Sonos Five Smart Speaker Review

[Maginness]

An other "me too" post. Have a stereo pair of Fives in our kitchen. Been happy and impressed by them. Extremely family friendly due to AirPlay and that they just work.

 

[lewdish]

Seems like RTings measurment for speakers kind of follow this somewhat, but in bass frequencies they're wildly off cause they're measuring indoors and not really the most standardized measuring rig. Overall kinda proves Rtings measurments are all over the place, but at least they also score the FR as fairly competent as well.

 

[A Surfer]

Post #11

Gotcha. Missed that somehow, and I always like posts from thewas. Sonos put quite a bit of effort into their products. So much so that they have earned my respect. And my money.

 

[Gwreck]

I didn’t see any mention of it being tested in the vertical mode?

 

[jhaider]

The main thing that's interesting about this speaker to me is how they ignore conventional wisdom about the ideal sound power response for a very wide directivity source.

Generally, companies that make very wide directivity speakers target a sound power similar to a forward-firing monopole: downwards sloping. Invariably, that means the direct sound is downwards-sloping as well, because the direct sound and sound power are nearly the same. Two examples are OG HomePod

and the old Mirage OMD series (here, from top to bottom, OMD-15 tower, OMD C1 center, OMD-5 mini-speaker).

Yet here we have a flattish on-axis/LW target, which combined with the directivity means sound power is flatter as well:

I'm not sure what to make of that, except that now I'm curious to try one and see how it sounds compared to an OG HomePod and an elite forward-firing speaker of more conventional directivity and similar size, e.g. as JBL 705 or Neumann KH 120 II.

 

[early rejecter]

I don’t like how they phase out the support for older models though

In what sense? Every speaker Sonos has ever sold except for one (the original Play:5) still works with the newest app, and even that Play:5 still works fine on the original app which they’ve continued to make available. Any “smart” device is going to have a limited lifespan by nature but it’s my impression that Sonos actually has one of the better records on that front. The Sonos speaker I bought for the kitchen almost 10 years ago now is still working just as well as it did the day I installed it.

 

[375HP2482]

Say what you want but this is some incredible garbage going on when looking at the distortion chart. It doesn't produce any bass, it produces harmonic distortions below 100Hz.
Typical case of trying to achieve the 'with sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine'. DSP doesn't fix physics.

Seeing as its high percentages of THD (>5%) in the vocal range don't seem to be a big problem, perhaps the THD Percent charts should expand from 5% max to 10% max. I would also generate that chart as log-log rather than semi-log.

 

[dzerig]

Great review and great product. Did the device become easier to use over time?

 

[Womaz]

How do these compare to something like Naim Muso for example.
if it’s for like casual listening I would imagine they are great

 

[Frank2]

It seems the IKEA Sonos speaker is cheaper and has less distortion but a little less low end extension:

Ikea SYMFONISK Picture Frame Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Ikea SYMFONISK picture frame speaker designed by Sonos. I purchased it a couple of days ago from Ikea store for US $199. Their website said they had 42 in stock so they are planning to sell a lot of them. That said, there was not a single...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Vacceo]

It would be quite nice to test the HEOS speakers, the direct competence, for reference.

 

[amirm]

I didn’t see any mention of it being tested in the vertical mode?

Assuming it runs the same way, then the measurements would be the same. On axis would be identical. Just swap the horizontal directivity charts for vertical and vice versa.

 

[A Surfer]

Great review and great product. Did the device become easier to use over time?

I find my Fives, set as the surround speakers, in my system super easy to use. I also found integrating them into the existing Sonos system I had extremely simple. Each time that I have had to interact with Sonos install or configuration apps I think to myself just how well designed the experience is. Not perfect, but pretty darn close in my experience.

 

[beagleman]

It seems the IKEA Sonos speaker is cheaper and has less distortion but a little less low end extension:

Ikea SYMFONISK Picture Frame Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Ikea SYMFONISK picture frame speaker designed by Sonos. I purchased it a couple of days ago from Ikea store for US $199. Their website said they had 42 in stock so they are planning to sell a lot of them. That said, there was not a single...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Wow, almost forgot about it. Having heard it, was fairly impressed with it overall.
Honestly the IKEA seemed almost too good sounding to be true. The bass was somewhat deep and fairly loud, yet NOT distorted!

 

[Gwreck]

Assuming it runs the same way, then the measurements would be the same. On axis would be identical. Just swap the horizontal directivity charts for vertical and vice versa.

Good point, I wasn’t sure if it changed the output based on position.

 

[jeffme]

Good point, I wasn’t sure if it changed the output based on position.

It changes its output based on whether it's in a stereo pair or not. In stereo it only uses the middle tweeter.

 

[Gwreck]

It changes its output based on whether it's in a stereo pair or not. In stereo it only uses the middle tweeter.

Thank you, That’s what I was wondering if it changed the sound output depending on position.

 

[DanielT]

It seems the IKEA Sonos speaker is cheaper and has less distortion but a little less low end extension:

Ikea SYMFONISK Picture Frame Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Ikea SYMFONISK picture frame speaker designed by Sonos. I purchased it a couple of days ago from Ikea store for US $199. Their website said they had 42 in stock so they are planning to sell a lot of them. That said, there was not a single...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Why do these traditional dedicated HiFi manufacturers still exist when a Sonus based solution performs like that? A solution for the masses that also satisfies a small HiFi minority.Maybe I'm exaggerating for the sake of discussion..or not...I seriously don't know. We'll see what happens in the future.

Then you can put them up on the wall with a Gustav Klimt motif. It's not just WAF but Everyone's Acceptance Factor.


Tough times for traditional HiFi manufacturers. And even better will come from Sonus and those who designed the Ikea SYMFONISK Picture Frame Speaker:

teenage engineering

teenage engineering creates high quality, well designed, electronic products for all people who love sound and music.

teenage.engineering

Why do you think they wrote so extensively about Stig Carlsson? They didn't have to do that but...

carlsson story

...they are the real deal. They want to create good sounding solutions.This is just the beginning.

 

[DanielT]

Good job Amir. A test without prejudice! Let the results speak for themselves.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Why do these traditional dedicated HiFi manufacturers still exist when a Sonus based solution performs like that?

Well, SONOS has abandoned some of their earliest gear, which no longer works at all with their newer software/firmware. You have to stick with their old software, and make sure nothing ever gets updated. Will this happen again to current devices in 5 years? Who knows?

A lot of money to sink into a multi-room system that might not last longer than a few years. Traditional components don't have this issue. WiiM sells the same or very similar functionality at a fraction of the cost (though no speaker, yet), making it a better alternative for many.