Play 5 huge letdown
Anyone else purchased a gen 2 play 5 and been shocked at the poor sound? I have had it a few weeks and can't believe all the rubbish spouted in the press. Despite being used in a few locations and having true play set up its terrible. Closed in mid range, splashy treble and flat sounding. Does Sonos only offer 100 day returns if bought from them? Anyone want to buy it?
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The Play 5 was new out of the box. Not tuned for any specific area. No, I don’t think that Inlike the sound signature of the A2, A much smaller Bluetooth based speaker, than the Play 5s that I used to live so much.
The Play 5s that are in their regular locations in the bedroom and Kitchen/Family Room do not sound as good as they used to. And they are not as loud at the same volume level.
The Play 5s that are in their regular locations in the bedroom and Kitchen/Family Room do not sound as good as they used to. And they are not as loud at the same volume level.
If all three suffer from the same symptom it is a rare enough one for it to be suspect. Note that there is also a very high correlation between sound levels and sound quality.
Best send a diagnostic to Sonos support and quote it in an email to them; I don't see that any other solution exists in your case.
Best send a diagnostic to Sonos support and quote it in an email to them; I don't see that any other solution exists in your case.
Good idea.
I agree 100%. Until we read a review that is meant to get us to be dissatisfied with what we have!
I switched from a laptop / J River to a Hegel amp and ATC Sc40mk2 + a JL audio sub. For less than half the price, my stereo pair play 5 mk2 plus sub is worryingly close. I suspect partly that my room acoustics were really not helping with the old system, but then I've owned similar gear in several different houses over the years and in my experience the sonos system is definitely better than any similarly priced separates system (eg NAD / B&W etc). These things are all subjective of course, but room acoustics are way more critical than the hardware, you can't spend your way out of a poor environment. Funnily enough I came across this review on YouTube. I guess the reviewer has similar views, but interestingly and without conducting a proper ab blind test then the bias we will exhibit (fan boi vs trad audiophile) is probably playing a bit part here?
https://youtu.be/47VGW3LSRng
FWIW my experience is that this is not some "lifestyle" system, though I'd agree that this only applies to play 5. The play 1 is not an audiophile device in my opinion. I suspect that the holistic active design approach is paying dividend in this performance. Matching separates connected by metres of cables in a non ideal acoustic room is always going to potentially be a big risk of compromise.
https://youtu.be/47VGW3LSRng
FWIW my experience is that this is not some "lifestyle" system, though I'd agree that this only applies to play 5. The play 1 is not an audiophile device in my opinion. I suspect that the holistic active design approach is paying dividend in this performance. Matching separates connected by metres of cables in a non ideal acoustic room is always going to potentially be a big risk of compromise.
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