I've been on a long quest for some new bedroom speakers and wanted to share my story here about the Sonos Fives and how Trueplay (I think!) almost turned me off them, and may be turning off many other folks, as well. (I also want to say thanks to all involved for the ASR forums — they've been a wealth of knowledge and immensely helpful for getting my head around the world of speakers. 
)
Long story slightly abbreviated...
I live in a small apartment and like having a set of speakers in the living area and in the bedroom. I work from the bedroom, so I like having speakers there for entertainment during the day.
For the last decade or so that job was performed dutifully by two sets of Aktimate Minis which I dearly loved, but there's an issue where they develop a buzz that becomes intolerable, so I sold one set off for parts, and turned one set passive. (It's now powered by an Aiyima A07.)
I wanted a new speaker/s for the bedroom, and I wanted AirPlay 2 compatible streaming. Sonos ticked all the boxes.
I went to the Sonos mini store at one of the major electronics stores here in Tokyo (Yodabashi in Akihabara — incredible place to check out if you ever get the chance) and demo'd the Sonos speakers... well, demo'd them with the tiny pre-selected playlist they had available. (They now offer some more choices.)
I didn't expect much from the Ones, though in other contexts I've thought they punched above their weight.
I really did not like the Fives though. Harsh, overly-processed sound in a very expensive speaker. No way I would want to listen to that. I demo'd loads of other speakers (listening to the KEF LS50s was pretty special) and spent months researching speakers here, on Youtube, wherever I could. I found loads of great options, but they were all too big for the space. I couldn't imagine dropping chunky bookshelf speakers into this tiny bedroom (remember: this is Tokyo) but I didn't want to settle for Ones or HomePods, either.
After spending time here and learning a little about the physics of speakers and sound I assumed the Fives sucked because Sonos went for cheap smaller speakers in the cabinet to create some faux-stereo separation, and perhaps that required extra output processing that explained the harsh sound I heard (and perhaps others, e.g. this thread). But I also saw threads (and videos) saying there were fine. I didn't know what to make of it. Was I that spoiled by my Aktimates? Was Sonos tuning their speakers for modern pop in some weird way that just wasn't to my taste?
Months go by but I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger on bigger *or* smaller speakers for the room. Eventually, I notice a reasonably-priced Five for sale on a local, second hand site.
Having not been able to find something I really wanted, and knowing the Fives ticked other boxes (connectivity, design, size, etc), I thought, what the hell, I'd buy them and (a) turn loudness off, which may have been contributing to the harshness, and (b) try and EQ them to my liking. (Having learned from ASR that EQing speakers is not a crime)
I get the Five, stick it in the room and, I mean this in the best possible way, its sound fine. 100% fine. Not as detailed as my Aktimates, but more bass than I was used to, and they're just completely competent for the kind of listening I enjoy. Loudness makes a bit of difference but nothing like I'd heard in store. I briefly experimented with Trueplay, but whatever tuning it came up with was horrible and I turned it off almost immediately. I add a little bit of EQ at the source, but really... they're fine.
I'm totally pretty perplexed by this — again, I hated them in the store, and before purchasing them I'd made another trip just to double check, and I indeed did not like the sound in store, but I was never able to play my own music there, so who knows? Maybe it's critical vs passive listening? Now they're in my bedroom and they're perfect for what they are — the right size, the right look, the right sound, and the right features for this particular space. So what was going on?
A couple of months go by, and a Sonos notification pops up telling me a software update is available. I tell it to update automatically.
The next day (I think), I'm playing some albums I've been enjoying, but the sound is harsh. Harsh like it was in store. That's weird. Was the honeymoon over? Had my ears finally picked up the inherent limits of the Fives? I tried a couple of other albums and the harshness was unmistakable.
I figure, oh well, I'll play around with the EQ in the Sonos app to see if that helps. It makes a bit of a difference, but it's still bad. I muck around with the settings in the app, and then turn Trueplay on (it was off) and off again.
The sound returns to normal.
Aha! Was that the issue the whole time?
I can only guess, but I suspect (and this really is pure speculation) that Trueplay is trying to stretch the mids? highs? to compensate for the lack of detail, and creating this artificial, processed harshness in the sound.
I suspect the stores had their speakers tuned that way, too. The sound I was experiencing at home post-update matched the horrible in-store sound.
And I suspect that even if someone was to turn that off in-store, a Sonos update could turn it back on, even if the app UI says it's off!
