Sonos Play (2026) - Underwhelmed Sonically

My ears aren't great but I've had mine playing, Wi-Fi and lossless music, for a while now and it sounds pretty good. I had planned to just listen for a few minutes and switch back to my Play 5 but it is good enough I haven't bothered.

When I quit my music library and go back to Amazon I'll switch to my 300s for the Atmos but at the level (25) I'm listening to the Play, the room is nicely filled and it is a big room.

Going to try Amazon's app on my tablet and Bluetooth later, that works great for my Ace headphones but the Play should be a lot less sweaty, about 100F here today. :-)

It seems as stated in the post, above the Roam. Somewhat unsurprising to me, given the size of the speaker itself.

I don’t have a Move to compare it to, but given it is a portable, battery equipped device, seems like another great product from Sonos.

What I never have expected was it to sound the same as my Arc and Era 300s, with a Sub, it just isn’t that style of device. 

I’d give that self TruePlay a little time to self adjust, I don’t expect miracles on 30 seconds. I would more likely give it several hours to process the data from the room before making any judgements. OTOH, it sounds great out of the box. 

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

Fair points ​@Airgetlam. To be clear, I wasn’t expecting it to sound like my aforementioned home theater set up. The expectation was to be delighted with its sound, given the form factor. I’ll give the TP some time as you wisely suggest; however since it’s portable and the listening environment changes frequently, how long is enough time?

Def going to check out other portables in this price range, to compare what’s possible and not be unfair given the form factor.

Will do!

It’s a valid question, and being neither an engineer nor a programmer, I don’t know. I figure a couple of hours should be good, but there is always the ‘this is what I’m accustomed at this point’ versus the ‘it should have adjusted in x amount of time’. I just don’t know. I’m not willing to rush to judgement on it yet, though. It will take me a bit more listening time to have a valuable opinion….which has as much value as you put on it ;)

Def prefer TP off. Bass is tighter and vocals breath more (Marvin’s “What’s Going on).

My experience with TP has been variable. Sometimes the results are great, sometimes foul, other times I don’t notice any difference. This is with the same pair of speakers, but different locations. I know a fellow who doesn’t think anything sounds good unless bass, treble, and subwoofer are at max. TP is a disaster for him.

In the end only you know what sounds “best” (to you).

To me, PLAY performance is sort of at the midpoint between ROAM 2 and MOVE 2, but it offers more connectivity options. I’m always shocked how well ROAM performs for such a small package. PLAY is definitely better, but it does not fit in a pocket as easily.

The only alternatives my AI coughed up, that look interesting, are the JBL Extreme speakers, both 3 and 4. I like the separated bass drivers in theory. Not sure if I’m going to order one to compare to the Play or not. I’m mainly looking for a good sounding portable speaker; connectivity (wifi/bt v bt) and inclusivity with the Sonos app and my two other Sonos rooms/zones (not clear on the diff), are not the priority (with one exception, detailed below).

One thing I noticed, and this may be user error. I could port the sound from my TV to the Play as long as I had my Arc room/zone toggled on too (just pulled the Arc volume down to 0). When I toggled the Arc off, the Play defaulted back to my previously used music app input and stopped playing the TV audio.

As regards a wifi-less speaker; can modern TVs output/cast via bt, to just a bt speaker? One of the reasons I bought the Play, was for travel, thinking AirPlay 2 would be good for this use case.

Lastly, the Play is certainly a much better looking unit than the JBL, lol. I mean the Extreme is just, well, ugly to me compared to the Play; silly to consider this but it’s probably the main factor keeping me from ordering one from Amazon, which could have it here in a few hours, lol.

EDIT: I ordered the 4.

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.

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.

The difference is Airplay isn’t lossless on Sonos.

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.

​@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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Voice control isn't an option I'd consider, don't like the security implications.

Now if Sonos had a replacement for the CR-100s that originally got me to buy my first Sonos. NOT the unusably small  CR-200 though.

Until then my Play 3s are by far my favorites, the Play a close second.