Hi to you all.
To day I finally go to compare the denon heos 7 hs2 stereo pair with a play 5 gen 2 stereo pair.
This is my experience and those are my ears ymmv.
Heos has better sound dispersion over all but this super bass that is mentioned in most reviews is mostly apparent below 50% volume.
Play 5 is punchier and more articulate albeit a little more mid scooped.
All in all excellent speakers but Sonos takes the win for my ears. And the support and this community is just the icing on the cake.
But there is a caveat, I'm currently using canton DM55 sound base as a living room stereo and only via Bluetooth.
Honestly it actually sounds better to me than the Sonos and the heos.
And another thing, I also demoed the Naim mu-so.
For the money, a pair of play 5 plus sub still doesn't go where the naim goes in filling a room with sound.
What I was originally after was a pair of speakers plus a sub, heos, Sonos or bluesound were the prime targets.
But in all honesty the naim does it better as a single unit than the other culprits and for less money than two play:5's and a sub or similar system from the other two companies.
I think I will go with naim as multiroom is not my main concern but just to get some music going on in the living room of my house.
I would like to thank all of you who have given advise and recommendations and answered all my questions quikly.
This is an awesome community, rock on.
Geiri
The end of my wireless quest.
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Did you audition the Sonos with Trueplay room compensation? This can make a crucial difference.
Room acoustics have a way of compromising the performance of even the most expensive -- and otherwise neutral -- equipment.
Room acoustics have a way of compromising the performance of even the most expensive -- and otherwise neutral -- equipment.
Good luck with your choice. I would not want to go back to one of the traditional UK HiFi names, having experienced the major smoothing effects delivered by Trueplay.
For the money, a pair of play 5 plus sub still doesn't go where the naim goes in filling a room with sound.
But in all honesty the naim does it better as a single unit than the other culprits and for less money than two play:5's and a sub or similar system from the other two companies.
Subjective preferences for sound quality overrule everything else and I don't doubt that the Muso can deliver room filling quality sound. However, IMO, it has too much power for a single unit box and here is why I say that:
To get any stereo effect from it, you need to be very close to it and in that case, the sound levels you can tolerate need just a small part of that power, the rest of it is wasted. And it does not have the ability for stereo pairing two units so you can get stereo at the distances a 5 pair will give that to you.
Also, a single unit will be too loud at the end of the room it is located, for it to be heard properly at the other end of the room. Two 5 units do this trick much better too, when placed at different ends of the room.
Finally, and most importantly, make sure that Naim is as stable in wireless mode as Sonos is, when well installed. Any perceived sound quality advantage from any kit is completely lost if music play keeps getting interrupted, or music keeps stuttering. In that event, even a cheap boom box will deliver a better music listening experience.
If the above are not high in your scheme of things, and you like the Muso sound, that is what you should buy.
Further to the above, my wireless quest started early in 2011, using Airport Express as a wireless interface to my legacy hifi kit. I was astonished to see the how good the sound still was in that mode, and my long held prejudice against both wireless and internet music dissolved rapidly.
But I kept having problems with interruptions in music play, which led me to Sonos as a solution. It worked better than AEX out of the box, but occasional glitches meant that I still held on to a fully wired solution in my main listening room for parties, keeping Murphy's law in mind. With the addition of a Boost and reserved IP addresses, I was able to elevate confidence in the stability enough to get rid of all my legacy kit, except for a couple of good passive speaker pairs that are wired to Connect Amps now, with a Connect supplying an old Yamaha amp+External speakers set up. In parallel, Sonos put out the 1 unit and the Sub into the market, which also helped the decision to sell the rest of my wired equipment that included big rig kit like tubed DACs and Amps, and one SACD player.
In 2017, zero regrets over the change and no hankering to make any further changes to what is now a 5 zone set up; this, seen from the end of MY audio equipment and wireless quest.
