Introduction
The Sonos Five is a powerful and versatile home speaker that offers high-quality sound and seamless integration with the Sonos ecosystem. Released on June 10, 2020, this speaker comes with a price tag of $549 USD and is available in two model numbers: FIVE1US1 and FIVE1US1BLK. With its sleek design, multi-function touch controls, and compatibility with various devices and operating systems, the Sonos Five aims to enhance the audio experience in any home theater setup.
Design and Build Quality
The Sonos Five boasts a sleek and stylish design that can seamlessly blend into any home decor. With dimensions of 203 x 364 x 154mm and a weight of 6.36kg, this speaker is compact and portable, allowing for easy placement in any room. Additionally, the Sonos Five can be positioned horizontally or vertically, providing flexibility in how it fits into your space.
Connectivity Options
The Sonos Five offers both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity options, ensuring a stable and reliable connection for streaming music and other audio content. Additionally, it features an aux port, allowing for line-in connectivity to connect external devices such as a turntable or TV. This versatility in connectivity options makes the Sonos Five compatible with a wide range of devices and provides flexibility in how you integrate it into your existing setup.
Integration with Sonos Ecosystem
One of the standout features of the Sonos Five is its seamless integration with other Sonos products. By connecting the Sonos Five to your existing Sonos ecosystem, you can enjoy multi-room audio and control all your Sonos speakers from a single app. This integration allows for a synchronized audio experience throughout your home, creating an immersive and cohesive listening environment.
Sound Quality
The Sonos Five is equipped with six individual speaker drivers powered by Class D amplification. With three mid/bass units and three tweeters, this speaker offers a wide spread of sound, ensuring a rich and detailed audio experience. The Sonos Five excels at reproducing voices and lead instruments with clarity, allowing you to fully appreciate the nuances of your favorite music and movies.
The Thumpy and punchy sound profile of the Sonos Five delivers a powerful and impactful audio experience. The speaker strikes a good balance between the low and high frequencies, resulting in a well-rounded sound signature. However, it's worth noting that the Sonos Five's top end of the frequency range may feel slightly rounded off, which may not appeal to audiophiles seeking a more precise and detailed sound reproduction.
One of the notable features of the Sonos Five is its Trueplay technology. Using the Sonos app, Trueplay optimizes the audio reproduction based on the room's acoustics, ensuring an optimal listening experience. This feature further enhances the sound quality, making the Sonos Five adaptable to various room environments.
While the Sonos Five offers impressive sound quality, it's important to compare it to the newer Sonos Era 300 speaker. The Era 300 surpasses the Five in terms of scale and nuance, offering a more immersive audio experience. However, considering the price difference between the two speakers, the Sonos Five still delivers powerful, detailed, and musically pleasing sound that will satisfy most users.
Setup and Ease of Use
Setting up the Sonos Five is relatively straightforward, although it requires the use of the Sonos app and a Wi-Fi connection. The app guides users through the setup process, making it easy to connect the speaker to your home network and integrate it with your existing Sonos ecosystem. Once set up, the Sonos Five offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive controls, allowing for effortless control over your audio experience.
The Sonos S2 app, used to control the Sonos Five, offers additional customization and room correction features. Users can fine-tune the sound to their preferences, adjust EQ settings, and optimize the audio based on the specific room's acoustics. This level of control enhances the user experience, allowing for personalized audio reproduction.
Pros
The Sonos Five has several notable strengths that make it a compelling option for home theater enthusiasts:
- High sound quality and powerful output: The Sonos Five delivers impressive sound quality with its six individual speaker drivers and Class D amplification. The speaker produces a powerful and loud output, ensuring an immersive audio experience.
- Seamless integration with Sonos ecosystem: By connecting the Sonos Five to your existing Sonos ecosystem, you can enjoy multi-room audio and easy control of all your Sonos speakers from a single app.
- Stylish design: The sleek and stylish design of the Sonos Five allows it to seamlessly blend into any home decor, making it an aesthetically pleasing addition to your home theater setup.
- Easy setup and use: While the initial setup requires the Sonos app and a Wi-Fi connection, the process is straightforward and user-friendly. Once set up, the Sonos Five offers intuitive controls and a user-friendly interface.
- Versatility in placement options: The ability to position the Sonos Five horizontally or vertically provides flexibility in how you incorporate it into your space, ensuring optimal sound dispersion.
- Low latency for lip-syncing: The Sonos Five offers low latency, making it suitable for watching videos and movies without any noticeable lip-syncing issues.
- Multi-room audio capabilities: By integrating the Sonos Five with other Sonos speakers, you can enjoy synchronized audio throughout your home, creating an immersive multi-room audio experience.
- Customization and room correction features: The Sonos S2 app offers customization options, allowing users to fine-tune the sound and optimize audio reproduction based on room acoustics.
Cons
Despite its strengths, the Sonos Five does have a few limitations that potential buyers should consider:
- Expensive price point: At $549 USD, the Sonos Five is a premium-priced speaker, which may deter budget-conscious consumers.
- Lack of microphone or voice control capability: Unlike some other smart speakers on the market, the Sonos Five does not include a built-in microphone or voice control capabilities. Users will need to control the speaker manually or use the Sonos app.
- No Bluetooth connectivity: The absence of Bluetooth connectivity means that users cannot directly connect their devices to the Sonos Five via Bluetooth.
- Latency issues with the aux port: Some users have reported latency issues when using the aux port for line-in connectivity. This may result in audio being slightly out of sync when connected to external devices.
- Not waterproof or weatherproof: While the Sonos Five is humidity-resistant, it is not waterproof or weatherproof. Users should avoid exposing the speaker to water or extreme weather conditions.
- Rounded off top end of the frequency range: The Sonos Five's sound signature may not satisfy those seeking an extremely detailed and precise audio reproduction. The top end of the frequency range may feel slightly rounded off, resulting in a less pronounced high-frequency response.
- Comparison with the Sonos Era 300: When compared to the newer Sonos Era 300 speaker, the Sonos Five lacks the same scale and nuance, albeit at a lower price point.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Sonos Five is a powerful and versatile home speaker that delivers high-quality sound and seamless integration with the Sonos ecosystem. With its sleek design, multi-function touch controls, and compatibility with various devices and operating systems, the Sonos Five offers an enhanced audio experience for home theater enthusiasts. While it comes at a premium price and lacks certain features like voice control and Bluetooth connectivity, its impressive sound quality, ease of use, and integration capabilities make it a strong contender in the market. Whether used as a standalone speaker or as part of a multi-room audio setup, the Sonos Five is a solid choice for those seeking a premium audio experience in their home theater.