Works fine with Roon for me.
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Sonos Five Smart Speaker Review
- Thread starter amirm
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early rejecter
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You can use Spotify Connect directly from the Spotify app, though would need to use the Sonos app to create groups of speakers if you wanted to play to more than one room. Apple Music can be Airplayed if you’re using the Music app, but in that case the phone is handling the streaming, not the speaker. For the speaker to stream Apple Music directly you’d need to use the Sonos app.
The Five is not designed to be a primary TV speaker. You can connect a TV to its analog input, but there is a minimum 75ms delay — so if you’re at all sensitive to lip sync issues it’s not an ideal setup.
FYI - There's been some negative chatter about the latest Sonos update going around. Maybe google it.
ScepticMatt
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I received the Era 300 so I'll hijack this thread albeit with some relevance to the Five as well.
The Android app is truly terrible. I couldn't set up the speaker and had to use iOS instead. The app is buggy and doesn't always connect. Using bluetooth avoids using the app but I noticed occasional split-second cutouts which I need to investigate. It might be that others are having the same issue: https://en.community.sonos.com/speakers-229128/era-300-bluetooth-cutting-out-6890717 I'll need to have that resolved or I might have to return the speaker.
The directivity is good with music sounding good in multiple directions. There is some change in sound but that will largely be driven by room acoustics. I think the speaker is good for the purpose of omnidirectional sound. The stereo imaging is barely more than a general sense of left and right. The soundstage can expand outside the speakers somewhat, but it is hardly "immersive". I think it will depend on the room and how reflective the walls are.
The speaker sounded somewhat bright out of the box with lacklustre bass. The Trueplay tuning was awkward to do but it did remove the brightness and the bass is a lot fuller. It might have overcompensated a bit as the bass can sound a bit boomy, esp. in certain parts of the room. I might try the retuning with more focus on the bassier parts of the room. I also decided to turn up the treble EQ a couple points. Overall the sound is good and Trueplay certainly helped deal with a less than ideal room. Having manual access to the filters and parameters used would be a good feature so tweaks can be made.
The Dolby Atmos is hit and miss. Listening to Money on the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, the Atmos version has a slightly larger sense of soundstage and better sense of spacial separation of sounds but it's far from amazing. I got no sense of height. Increasing the "Height Level" made the top tweeter louder but it only sounded like it was coming from the top of the speaker and not from above. Using two speakers in the right room might be a lot more impressive and I imagine it might be better for movies than music. A problem with Atmos is it clearly depends on the mix. Some albums will sound terrible. I tried listening to Shanty by Slowdive and it sounded awful in Atmos. The vocals were recessed and the guitars sounded weirdly distorted in a bad way. The stereo version sounds massively superior.
Overall I think it's good for the kitchen as far as the sound is concerned. The software problems and bluetooth cutouts are not good though and I will need bluetooth to be working correctly.
Maybe the Five would be better if it had bluetooth. I wouldn't want to be tied to using the terrible app, though I might be forced to with the Era 300 if I keep having issues with bluetooth.
The Android app is truly terrible. I couldn't set up the speaker and had to use iOS instead. The app is buggy and doesn't always connect. Using bluetooth avoids using the app but I noticed occasional split-second cutouts which I need to investigate. It might be that others are having the same issue: https://en.community.sonos.com/speakers-229128/era-300-bluetooth-cutting-out-6890717 I'll need to have that resolved or I might have to return the speaker.
The directivity is good with music sounding good in multiple directions. There is some change in sound but that will largely be driven by room acoustics. I think the speaker is good for the purpose of omnidirectional sound. The stereo imaging is barely more than a general sense of left and right. The soundstage can expand outside the speakers somewhat, but it is hardly "immersive". I think it will depend on the room and how reflective the walls are.
The speaker sounded somewhat bright out of the box with lacklustre bass. The Trueplay tuning was awkward to do but it did remove the brightness and the bass is a lot fuller. It might have overcompensated a bit as the bass can sound a bit boomy, esp. in certain parts of the room. I might try the retuning with more focus on the bassier parts of the room. I also decided to turn up the treble EQ a couple points. Overall the sound is good and Trueplay certainly helped deal with a less than ideal room. Having manual access to the filters and parameters used would be a good feature so tweaks can be made.
The Dolby Atmos is hit and miss. Listening to Money on the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, the Atmos version has a slightly larger sense of soundstage and better sense of spacial separation of sounds but it's far from amazing. I got no sense of height. Increasing the "Height Level" made the top tweeter louder but it only sounded like it was coming from the top of the speaker and not from above. Using two speakers in the right room might be a lot more impressive and I imagine it might be better for movies than music. A problem with Atmos is it clearly depends on the mix. Some albums will sound terrible. I tried listening to Shanty by Slowdive and it sounded awful in Atmos. The vocals were recessed and the guitars sounded weirdly distorted in a bad way. The stereo version sounds massively superior.
Overall I think it's good for the kitchen as far as the sound is concerned. The software problems and bluetooth cutouts are not good though and I will need bluetooth to be working correctly.