But I kept having problems with interruptions in music play, which led me to Sonos as a solution. It worked better than AEX out of the box, but occasional glitches meant that I still held on to a fully wired solution in my main listening room for parties, keeping Murphy's law in mind. With the addition of a Boost and reserved IP addresses, I was able to elevate confidence in the stability enough to get rid of all my legacy kit, except for a couple of good passive speaker pairs that are wired to Connect Amps now, with a Connect supplying an old Yamaha amp+External speakers set up. In parallel, Sonos put out the 1 unit and the Sub into the market, which also helped the decision to sell the rest of my wired equipment that included big rig kit like tubed DACs and Amps, and one SACD player.
In 2017, zero regrets over the change and no hankering to make any further changes to what is now a 5 zone set up; this, seen from the end of MY audio equipment and wireless quest.
Interesting points Kumar, and I actually agree with you, which is the reason I haven't bought anything yet.
The naim has a great wow factor and I was still smitten when I wrote the original post.
I think that the huge scale of sound and lack of stereo separation could be reviewed as negative points for normal use.
After deliberating and sobering up from the wow factor I see things more clearly regarding real world use of a wireless system.
When I went to compare the denon vs Sonos I was actually rooting for denon, but for my ears the Sonos sounded better.
Bluetooth is not an issue as I'm not buying a system for guests to connect to. If they desperately need to they download said app 🆒
Still undecided but will continue to audition and ponder over this rather amusing problem.
Thank you for your input, it's greatly appreciated.
The naim has a great wow factor and I was still smitten when I wrote the original post.
I think that the huge scale of sound and lack of stereo separation could be reviewed as negative points for normal use.
After deliberating and sobering up from the wow factor I see things more clearly regarding real world use of a wireless system.
When I went to compare the denon vs Sonos I was actually rooting for denon, but for my ears the Sonos sounded better.
Bluetooth is not an issue as I'm not buying a system for guests to connect to. If they desperately need to they download said app 🆒
Still undecided but will continue to audition and ponder over this rather amusing problem.
Thank you for your input, it's greatly appreciated.
Tell me Kumar, what are your thoughts on the soundtouch 30 system ?
For me it does that naim thing to an extent by being huge sounding and bass heavy.
But I wonder if that could become tiresome over time ?
For me it does that naim thing to an extent by being huge sounding and bass heavy.
But I wonder if that could become tiresome over time ?
IMO, this is critical. Sonos is the most robust and reliable in the market, but even so, on just this forum you will see many pissed off users who are not able to get this essential feature because for it to work well it needs other things like the router/WiFi to work well too. And it needs occasional maintenance of the supporting WiFi network which is the foundation on which it works.
Any system that cannot offer reliable music streaming with decent up time is a dead loss and waste of money.
No idea, never heard it. But any system that does not sound natural gets tiring after a while - and I find Sonos 1 units to be very natural sounding.
I am not one of these that are always critical of Bose, and my external Bose speakers are excellent; but as all Bose products tend to be, they aren't the cheapest. But Bose is often also accused of offering coloured sound, so you want to be sure that isn't what this specific product is doing to attract you.
That is exactly what I'm wondering. Is the Bose sound colored to sound good/nice with the widest of applications.
So when a user streams something familiar it sounds eq'd to an extent.
I have a Bose cinemate 15 and a soundtouch 130 systems. As good as they sound with tv and movies I really don't like either for music except for background but not for critical or casual listening.
So when a user streams something familiar it sounds eq'd to an extent.
I have a Bose cinemate 15 and a soundtouch 130 systems. As good as they sound with tv and movies I really don't like either for music except for background but not for critical or casual listening.
You have two options using the Sonos route - pick up the play units and take our word that they sound natural!
Or, if you have a preferred third party speaker on which you know you will not tire of listening to music over the long term, get them and use Sonos for front end. Connect if active and Connect Amp/Connect + Amp if passive speakers.
Or, if you have a preferred third party speaker on which you know you will not tire of listening to music over the long term, get them and use Sonos for front end. Connect if active and Connect Amp/Connect + Amp if passive speakers.
Regarding the pissed off users.
At the rate this community responds both via users and Sonos staff I have no worries. If a problem occurs and user is willing to solve it, it seems to me that nothing is to big to overcome.
And if one is familiar with the wifi protocols needed a problems should be close to none.
