Contributor I

Question

Why I'm returning / selling my brand new Sonos Play 1

122 replies
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Just bought a Sonos Play 1 today.
I'm not happy with it to say the least.
I was expecting by it's description and it's reviews to produce really high quality sound.
I have to say I like the tone of the audio on some songs, others are to be desired, but whats rubbing me the worst is the actual quality of the audio. There seems to be a blotchy-ness with it that makes it sound almost low-res. There seems to be a lack of harmonic detail, any brass on the drums tends to sound like bad static more then a physical ringing instruments that they are. Something that really shocked me was when I was listing to "The Best You Never Had" by Leona Lewis. There's a synth tune that plays about 0:32 in the song, I like the tune, I tend to hum it when the song comes up, however whats strange is that my Sonos Play One the synth melody is almost inaudible! Then it got me thinking; "If I can't hear that, then what else can't I hear!?" There really is a shocking lack of detail in this speaker. I described it at one point as a sounding almost as a "supermarket speaker".

The sound quality isn't my only issue. It's also support. I understand you only support iOS and Android. The thing is I'm a hobbiest Windows 10 UWP App developer and my smartphone of choice is a Lumia 640 for it's affordability and decent spec and construction. Microsoft Lumia smartphones are officially unsupported by Sonos. Sonos does however support UPNP playback and so I can use that right? Well for about 8 hours of trying my Lumia 640 wasn't connecting to my Sonos. Totally frustrating! It somewhat works now, although I can't adjust the volume. I surprised to see that the Play 1 doesn't have bluetooth connectivity. It's something so common that I just thought it was given and that it a real bummer for me.

One of the only reasons I bought the Sonos over other brands of speakers was the True Audio technology. It made the speaker sound almost atomically customizable. Although I don't have a supported phone, my dad has a Galaxy S4 which he said he would let me borrow to set up this feature, which Is when I found out after I bought my Play One that it only works on Apple smartphone's and tablets, something which highly annoyed me as I don't own one (I'm not THAT rich or technically competent).

I bought my, what I think is a considerably expensive Sonos Play One speaker on the grounds of it having a really great audio quality, being vastly customizable, being able to tailor tune it to my room, being somewhat compatible with my phone, supporting bluetooth connection (Which is my fault really, although their is literally no information on the box and the website is just as cryptic).

What I believe I got is a well made, powerful, low-res wireless speaker that fails to accurately produce the entire frequency range of audio, that contains a shallow app (Using my Windows Laptop) with lack luster configurable options, that is sold under false pretenses to I'd imagine ~70% of customers whom don't own an Apple products, including myself.

Start to finish for me buying, unpacking, using and configuring this product I've had nothing but annoyances (Which I'm probably passing on my irritation to you, for which I apologize.)

I like the Sonos brand. I think the product line needs an update and I'm getting my money back be it via a refund or private sale on a popular auction website.

Thanks for you time and patience.

Nathan.

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chicks

I don't think you can get better sound from anything pricier than the Linkwitz LX521s, at about $5K per pair, plus some relatively inexpensive ATI amplifiers to drive them. They are larger than most people will want to have in the living room; a pair of Play:5s will sound almost as good, and are far more wife-friendly.

So not as good, then.... And they're only $5k per pair....

You seem still to be under the delusion that a $40K pair of speakers will sound better than a well designed $5K pair. They may well sound different, but "better" is highly subjective when it comes to speakers. In double blind testing, I have little doubt that a pair of Play:5s will best many much more expensive designs, particularly "boutique" designs, which are often highly colored. In objective tests, I'm certain the Play:5s will outperform many far pricier designs. Sonos is employing engineering techniques that are well out of reach for any small speaker company. Sonos has an anechoic chamber, for example, that even the large Canadian speaker companies can't afford, and rely on taxpayers to fund for them.

C

commandline.be

Lyricist III

What else can i say, the guy sounds like he's singing in a church or a large hallway, or a damn cave even. I don't hear it on the Play:1.

J

John B

Why would I want it to sound like that?

C

commandline.be

Lyricist III

You're obviously not the person to grasp what i've posted.

A

amun

In double blind testing, I have little doubt that a pair of Play:5s will best many much more expensive designs, particularly "boutique" designs, which are often highly colored.

Do you have actual evidence of this? Not your belief, but links to papers detailing the evidence including testing methodology?

J

John B

You're obviously not the person to grasp what i've posted.

I'll take a listen to the track tomorrow. Have you done Trueplay tuning on the speaker, just out of curiosity?

C

commandline.be

Lyricist III

Thanks, i don't have an IOS device at hand. I hope to hear from you.

I've noticed the flatness on other tracks as well, reportedly it's due to Spotify or a 'bad unit'

C

commandline.be

Lyricist III

"Upwards at 45 degrees" is the correct title, the artist's name is Julian Cope. Setting spotify to stream extreme audio quality somewhat improved the playback.

K

Kumar

On the bucket list though, are these:
http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/product-detail.php?pid=11
Probably need a larger house as well:-). But even a Connect Amp may be all they need. But they do look as good as they probably sound too.

That's not logical - if they're no better than a Sonos set-up, why would you want them at all?

I definitely want them for their sound, but they're not room and wife friendly...

I did not say they are no better now, did I?! All I said was not to assume they are, just based on their price. And ESL speakers are known to sound more open and transparent, but this may not be a universal taste so in said blind test not all may prefer the sound.

I'd also need a larger room to afford all the space they need around them, and a lot of their appeal lies in their very cool looks. Who ever said that bucket lists are built on logic?!

K

Kumar

Thanks, i don't have an IOS device at hand. I hope to hear from you.

I've noticed the flatness on other tracks as well, reportedly it's due to Spotify or a 'bad unit'

But do you still have the logitech pair to see if they deliver better sound quality from the same source, than the play 1 unit? And if so, there is an easy way to do apples to apples - how does the same music sound in comparison to the play 1 if you use just one of the two logitech speakers?

Unless apples to apples is first achieved, no comparison can be valid. This applies to achieving optimum placement for both speakers as well, to be fair to their designers and that may not be the same for both. Have Eq set to flat on both speakers as well.

Finally, although not likely, the 1 unit may be defective.

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