PLAY:3 or Two PLAY:1's?

2 Play:1s and it's not even close.

When I first listened to a single Play:1 and compared it to a single Play:3 a few years ago there was not a huge amount in it but the Play:3 won. I was told at the time that 2 Play:1s was better, but it was out of my budget so didn't listen to that. Since then I have read that the Play:1s have had their firmware tweaked somehow which has helped the sound. With all that knowledge and a very well informed reply above, I'd say that the 2 x Play:1s will be the better choice from a listening point of view without a shadow of doubt.

2 x play:1s
Newer tech inside. You can stereo pair these 2 mono speakers together. Or move one down stairs into the kitchen and have same music(or different) as you move around house., that's what sonos is all about.
Be warned though, you will want more!!

Only down side with both is there is no line in that you will need for free spotify, youtube, pc sounds.
Still you can buy a play:5, connect, connect amp, or playbar next which have ;O)

Another "down side" of the PLAY:1, and indeed the new Gen 2 PLAY:5 and SUB, is that each has only a single network port. This means that they cannot be daisy-chained as the older products such as the Gen 1 PLAY:5 allow. Not an issue if you are content to use SonosNet, but annoying if (like me) you prefer to wire in the ZonePlayers and SUBs!

didn't know that Bign, thanks

Another "down side" of the PLAY:1, and indeed the new Gen 2 PLAY:5 and SUB, is that each has only a single network port. This means that they cannot be daisy-chained as the older products such as the Gen 1 PLAY:5 allow. Not an issue if you are content to use SonosNet, but annoying if (like me) you prefer to wire in the ZonePlayers and SUBs!

Yes, BigN and all the Sonos products only carry a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port. I know that's plenty for Sonos requirements, but I have a gigabit network with several gigabit switches and obviously if you place the Sonos products in-line, between devices, such as between router and say a NAS box it will slow the network down from 1000 Mbps to 100 Mbps... That's a big drop in two-way bandwidth transfer.

Even VirginMedia vivid broadband is running these days at 200 Mbps.

Another thing to briefly say (although it's not really relevant here), Apple TV 4 will easily run at 200 Mbps over 802.11ac wifi, but that too has a 10/100 Ethernet port.

How stupid is that !! ..

I'm sure it's all down to cost and future upgrade etc. Some reviews suggest that the users connect their Apple TV via their wifi in stable 802.11ac conditions rather than using the Ethernet port. In tests mine is a lot faster over wifi (numerous tests via Speedtest.net).

Okay these things are more than enough for audio and video needs in most homes today, but it can be a real nuisance to install these 'narrow lanes' on a motorway in which we often transfer large files (movie transfer to NAS box etc) ... I therefore tend to plug in my Sonos devices direct to the router (or 'switch') and only daisy chain them to each other, or with things like Apple TV 4 type devices with the much slower 10/100 ports.

I long for the day the gigabit port and switches become the default minimum standard.

Ken Griffiths

In fact I just searched and came across this article:

http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/09/new-apple-tv-has-2-gb-ram-included-802-11ac-wifi-is-faster-than-its-ethernet-port/

2 Play:1s and it's not even close.
My view too, for sound and flexibility. And looks, too, although that's more subjective.

2 Play:1s and it's not even close.
My view too, for sound and flexibility. And looks, too, although that's more subjective.

Yes count me in with jgatie and John B... Two Play-1’s wins hands down in comparison to one Play-3.

In fact I personally would only buy a Play-3 device myself (two of them) for use in a 5.1 surround sound setup in a largish room... Where i believe they would handle the midrange a little better in the channel separation, but otherwise I'm a Play-1 and Play-5 listener myself.

I would have said get a Play 3 as your first purchase, because you're going to want to expand and can get a second Play 3 down the line, ending up with a stereo pair that would beat the two Play 1's. However, this is for a bedroom and I think the Play 3's are suited to a bigger space (mine are in my dining room on stands from Flexson). So I would agree that Play 1's are right for this scenario.