Another week, another wireless streaming format or speaker announcement. At least it seems that way lately. WiSA and Bang and Olufsen are partnering to release a high-end wireless speaker system. DTS is pushing the Play-Fi format as a way of streaming audio throughout your home. Even Samsung is getting in on the act with their new Shape multi-room music streaming platform. But the company that pretty much single-handedly created the wireless multi-room music distribution market is Sonos. And now the price of entry for the Sonos wireless music system has gotten lower with the company's introduction of the PLAY:1 wireless speaker, priced at $199.
Sonos, based in Santa Barbara, California, provides an integrated wireless music streaming platform that makes listening to music in any part of your home simple, and affordable. Before Sonos, those who wanted to listen to music in multiple areas of the home either had to install dedicated systems in each room or route wires and speakers all over the home. Doing this in a seamless and elegant way normally required a significant amount of money for hardware, installation and custom programming of whole home control systems.
With Sonos, you can literally buy a wireless speaker system, press a couple of buttons to connect it to your home network, download an app for your Android or Apple smart phone or tablet and have instant access to your digital music collection from wherever you decide to place the speaker. You also have access to thousands of streaming internet radio stations, Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody and a number of additional online music services (some of which require a monthly subscription fee).
I listened to the PLAY:1 at a Sonos press event last week, and found the sound remarkably full and punchy. The Sonos PLAY:1 is a great little tabletop speaker for your bedroom, kitchen or even bathroom. Unlike other Sonos speakers which are stereo, the Play:1 is a mono speaker (it's too compact to really do stereo effectively). However it can be linked with a second PLAY:1 for discrete stereo music playback. You can even mate it with a Sonos sub if you need a little oomph in the low end. The PLAY:1 is also compatible with the PlayBar speaker as rear channels, so you can turn a PlayBar into a discrete 5-channel surround sound system for just an additional $398.
A new touch on the PLAY:1 is the on-unit controls. All Sonos products feature a few controls on the unit itself so if your smart phone or tablet is not handy, you can still adjust the volume or mute the sound entirely. Now with a simple tap on top of the PLAY:1, you can pause and resume your music. A double tap skips to the next song in your queue. Volume controls are still there as well, but the mute button is now gone. Sonos reps tell us that the pause and skip controls were something that many existing customers said they wanted so Sonos is actually rolling out the pause/skip functionality to existing customers as well via an app update. The "mute" button on Play:3, Play:5 and PlayBar products will soon morph into a pause button. If you want to lower the volume, you can use the volume down button, which is designed to operate very quickly if held down.
The Sonos PLAY:1 goes on sale today at existing SONOS dealers including online sites such as Amazon.com. It's available in black or white. Look for a promotion for a free Sonos wireless bridge (retail value $49) with purchase of a PLAY:1 this holiday season.
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