So if you ever hear Sonos Fives and the sound sucks, try turning Trueplay off, or on and off again. You might be pleasantly surprised!
)Long story slightly abbreviated...
I live in a small apartment and like having a set of speakers in the living area and in the bedroom. I work from the bedroom, so I like having speakers there for entertainment during the day.
For the last decade or so that job was performed dutifully by two sets of Aktimate Minis which I dearly loved, but there's an issue where they develop a buzz that becomes intolerable, so I sold one set off for parts, and turned one set passive. (It's now powered by an Aiyima A07.)
I wanted a new speaker/s for the bedroom, and I wanted AirPlay 2 compatible streaming. Sonos ticked all the boxes.
I went to the Sonos mini store at one of the major electronics stores here in Tokyo (Yodabashi in Akihabara — incredible place to check out if you ever get the chance) and demo'd the Sonos speakers... well, demo'd them with the tiny pre-selected playlist they had available. (They now offer some more choices.)
I didn't expect much from the Ones, though in other contexts I've thought they punched above their weight.
I really did not like the Fives though. Harsh, overly-processed sound in a very expensive speaker. No way I would want to listen to that. I demo'd loads of other speakers (listening to the KEF LS50s was pretty special) and spent months researching speakers here, on Youtube, wherever I could. I found loads of great options, but they were all too big for the space. I couldn't imagine dropping chunky bookshelf speakers into this tiny bedroom (remember: this is Tokyo
) but I didn't want to settle for Ones or HomePods, either.After spending time here and learning a little about the physics of speakers and sound I assumed the Fives sucked because Sonos went for cheap smaller speakers in the cabinet to create some faux-stereo separation, and perhaps that required extra output processing that explained the harsh sound I heard (and perhaps others, e.g. this thread). But I also saw threads (and videos) saying there were fine. I didn't know what to make of it. Was I that spoiled by my Aktimates? Was Sonos tuning their speakers for modern pop in some weird way that just wasn't to my taste?
Months go by but I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger on bigger *or* smaller speakers for the room. Eventually, I notice a reasonably-priced Five for sale on a local, second hand site.
Having not been able to find something I really wanted, and knowing the Fives ticked other boxes (connectivity, design, size, etc), I thought, what the hell, I'd buy them and (a) turn loudness off, which may have been contributing to the harshness, and (b) try and EQ them to my liking. (Having learned from ASR that EQing speakers is not a crime
)I get the Five, stick it in the room and, I mean this in the best possible way, its sound fine. 100% fine. Not as detailed as my Aktimates, but more bass than I was used to, and they're just completely competent for the kind of listening I enjoy. Loudness makes a bit of difference but nothing like I'd heard in store. I briefly experimented with Trueplay, but whatever tuning it came up with was horrible and I turned it off almost immediately. I add a little bit of EQ at the source, but really... they're fine.
I'm totally pretty perplexed by this — again, I hated them in the store, and before purchasing them I'd made another trip just to double check, and I indeed did not like the sound in store, but I was never able to play my own music there, so who knows? Maybe it's critical vs passive listening? Now they're in my bedroom and they're perfect for what they are — the right size, the right look, the right sound, and the right features for this particular space. So what was going on?
A couple of months go by, and a Sonos notification pops up telling me a software update is available. I tell it to update automatically.
The next day (I think), I'm playing some albums I've been enjoying, but the sound is harsh. Harsh like it was in store. That's weird. Was the honeymoon over? Had my ears finally picked up the inherent limits of the Fives? I tried a couple of other albums and the harshness was unmistakable.
I figure, oh well, I'll play around with the EQ in the Sonos app to see if that helps. It makes a bit of a difference, but it's still bad. I muck around with the settings in the app, and then turn Trueplay on (it was off) and off again.
The sound returns to normal.
Aha! Was that the issue the whole time?
I can only guess, but I suspect (and this really is pure speculation) that Trueplay is trying to stretch the mids? highs? to compensate for the lack of detail, and creating this artificial, processed harshness in the sound.
I suspect the stores had their speakers tuned that way, too. The sound I was experiencing at home post-update matched the horrible in-store sound.
And I suspect that even if someone was to turn that off in-store, a Sonos update could turn it back on, even if the app UI says it's off!
So if you ever hear Sonos Fives and the sound sucks, try turning Trueplay off, or on and off again. You might be pleasantly surprised!
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