Sonos Play

[SlimCini]

Morning all,

Planning on starting a Sonos speaker collection with a Play1 at Christmas. Eventually, the aim is to build up to a Playbar, an SUB and then two Play1 speakers to have 5.1 surround in the living room and then further play1s dotted around the house for general audio.

Anyone got any Sonos speakers? Are the Play1s fine or are they a bit weak compared to the Play3s? I assume it won't be that hard to connect a PC to the speakers and game using them too... any got any experience with them using them with PCs?

Any input would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Slim

 

[steaky360]

Are you going for the Sonos system mostly because of their modular nature? When I moved into my new house I was looking for some speakers for a surround sound system and initially was looking at a Sonos set. But the Playbar, Sub and two surround speakers (admittedly I was looking at Play:3's) was going to set me back close to £2k I decided to get a dedicated 5.1 system and amplifier http://www.holburnhifi.co.uk/recommended-systems.html (didn't get the blu-ray player and haggled so the price dropped to a comparitive level).

I would recommend you go somewhere which sells the Sonos gear and listen to it yourself (John Lewis, or your local audio shop). It might be exactly what you want, equally you could find (as I did) that they don't quite meet the standard you were looking for (I'm no audiophile by any stretch, but I could tell the difference between the various Sonos speakers (Play:3 and Play:5) and then a dedicated set). From what I could tell, you can definitely hear the difference between the 3's and 5's so I'd imagine the 1's vs 3's will be similar. However, again, it might be exactly what you're looking for. I just found them lacking a bit of depth and clarity.

I did however get a Sonos Connect to plug my amp into the Sonos system (so I can play music from my PC) it also means should I ever want to get a Sonos speaker it should just work seamlessly with the network already set up.

 

[SlimCini]

Yeah the 5.1 setup does seem pricey for what it is. But the simply wireless nature of it is selling it at the moment. I have an old Sony wired 5.1 setup already but it's just a PITA...

 

[steaky360]

Yeah the 5.1 setup does seem pricey for what it is. But the simply wireless nature of it is selling it at the moment. I have an old Sony wired 5.1 setup already but it's just a PITA...

Yeah that was tempting to me also, something to consider, each speaker needs plugging in So you won't be totally wire free.

However, there won't be a bunch of wires going back to a central point. I was lucky enough to be able to get my cables buried in the walls etc. so you cant see them (for the rear speakers only obviously - no need for the front ones).

 

[SlimCini]

Yeah, power supply cable is fine... it's just the stupid speaker cables I had loosely running all over the living room. The other half was just constantly moaning about those damn cables. Not too far in the future and power supplies will be wireless too making everything so neat and tidy