What Sonos gear to get....

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

R.O.S.S.I

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2002
Posts
11,290
Location
The Moon
About to get keys to our house this weekend and i'm already thinking of 3 months down the line when the building and decorating work is complete and we're ready to move in and what Sonos kit I can buy and for what room.

Our house is a traditional 1930's 3 bed semi. Downstairs there is a fairly large open plan kitchen/diner/lounge (the lounge may be blocked off again) so i've been thinking of the following:

Sonos Play:5 for the main open plan dining room/kitchen area.
Sonos Play:1 for the master bedroom (in stereo pair) or 1 each in bedroom and bathroom.
Sonos Play:3 for the lounge area

The rooms arent mega big so not sure if i'm just being overly keen in saying i'll need a Play5 and a Play3 for the downstairs.

Anyone any thoughts? Is this overkill?
 
Last edited:
Personally, I'd start off with a 1 and a 3. Then decide if you want stereo pair and the extra 5.

Do you have a NAS or similar for hosting your local music?
 
Not sure about the one in the bathroom without you getting electrocuted - probably best with a ceiling speaker being feed from a connect amp outside the room.
 
One suggestion is to have at least one location (your main listening area) served with a Sonos Connect into a hi-fi of your choice. This is what I have set up in the lounge and we use a single Sonos 1 in the kitchen.

I don't have any experience of the Sonos 3, but I have heard some say that the Sonos 1 is just as good if not better!
 
Got a sonos 3 in in the rear of my house (kitchen/diner/living room open plan)

Superb sound - streaming via Deezer (free for 12 months with any sonos purchase)

Very impressed with it. Cost me nothing other than withdrawing the money I had saved via topcashback over the year. Plan on doing the same this year and getting another one for upstairs.
 
I've got a play 5 and a play 1 with a further play 5 on the way (bargain off amazon ES).

To be honest he most impressive of the two is the play 1 which sounds awesome even in a moderately sized room.

I'd almost contemplate just getting play 1s in each room to be honest they're that good. The 5 has a bit more bass and will film a room better but the difference isn't massive.
 
Depends how big your bathroom is, if it's big enough you can fit a socket in zone 3 iirc (I am not an electrician and may be totally wrong).
 
Last edited:
If I was starting from new and was going to redecorate anyway then for large areas, I'd definitely run power feeds and go for multiple wall-mounted Play:1, with Play:5 or Play:3 in bedrooms depending on your preference.

In main lounge area I'd always just add a Connect to my 5.1 system.
 
Got a few Play:1's around the house and thought I'd get a Play:5 to replace the Play:1 I had in the kitchen.

It sounds good, but I'm pretty disappointed overall with the upgrade from the Play:1. For the price I could have had two more Play:1's which in hindsight would have been a better option.
 
S2KIP said:
Got a few Play:1's around the house and thought I'd get a Play:5 to replace the Play:1 I had in the kitchen.

It sounds good, but I'm pretty disappointed overall with the upgrade from the Play:1. For the price I could have had two more Play:1's which in hindsight would have been a better option.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you, the play:1 and play:5 aren't leagues apart. I haven't tried a stereo pair of play:1s but I bet they'd give the play:5 a run for its money.
 
I have play5's in each room apart from Lounge and Bathroom which have a connect and a connect amp. (Bathroom amp is in the kitchen underneath and feed two ceiling speakers)

Really happy with it although my amp stopped working (well out of warranty) Sonos swapped it out for £99:D But I'm sure its not as loud now at the same volume setting. Not an issue as I can just turn it up a bit more.

I only really use it for background music as I work from home (read live at work) But it gets used a lot.

I don't have a NAS for local music I just subscribe to Spotify and Napster. They seem to have pretty much all bases covered for me (unles I want to listen to taylor swift:eek:) And I can listen to loads of "New" music or music I would never ever come across.
 
Minstadave said:
I have to agree with you, the play:1 and play:5 aren't leagues apart. I haven't tried a stereo pair of play:1s but I bet they'd give the play:5 a run for its money.
Click to expand...

I'll be sticking to Play:1's for now. Not that the Play:5 is bad, it's far from it, but the Play:1's offer such good value for money in comparison.

I use them in a stereo pair in my office, they sound great.
 
The main benefit of the 5 for me, and indeed the only reason I have a 5, is that it can take an analogue input. For me this allows me to use a pair of stereo 1s as the front speakers for my projector and have the 5 fill in a bit of bass.
 
I do have a NAS yes and also a Spotify account (and i'm aware you get Deezer with them too) so have plenty of media to stream.

Can't quite decide what to go for. I missed off the soundbar too, are they any good?
 
LukieBoy007 said:
FYI, I think the Deezer promotion ended December 31st?
Click to expand...

Yup thats what I read. Don't think they're doing it anymore.

Sonos soundbar is meant to be excellent but very limited as an AV device as there is only an optical input, no HDMI support, no hi-res audio support, hell it doesn't even decode DTS. For the price it's pretty under-specced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom