Question

How easy is it to repurpose a pair of Play:1s?

  • 22 November 2016
  • 12 replies
  • 771 views

Hi all,

We have a Play 3 in the back room and I love it. We're now thinking of expanding the system into the main living room (I say "we"; I want to surprise my wife and daughter with it for Christmas).

I'm thinking we might get a good sound from two Play:1s acting as a stereo system. However, during weekdays I work from my home office, my daughter's in her room doing her homework, this morning my wife was attending to a lot of emails from the bedroom.

So...

If I have two Play:1s, how easy is it to set them up as a single stereo system for the weekend and then have them operate as independent one-room individual speakers for the weekdays? I'm sure this is possible, but do we have to reconfigure every time we move them? Or can we just have a "setting a" for "you are a two-speaker system" and a "setting b" for "you are two independent speakers in separate rooms"..?

Thanks!
Guy

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12 replies

Making and breaking a stereo pair takes seconds. However if you've tuned them using Trueplay the stored profile will be lost. Moving them to another room would necessitate a re-tune anyway.
You would have to reconfigure them each time. It's not very difficult, but pairing is meant to be a semi-permanent setup, and unpairing is sufficiently inconvenient that you wouldn't want to do it 5-6 times a day. But for the scenario you list, it would be ok. I do this every once in a while with my paired Play:3's when I want one out on the deck.

One thing of note: If you Trueplay the pair, all bets are off. Trueplay settings do not persist through the unpairing/pairing process. You would need to redo the Trueplay tuning each time.
That's much as I'd suspected - thank you both. Obviously the answer is to save a bit more and buy four of the things, which as you can imagine is the conclusion I've been trying to avoid! Thank you for the prompt response.
You may get lucky on the Trueplay front - from my experience it can make a really significant or barely detectable difference to the sound, depending on how well or badly the speakers are positioned in the first place.

But you probably will give in and get four in the end.... it's an addiction.

As has been mentioned on a couple of other threads, Sonos have done special deals on pairs of Play:1s in the run up to past Christmases. No idea if that will be true this year but may be worth holding off for a little while.
Userlevel 3
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It certainly is addictive. In a year, I have acquired three stereo paired Play 1s and a standalone Play 3.
I'm restricting myself to those I can buy in the Duty Free shop - and as I'm going away on business on Monday that means sticking with what I can afford *now"!

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I'm going to resist the Play:5, I've promised myself!
Don't forget, there are frequently "specials" during the holiday season in December, where you can get a discount on some of the speakers. Not a 50% discount, mind you, but nothing to sneeze at (around 25% here in the US)
Userlevel 6
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On sale now!..
OK, I'll 'fess up to getting another pair of Play:1s from Apple 🙂
Userlevel 6
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I just picked another one up at Best Buy! 'Tis the season! 😃
Userlevel 5
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I cannot tell a lie...I've been a bad boy and spent more money on myself this holiday season! Play:1s at Best Buy have been on sale for $150. And now, Visa is offering a $25 discount on orders over $100 when using Visa Checkout. So, I just bought 2 more Play:1s, on 2 separate orders, for $125/ea!
I think we're all bad for each other. Encouraging the addiction.

🙂