I've learned so much reading these forums and am in awe of the willingness of other users to take a time out of their schedule to assist in even the rudest inquiries.
This gives confidence in Sonos.
But there is another thing bugging me.
The official Sonos distributor in Sweden had also bluesound and heos.
And for pretty similar products I've noticed that they have started to push the heos range more than Sonos.
If you go to them asking for pros and cons they all say ( three different shops ) "for ease of use go Sonos if you want sound quality go with heos or bluesound ".
A year ago it was Sonos or nothing in these same shops.
Three different shops and about 7 different salespersons who all echo the above statement.
I find this very strange.
At the rate this community responds both via users and Sonos staff I have no worries. If a problem occurs and user is willing to solve it, it seems to me that nothing is to big to overcome.
And if one is familiar with the wifi protocols needed a problems should be close to none.
I've learned so much reading these forums and am in awe of the willingness of other users to take a time out of their schedule to assist in even the rudest inquiries.
This gives confidence in Sonos.
But there is another thing bugging me.
The official Sonos distributor in Sweden had also bluesound and heos.
And for pretty similar products I've noticed that they have started to push the heos range more than Sonos.
If you go to them asking for pros and cons they all say ( three different shops ) "for ease of use go Sonos if you want sound quality go with heos or bluesound ".
A year ago it was Sonos or nothing in these same shops.
Three different shops and about 7 different salespersons who all echo the above statement.
I find this very strange.
It's not just your word to be taken for the sound quality and natural timbre. This seems to be the universal agreement on Sonos.
If you go to them asking for pros and cons they all say ( three different shops ) "for ease of use go Sonos if you want sound quality go with heos or bluesound ".
A year ago it was Sonos or nothing in these same shops.
Three different shops and about 7 different salespersons who all echo the above statement.
I find this very strange.
Not strange at all; it could be something as simple as commission percentages or how much profit per unit is made on the different lines. It could even be subjective preferences + peer dynamics at work.
For sound quality, the best way - always - is take the unit home on a trial basis, play music you like through it, and then decide based on how the music sounds in your home to your ears.
Ok people, that's it, I have now officially lost my mind to this wireless quest.
Deceived to go to the store today and pick up a Bose soundtouch 30.
My logistics were : it's easy, big sound, bluetooth, presets and I'm not huge on the multi room thing.
Went into the store, chatted with a salesperson for a minute ( heard nothing new )
Went home with h a play 5 and I have no idea why???
Deceived to go to the store today and pick up a Bose soundtouch 30.
My logistics were : it's easy, big sound, bluetooth, presets and I'm not huge on the multi room thing.
Went into the store, chatted with a salesperson for a minute ( heard nothing new )
Went home with h a play 5 and I have no idea why???
Get a Bluetooth audio receiver with aptX, and wire it to the PLAY:5's Line-In. Configure Line-In Autoplay.
Ok, it's been about twos hours since I got the play 5 up and running.
So far all is true that has been discussed brilliant speaker that I couldn't recognize in a crowded store.
At home it's brilliant.
I got the first song in but then the wife took over and has been hogging the system since.
Looks like I'll be taking a trip to the store to get a second one tomorrow.
Thank you all for your excellent advice and patience with my ramblings.
So far all is true that has been discussed brilliant speaker that I couldn't recognize in a crowded store.
At home it's brilliant.
I got the first song in but then the wife took over and has been hogging the system since.
Looks like I'll be taking a trip to the store to get a second one tomorrow.
Thank you all for your excellent advice and patience with my ramblings.
Looks like I'll be taking a trip to the store to get a second one tomorrow.
.
Once you have the two paired as a stereo pair, see what sounds better to you - vertical or horizontal placement. And then, do Trueplay tuning for the final tweak.
+10Welcome to the ..uh... addiction... Geiri 🙂
+26This was quite the acoustic journey. Thanks for sharing, Geiri. Let us know if we can help with anything.
Thank you Ryan and I will. Sound quality aside the unparalleled willingness of the users here and the Sonos staff tipped the scales for me.
Next item on my list is the sub 🆒
Next item on my list is the sub 🆒
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