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Matsu
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2018-12-30, 07:29

So, I'm starting small. I picked up a two pack of white Sonos Ones at the local electronics shop. To me it's sonically not as good as a number of budget components that could be had for the same price, but all of them take up way more space.* More on sound quality in a moment... Set up is dead simple, the app is stable and intuitive, and Airplay 2 support is great for playing system sounds out of our iPads - my wife likes to show of talent show auditions on youtube. Platform agnosticism is nice too, but I haven't enabled any of the voice features yet, so I have no idea how this will do with Siri/Alexa, nor am I certain I will ever enable these features, since I'm reticent to more have devices listening to me...

They are surprising able to fill my aforementioned space with sound, though in my view they can sound a little harsh above 60-75% volume and treble detail doesn't keep up at loud volumes, though bass is impressive especially considering it's size. The key to sound reproduction with the Ones is to add more of them and throughout the space and tune them rather than try to play less units louder. Four speakers playing half as loud with a little tweak to the bass and treble levels, is probably a better bet. They should add a mid tone adjustment to the software as well. No doubt the larger speakers will play better. I have to think about whether it makes more sense to add another pair or to anchor them with something like a single strategically placed Play:5 and/or move them over to surround duties paired with a Beam TV. Adding all that stuff adds cost in a hurry - but it also fills the whole house with sound very quickly. In fact I grossly underestimated their ability to fill a space. I don't think more then 4 or 5 pieces are needed to evenly distribute sound across the whole first floor.

My favourite feature though, the real standout, is the music service support. I love having access to hundreds of radio stations from around the world, free. It makes me think that the real future of radio is not a question of terrestrial vs satellite, but rather terrestrial IP radio - someone needs to put this on a car stereo device with a low cost data plan - some sort of constant streamed 128-320kpbs use would only add up to a few MB/day - something that should be serviceable for $5-10/month. But I digress, I've been enjoying this more than playing our rather large library of music - been listening to radio stations from my Dad's home town for the last few days. Awesome. I've only set up a few of the services that don't require registration and it's very nice, will set up a few more later. The app searches them all seamlessly.

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