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Question

No Bass or Depth on New Play 5

  • December 16, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 2468 views
A
Full disclosure - I first bought a Klipsch The Three. Had problems setting it up and couldn't get timely support from Klipsch Tech Support (over a week with no response). Sounded great once it was running but couldn't maintain a connection. I mention this as this was my reference point for comparing performance.

Purchased the Sonos Play 5 and out of the box I was impressed with the packaging and ease of setup. That's where my favorable impressions ended. The Play 5 sounded thin with no bass presence or depth of field. Even my wife heard the difference which told me something was wrong.

Proceeded with the True Play auto-tuning or whatever they call it and heard absolutely no difference. Brought out my wife's Bose Soundtouch 20 for a side by side comparison and the Bose definitely sounded better.

I impulsively packed it back up and requested an RMA to send the unit back. I still haven't shipped it an am now wondering if there were other manual adjustments I should have tried to get better results. I've read other threads that mention the EQ settings. I didn't try that as I thought that out of the box plus the TruePlay process would have optimized the sound for me.

I would welcome any suggestions or tips to try before I have to return this unit. The reviews that I've read on multiple sites are overwhelmingly positive and many call out the outstanding bass performance so I would like to believe that I either have to continue to play with the settings to get it right or consider the possibility that I just happened to receive a bad unit. Those things happen and I can be very forgiving so long as the reseller and manufacturer stand behind their products which I have no reason to believe they won't.

Sorry for the long message. Thanks again for any help you can provide!
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4 replies

K
  • Kumar
  • December 16, 2017
The EQ settings can be centred in most cases once Trueplay has been done - the default setting the latter leaves them in - for the 5 unit to sound as it is meant to. I really can't think of a reason other than a defect. Rare, but it can happen. A swap with another unit and a re listen may be a good idea before giving up on Sonos.
A
  • autrycs
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 17, 2017
Thanks for the response. I gave it another go, ran the update that was just made available and adjusted the EQ settings and now the system sounds great. Just what i was hoping for. HOWEVER, I'm now having trouble maintaining a connection. Pandora plays for a while and then stops. When i go to my phone app it has to reconnect with the system. I hate to keep comparing it to my wife's Bose Soundtouch but we had her unit in the same place and never had any connection issues. I feel like I'm being forced down the road of having to shell out another $100 bucks for a Boost. Very frustrating. Now I'll research the board for tips on connection loss.
K
  • Kumar
  • December 17, 2017
Another coincidence because the update cannot change the sound to that extent, but I do not know what did of course. Unless your source quality was the problem.

A single speaker in line of sight - essentially in the same room - of the router can cope without the Boost. Unless your home WiFi is very busy streaming HD video and the like. Before buying Boost, I suggest submitting a diagnostic to Sonos support. And after that, in parallel. if you can, run an LAN cable from the router to the 5 as a temporary trouble shooting measure to determine the root cause for the problem. If Pandora still stops, the problem is elsewhere.

Also, Sonos and Bose are two different ball games. Sonos comes into its own for multi room audio, where the Boost does help; but the USD 100 investment for anchoring the larger installation then also makes more sense than it does for a single speaker set up. The latter even without Boost will still work as well as any other wireless system, but is not the way to go if the full value from Sonos tech is to be obtained.
K
  • Kumar
  • December 17, 2017
Also, I don't use Pandora and I haven't read this thread:
https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/pandora-stops-playing-on-sonos-randomly-6796005/index1.html#post16177083

But you might find it useful.
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