only seem to be able to create playlists within Sonos, which then does not serve me when I’m mobile or not at home.

Curate your AM playlist in AM native App, then play the AM playlist from the Sonos AM music service using Sonos App. If its a frequent playlist, add it to Sonos Favourites. No need for Sonos Playlists for the exact reason you mention, they are not with you when you are not at home.

@craigski I don’t do this, because often when listening to said AM PL’s I curate and create new PL’s from the songs I like.

jnellyAuthor

Enthusiast I

@jnelly please post back any updates after the week. I’m on the fence atm.

Will do!

Hey @Mangoe, short of the bass, which I don’t think can be faulted given the form factor, the speaker is growing on me. (have to say the bass on the JBL E4 was great, but the thing is huge; way to big for me; I returned it; the Play sounded better for mids and highs)

I’ll probably keep the Play.

If you’re still OTF, just get it at Bestbuy, it’s an easy return. I ordered on Sonos, got 15% off and picked it up at BB.

W

wollhu

Lyricist I

I can definitely relate to your impression. I got it because I had wanted to replace my Roam 2. I really liked the size, features and build quality of the Play. But the sounds was underwhelming: To me the stereo separation was really impressive and a good improvement over the Roam 2. However, the the bass sounded kind of flat and shallow, which made the whole listening experience seem unbalanced in comparison to my Roam 2.

I had expected it to sound more like a mobile Era 100, especially given the steep price. So I returned it and will wait for a Roam 3 I guess. I still wonder, if I was sent a bad unit, because all the reviews really raved about the sound.

buzz

I take reviews with a grain of salt. I need to know the reviewer. There is a brand of speaker that has a huge following and legions of good reviews. I and reviewers that I respect think that these speakers are terrible. I understand why some people like the speakers and I may even recommend the speaker to a person who i think is part of the legion, but the speakers definitely are not for me.

106rallye

As I’ve stated her before: I prefer the Play over my One. Bass is better.

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

I'm using my Play more than my Play 5 gen 1, sound at very low levels is more than good enough but the main deciding factor is I can actually use the Play as it has real buttons. The Play 5 is about useless without the app as there is no way for me to use the touch controls without folding my recliner, standing up and turning on an overhead light.

The Play, I reach over, feel for the middle button and push it. Volume is just as easy.

I'm leaning to replacing another much more expensive speaker with a Play as the stupid touch spots on it are equally useless and I often find myself not bothering to play something rather than go fetch a controller and App.

buzz

While not straight forward with a PLAY:5 gen 1, you could use Alexa, rather than touch.

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