There’s no shortage of options when it comes to choosing a wireless speaker to blast tunes at home or on the go. But how many times have you chosen what you believe to be the perfect speaker, only to find that it doesn’t meet your changing needs?
Maybe you have a big, powerful speaker that you can use at home, but then you want something that you can take with you on the road. Or vice versa, you have a portable speaker that is easy to throw in a bag, but the sound quality is disappointing. You’ve been forced to throw a lot of hoops to get your life together – until now.
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After using it at home, it covers all the bases. Its impressive sound delivery means it can be comfortably used as a home speaker, as it has little problem filling a room. It’s also small enough to fit in a bag, and you can stream via Bluetooth when you’re away from home.
To fill the void
Looking at Sonos’ speaker lineup, it may seem like a fair statement to say that the brand has a model for everyone and every situation. There are home speakers including the Era 100 and Era 300, then you have the Move 2, which is a ‘portable’ speaker but too big to carry around, and finally the Roam 2, which is about as portable as you can get but not as good a standalone speaker as its bigger brothers.
That left a small gap between Move and Roam that needed to be filled.
The Sonos Play fits nicely into the space, while also falling into the home speaker category, sitting above the Era 100 in terms of price, but backing it up with additional features. Tom Conrad said he was the real ‘Goldilocks’ speaker – I couldn’t agree more, and I’m surprised it wasn’t already.
The joy of music
The Play’s excellent sound quality and its flexible design had an unexpected effect on me – it made me listen to music even more. With so many Sonos speakers dotted around my apartment, including a pair of One SL stereos in the kitchen that I use when I work from home, I didn’t think I’d have a real need for the Play, yet I’ve found myself using it a lot since it arrived.
It’s been great to be able to have it next to me on the desk where I work, and bring it into the room where I have the Sonos Arc and one other speaker set up. But since the Play is already playing, I didn’t see the need to switch to such a large system.
The good reason you don’t need to swap is because the Sonos Play delivers great sound that only gets better the higher you turn up the volume. You can read more about the sound quality in our in-depth Sonos Play review, but take it from me as someone who not only owns other Sonos speakers but also has a dedicated hi-fi listening room, the Play sounds great.
If you’ve never owned a Sonos speaker before, I think the Play is a great entry point for the brand. It offers excellent sound quality and usability from the get-go, while also having the ability to open a wide-ranging multi-room audio system thanks to its Wi-Fi support.
And since Sonos has found its footing in multi-room audio, I love the fact that the Play makes joining that ecosystem ridiculously easy.
More than just a pretty face
I’ve always been a fan of the Sonos aesthetic, so much so that my home is full of speakers and soundbars, while the Ace headphones were the first in-ear headphones I really fell in love with. All products are pleasing to the eye and touch, and the Play continues that trend.
Yes, the buttons on the top panel could be a little more defined to save you from having to look at which one you’re pressing, but other than that I can’t find fault with what Google Play has to offer physically.
There’s also a nice combination throughout the show as well. For example, Sonos used the same green color for the small Google Play handle and its charging base that the inside of the Ace case used. It’s a subtle, but very effective nod and I, for one, really appreciate it.
Restoring trust
I am fully aware of the tumultuous years Sonos has had recently. Although the launch of the long-awaited Arc Ultra soundbar at the end of 2024 can be considered a real success – it has kept a place in our guide to the best soundbars since we reviewed it – a disastrous app update fiasco would certainly damage the relationship between the company and its millions of users.
Add in a number of competing brands – such as WiiM, Audio Pro and Denon – that also offer a seamless gateway to multi-room audio, and Sonos’ position as a leader in its field was seriously threatened.
While many of the issues plaguing the app have been fixed and CEO Tom Conrad confirms that the company has plans to improve it further, Sonos still needs something to say to customers ‘we’re back and better than ever’ — and with Sonos Play, it’s well and truly proven.
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