Podcast fans may find their app of choice isn’t supported. Sonos’s solution is TuneIn Radio, the most popular internet radio app and also a good way to listen to podcasts. It comes ‘preinstalled’ in the Sonos app. It’s a very enjoyable listen, with enough finesse, a rich enough tone and more than enough punch to make you forget the size of the speaker you’re listening to. This little guy sounds unusually at home playing at high volumes, and I believe many people would be happy to use this as their main music source. It’s something to consider if the price of the excellent Play:5 is off-putting. Overall, the Sonos Playbase is a good-sounding speaker for those who don’t want to fumble with a surround sound system or simply don’t have the room for one. There’s no need for a receiver, making it truly plug-and-play. Sonos’ philosophy of making music enjoyment as frictionless as possible continues with the Playbase – the Sonos app is easy to use and the integrated universal search across music services is something we wished every speaker had. Take two identical speakers – the Sonos One, Play:1, Play:3 and both generations of Play:5 are all stereo compatible

Sonos One review: still an excellent entry point into the Sonos One review: still an excellent entry point into the

Treble is crisp and clear, but treads a fine line between excitement and harshness. You’ll occasionally notice the odd sharp edge or hint of sibilance, but it’s not enough to be bothersome. More often, it’s simply clear and sparkly. Sonos is the premier smart sound system that makes it easy to enjoy all your content where and how you want. Two Sonos Ones can be combined to create a stereo pair capable of filling a room with hi-fi-like focus, and for the money that would be quite an accomplished little system. When the One launched, we thought it a shame that you couldn't form a stereo pair consisting of one One and one Play:1 – after all, buying two smart speakers for one room feels like overkill – but at least you can now pair aOneand One SL in stereo.

How is the Sonos One (Gen 1) built?

Why did Sonos create a second home entertainment device? The team did extensive research into how people used their Playbar at home and found that most people didn’t wall mount their televisions or Playbars. To that end, the Playbase was created to allow people to set their televisions right on top of the speaker, allowing for a compact home theater solution. This is an attractive and well-made app, but many find the restrictive Sonos approach annoying. It also has worse music discovery than the average streaming app. Spotify users can now stream directly from the Spotify app, though, as you would with a Bluetooth speaker. When we first heard the One we suspected it was a slight sonic upgrade on the Play:1 but, having listened to both in our testing rooms, the two speakers sound pretty much identical. Sonos is also less closed-off than it used to be. Until 2016, all music selection for your Play:1 had to be done through the Sonos app.

Play:1 Help and Support | Sonos Play:1 Help and Support | Sonos

The app will tell you either to hold the Play/Pause and Volume Up buttons at the same time or to hold the dedicated Join button PLAY:1 comes with all the unique benefits that can only be found in a Sonos Wireless HiFi System including Sonos PLAY:3™, Sonos PLAY:5™, Sonos PLAYBAR™ and more: Unsurprisingly, you can also use the One as a surround speaker for a Sonos Beam, Arc, PlayBase or PlayBar-based system, with or without a subwoofer. The Sonos Amp also allows you to create a 4.1 system, with a phantom centre channel, from a pair of wired front speakers and a pair of Ones acting as surrounds.

Should you buy the Sonos One (Gen 1)?

We’d suggest the One is particularly good as a kitchen speaker. We have loud music playing from the One in the kitchen and can still get Alexa’s attention from the adjoining room with only a slightly raised voice.

One: The Smart Speaker for Music Lovers | Sonos

The Sonos One SL is a justified update on the Play:1, a definitive, malleable companion to the Sonos One, and a musical, punchy, pleasing piece of kit when used completely alone. Despite the obvious draw for Star Wars fans, the Trueplay feature is worth doing; when the performance is complete and our One SL notifies us with a pleasing musical power chord, the sound has been optimised to our room. As with our Sonos One, we also recommend keeping the Loudness feature on to maximise the breadth and depth that such a speaker can offer. If your computer or smartphone won’t allow you to play music files on your speaker, you may need to configure your firewall. The third reason is, of course, replication. If you’ve already got plenty of voice-activated speakers and suchlike, the arrival of yet another is needlessly confusing. That goes double if you already have a Sonos One in your home. Position them roughly eight to 10 feet apart from each other and yourself between eight and 12 feet away from both devices

What’s it like to use the Sonos app?

The Play:1 is something of a departure for Sonos, as it’s the first player from the company that’s mono only. So, can this small, mono player deliver the sound quality that we’ve come to expect from the company? In short, the answer is n emphatic yes and it’s largely down to some clever engineering inside. On top of that Sonos has released the Boost, which is like a turbo-powered Bridge delivering, as Sonos says, “enterprise-grade wireless capabilities”. Most homes will be fine with Wi-Fi or a Bridge, but for difficult environments, the Boost ensures that Sonos will work everywhere. When you connect a Sonos Boost to your router, all of the other devices in your house will continue to connect to your router as usual except for your Sonos products which will be redirected to the Boost on a dedicated wireless network. If you’ve splashed out for more than one speaker, your Boost will actually daisy chain the wireless signal from one device to the next. This can significantly improve the signal quality – especially in larger homes.