After growing so fond of my play 1's for many years, it was hard to do a side by side comparisons against my second gen play 5's.



The articulate sounds out of the play 1 in the mid and tweeter (in my opinion) are far superior to that of the play 5's more set back and less bright sound. Then you add the bass, which I love, but even further dampens the uppers of the play 5. This can't be adjusted properly with just the Treble option or by reducing the bass. It needs to be adjusted by Sonos via software update.



If I'm not mistaken, they did the same thing to the play 1 a couple years after introduction.



The play 1 vocal clarity and instrument clarity is just superior in all aspects IMO. This is especially noticeable with Jazz and acoustic songs.