Impression of new (2nd gen) Play:5 as replacement for Play:1 stereo pair
Hello all,
I'm new around here (though not to Sonos) and, given the discussions I've seen in the community, I thought some of you might be interested in my experience of replacing a stereo pair of Play:1 speakers with a single 2nd generation Play:5 as the main music source in my small apartment:
Owing to a small and very awkward living space (windows everywhere, bookshelves where there are no windows), I've been looking for a good sounding one-box audio solution forever. A while ago I went a listened to the first generation Play:5 and was able to compare it quite extensively to a stereo pair of Play:1s (the same price, at the time). Whilst I was personally underwhelmed by the original Play:5, I was very impressed by the Play:1s when stereo paired; so much so that I bought them, even though I was really looking for a single sound source. The months that followed confirmed my impression that the Play:1s are excellent little speakers with a nice broad stereo sound but placement remained an issue (the right speaker was next to an armchair and thus someone's ear when occupied) and I felt I was missing out on deep bass with some music.
I thought about adding the Sub to my Play:1s but the cost and the thought of my neighbours' reactions put me off. Then the new Play:5 came out to rave reviews and I became very interested. Checking the resale value of the Play:1s and listening to the new Play:5 in a store sold me on the idea and I bought the new unit this weekend. Having listened to it solidly for two days, here are my impressions relative to the stereo Play:1s:
Starting with the negative, the Play:5 cannot fully emulate the broad soundstage that two physically separate speakers produce. The Play:1s were great in this respect and instrumental separation is not as good. Having said that, for a single box, the sound is much more spacious than you would expect and does give some impression of stereo imaging (those sideways firing tweeters doing their job, presumably). The positives? Everything else, basically. The Play:5 has a lovely, detailed, very full sound with terrific, deep, bass (I actually had to dial this down a notch in the EQ, in addition to switching off loudness, I feel it's just a little too bassy out of the box). The mid-range also sounds very good, better than the Play:1s, and the speaker is notably better at presenting massed voices in things like Tallis choral works, the Allegri Miserere, some Sigur Ros tracks etc. I haven't played around with the Trueplay room tuning yet, but will be doing so as soon as I can borrow an iThing so may update this if it makes a significant difference.
At the risk of causing certain enthusiasts heart attacks, the new Play:5 reminds me very strongly of my first attempt to get great sound from a single box: The Meridian F80. Like the Meridian, it's a (relatively) compact, weighty thing with a very powerful sound that does a decent impression of stereo and can legitimately replace a 'proper' HiFi in a space constrained situation. In conclusion, it seems I may have finally got what I've been wanting for years: One music box that sounds great, fits in my limited space and does everything I want in terms of streaming music from my own collection and the internet. Colour me happy, so far. 😉
I'm new around here (though not to Sonos) and, given the discussions I've seen in the community, I thought some of you might be interested in my experience of replacing a stereo pair of Play:1 speakers with a single 2nd generation Play:5 as the main music source in my small apartment:
Owing to a small and very awkward living space (windows everywhere, bookshelves where there are no windows), I've been looking for a good sounding one-box audio solution forever. A while ago I went a listened to the first generation Play:5 and was able to compare it quite extensively to a stereo pair of Play:1s (the same price, at the time). Whilst I was personally underwhelmed by the original Play:5, I was very impressed by the Play:1s when stereo paired; so much so that I bought them, even though I was really looking for a single sound source. The months that followed confirmed my impression that the Play:1s are excellent little speakers with a nice broad stereo sound but placement remained an issue (the right speaker was next to an armchair and thus someone's ear when occupied) and I felt I was missing out on deep bass with some music.
I thought about adding the Sub to my Play:1s but the cost and the thought of my neighbours' reactions put me off. Then the new Play:5 came out to rave reviews and I became very interested. Checking the resale value of the Play:1s and listening to the new Play:5 in a store sold me on the idea and I bought the new unit this weekend. Having listened to it solidly for two days, here are my impressions relative to the stereo Play:1s:
Starting with the negative, the Play:5 cannot fully emulate the broad soundstage that two physically separate speakers produce. The Play:1s were great in this respect and instrumental separation is not as good. Having said that, for a single box, the sound is much more spacious than you would expect and does give some impression of stereo imaging (those sideways firing tweeters doing their job, presumably). The positives? Everything else, basically. The Play:5 has a lovely, detailed, very full sound with terrific, deep, bass (I actually had to dial this down a notch in the EQ, in addition to switching off loudness, I feel it's just a little too bassy out of the box). The mid-range also sounds very good, better than the Play:1s, and the speaker is notably better at presenting massed voices in things like Tallis choral works, the Allegri Miserere, some Sigur Ros tracks etc. I haven't played around with the Trueplay room tuning yet, but will be doing so as soon as I can borrow an iThing so may update this if it makes a significant difference.
At the risk of causing certain enthusiasts heart attacks, the new Play:5 reminds me very strongly of my first attempt to get great sound from a single box: The Meridian F80. Like the Meridian, it's a (relatively) compact, weighty thing with a very powerful sound that does a decent impression of stereo and can legitimately replace a 'proper' HiFi in a space constrained situation. In conclusion, it seems I may have finally got what I've been wanting for years: One music box that sounds great, fits in my limited space and does everything I want in terms of streaming music from my own collection and the internet. Colour me happy, so far. 😉