Maybe the Five would be better if it had bluetooth. I wouldn't want to be tied to using the terrible app, though I might be forced to with the Era 300 if I keep having issues with bluetooth.
I updated the app and now can't join a Wi-Fi network.
Bob from Florida
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You have to use the PC App to setup everything, as the mobile apps are currently broken.I updated the app and now can't join a Wi-Fi network.
ScepticMatt
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iOS setup worked for me. No luck with Android though. I don't know why Sonos doesn't just rollback the update.
ScepticMatt
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I can give an update of my experience with the Era 300.
I've listened to more Dolby Atmos tracks and I find that when I sit with my head directly in front of the speaker the spacial effects can be quite good. I still get little to no sense of height but the left-right, depth and general sense of space and separation of instruments is good. As I mentioned, it does depend on the particular mix with some being underwhelming and some being downright bad. It might not be worth buying a single speaker just for Dolby Atmos but it's an interesting addition.
I'm still having issues with Bluetooth though. I got through to support which took me many days before a representative was available, most likely due to the app shambles. They remotely rebooted the speaker. It might concern some people that it's possible to access the speaker remotely like that. I already tried turning it off and on again, so I'm not sure how it would have been any different. The cutouts went away for a while, but now they have come back again.
I don't seem to have problems playing BT via an iPhone so it might be my Android phone, though my Android phone plays perfectly fine through my Bluetoooth headphones. It's some combination of the Era 300 and the Android that appears to be the problem. I think I could buy a Creative BT-W3 dongle to see if that can play through BT OK and if it does then the phone is probably to blame. I could continue to use the dongle but it adds bulk and would be limited to standard SBC unless there are any alternatives that support AAC or SBC-XQ?
So much for Bluetooth making connectivity easier.
The Sonos app is still buggy and will not always connect. I often have to close and re-open the app.
I've listened to more Dolby Atmos tracks and I find that when I sit with my head directly in front of the speaker the spacial effects can be quite good. I still get little to no sense of height but the left-right, depth and general sense of space and separation of instruments is good. As I mentioned, it does depend on the particular mix with some being underwhelming and some being downright bad. It might not be worth buying a single speaker just for Dolby Atmos but it's an interesting addition.
I'm still having issues with Bluetooth though. I got through to support which took me many days before a representative was available, most likely due to the app shambles. They remotely rebooted the speaker. It might concern some people that it's possible to access the speaker remotely like that. I already tried turning it off and on again, so I'm not sure how it would have been any different. The cutouts went away for a while, but now they have come back again.
I don't seem to have problems playing BT via an iPhone so it might be my Android phone, though my Android phone plays perfectly fine through my Bluetoooth headphones. It's some combination of the Era 300 and the Android that appears to be the problem. I think I could buy a Creative BT-W3 dongle to see if that can play through BT OK and if it does then the phone is probably to blame. I could continue to use the dongle but it adds bulk and would be limited to standard SBC unless there are any alternatives that support AAC or SBC-XQ?
So much for Bluetooth making connectivity easier.
The Sonos app is still buggy and will not always connect. I often have to close and re-open the app.
The Sonos five is anything but a boom box. Amir is correct with his evaluation - shocking sound quality from a powered bookshelf speaker.
bevok
Active Member
Apple Music is lossless now for what it’s worth (up to 24/48 per https://support.sonos.com/en-nz/services/apple-music). Whether or not it is wasted of course is a point of debate, although I like listening in lossless and above on wifi whenever I’ve done abx testing under normal listening conditions i can’t reliably distinguish between 320kbps mp3 and cd. It is an educational experience. Must try it on the fives. Your own mileage may vary of course but at least you’ll know it’s lossless.
I’m very happy with my Fives and as usual with these things the experience is highly dependent on the room and placement.
I’m very happy with my Fives and as usual with these things the experience is highly dependent on the room and placement.
Yes
It may be worthwhile getting a Sonos port instead of Wiim pro (or higher) for Apple Music lossless alone.
It is the only simple method of getting Apple Music lossless to a dac onwards.
But music discovery won’t be as good inside the Sonos app.
It is the only simple method of getting Apple Music lossless to a dac onwards.
But music discovery won’t be as good inside the Sonos app.
Yesterday, I had the chance to listen to the Five at a friend's house, and, just like with my own Move, the distortion in the mid-low and low frequencies was VERY noticeable even at fairly low sound pressure levels. In terms of low-frequency reproduction, it cannot be called hi-fi. To avoid distortion, I've set the low-frequency EQ on my Move almost as low as it can go, but I wonder if there are people who are satisfied with the flat setting.
Yep. Current version totally damaged the brand image.
I did notice today that the music library management function has been added back in... hopefully the indexing might now actually work as well
Why would you say that? Not my experience and I own 2 pairs of these.
Yes the app is messy now, but it is not so bad. Absolutely a company with the resources Sonos have should never have allowed this out.
I'm sure a few heads have or will roll over this. My guess is that upper management was pushing hard for the app to be released and rather than face the consequences of disappointing the big shots, the project managers took the risk of signing off hoping against all hope that the app performed better.
They were wrong.
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