Sonos Play Review

Design 

• IP67 weather protection
• Charges via dock or USB-C
• Carry handle

Let’s start by trying to wade through the slightly confusing name. The ‘Play’ name was previously reserved for the company’s main in-home wired speakers, replacing the old ZonePlayer name the company launched with. This naming convention goes way back to the Sonos Play 3 that we reviewed back in 2011, before Sonos switched to a new naming convention, with either soundbars, such as the Sonos Arc Ultra, or regular speakers, such as the Sonos Era 100.

The new Sonos Play is not a throwback to earlier years, but is a brand new multipurpose speaker that can be permanently powered via its dock for standard use connected to Wi-Fi, or it can go on the move, switching to battery power using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

In that regard, the Sonos Play has much more in common with the Sonos Move 2, although its smaller body and better weatherproofing make it something like a bigger Sonos Roam.

Stylistically, the Play takes its design cues from the Move 2, with a sleek curved body wrapped in metal mesh, available in either black or white. Regardless of what issues Sonos has had, the one thing that has always been true is that its build quality has remained brilliant, and that applies to the Play.

It looks brilliant, and there’s a reassuring heft to it that gives confidence that this is a product designed to last.

Like the Move, the Play ships with a charging dock that has a captive cable that terminates in a USB-C port, but there’s no power adaptor in the box. Sonos says the Play will work with an 18W (9V/2A) USB-PD-compliant adaptor, but recommends a 45W (15V/3A) adaptor instead.

Docked, the speaker charges and maintains constant power, so it can act and be used just like any other Sonos speaker in your home.

Like the Move 2, the Play can also be taken off charge and carried about where you want it, with a battery that will last for up to 24 hours. In terms of portability, the Play is built to go further.

While the Move 2 is designed for moving around the house and into the garden, it’s a chunky 3kg; the Play is a more svelte 1.3kg. OK, so it’s not the kind of speaker you’d want to carry around in a backpack for days on end, but if you’re camping and have a car, or want a speaker to carry to the park, the Play is much easier to carry around.

To aid that, there’s a carry loop at the back, which swivels round for easy carrying, and can then be turned and hidden when put down.

On top, Sonos has a simple layout with rubberised buttons for volume and play/pause. Just like with headphones, a double-click of the play/pause button skips track, and a triple-click skips backward.

There’s also a button to toggle voice services on and off (Sonos or Alexa), and a further switch at the back to physically turn the microphone on and off. Be careful, as turning the microphone off stops the automatic Trueplay tuning from working.

Rubberised buttons like this can be done badly, with little feedback and a lot of pressure needed, but Sonos has got the balance spot on. The controls aren’t quite as nice to use as a nice physical button with travel, but there has to be a compromise as the Play is drop resistant and IP67 rated. That means it’s shielded against dust, and can take short-term full water immersion in water between 15cm and 1m deep. In other words, this is a speaker built for the great British weather.

Also at the back are a Bluetooth connection button and a power button so that the speaker can be turned off to save battery power while you’re using it out and about. There’s also a USB-C port for direct charging, so there’s no need to lug the power adaptor around with you.

Design-wise, the Play certainly does what it sets out to do, but it does feel like a slightly more niche product, crossing over between the areas that both the Move 2 and the Roam 2 already occupy.

Features

• Auto Trueplay configuration
• Supports stereo pairing
• Bluetooth or Wi-Fi streaming

For its main use, the Sonos Play needs to be connected to the Sonos app and to your Wi-Fi network. As with recent Sonos players, the Play supports Wi-Fi 6. Once joined, the Play works like any other Sonos speaker in your home, whether it’s connected to the dock in its ‘normal’ location, or carried around the house or into the garden.

The Sonos app has been a bone of contention, with a disastrous revamp that proved to be unreliable and hard to use. Fortunately, Sonos has put a lot of work into improving the app. It’s more reliable, faster to load, and the search bar for music is more obvious. I don’t think it’s as good as the old app, but there certainly aren’t any major problems.

I should also repeat some of the benefits of using the Sonos app, with the main one that you can use a single music subscription and play music on different speakers at the same time. For example, buy an individual Spotify account, and you can have Foo Fighters in the kitchen and Taylor Swift in the kids’ room, without having to upgrade. Nobody else offers that.

You can also mix and match music from different services into a playlist, mixing streaming and local music altogether.

From the Sonos app there’s the option to sync music across multiple rooms for a party. It’s still slick, and these are all reasons why I have Sonos in every room in my house.

Voice control is available via either Amazon Alexa or the simpler Sonos Voice Control (“Hey, Sonos”). It works with Sonos Radio, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Pandora and Spotify.

You don’t have to use the app or voice, as there’s Bluetooth 5.3 built in, and there’s AirPlay 2 built in, too.

Automatic Trueplay is supported, using the integrated microphone input to adjust the audio output based on where the speaker is located. Move the speaker around, and Trueplay kicks in again. It’s a similar system to that used by the HomePod and HomePod mini.

Automatic Trueplay works really well. I moved the Play from a clear location in my office onto a bookcase, and the bass was tweaked so that the speaker didn’t sound so boomy.

If you have two Play speakers, you can put them in a stereo pair for better stereo separation. Stereo pairing requires the speakers to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network, which introduces some benefits and some problems.

If you’ve got your Play speakers set up in a room, paired together, then all is good. If you want to move around the house, you have to remember to take both speakers with you. For example, if you took the left speaker outside, then the right speaker would still play half the audio inside, so everything would sound odd.

If you do take the speakers together, I recommend putting a sticker on one, so you know which is the left and which is the right when you get back inside.

Line-in is available via an adaptor, but it seems more likely that you’d use Bluetooth, which is available via the button on the back. Music played via Bluetooth is still played on a stereo pair, provided both speakers remain connected to Wi-Fi.

If you’re out of your home and only have Bluetooth, you lose stereo pairing. While my iPhone can connect to two Bluetooth speakers at once, it will only play audio from one.

All of which leads to the question, should you really stereo pair these speakers? I think it introduces more potential problems than it solves. For stereo pairing, I’d go with a couple of fixed speakers, such as two Sonos Era 100.

Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours. That will depend on use, but testing the speakers around the house, the truth is that for any real length of gathering, there’s plenty of power and you won’t be reaching for a USB-C cable and power bank any time soon.

Tap the power button on the back, and the speaker goes into sleep mode, although it will do this automatically after 30 minutes; another tap brings the speaker back online.

Sound Quality

• Loud, powerful audio
• Good balance
• Bass is clean, but can sound harsh at higher volumes

Sonos hates to give away any actual specs. Read what it says about the Play and all we learn is that there are three Class-H amplifiers (rather than the Class-D that Sonos usually uses). Although less power-efficient, Class-H can provide a finer audio experience, though many variables are not taken into account in that statement.

Otherwise, there are two angled tweeters and a mid-range woofer; the same description as for the Move 2. Given the size discrepancy between the two speakers, it seems that the Move 2 has larger speakers. So, what difference does that make?

For starters, you can hear it in the bass. With Rage Against The Machine’s Bombtrack, the Move 2 has impressive weight and punch, delivering the kick of the bass drums as the intro kicks into life. The Play performs well, with tightly balanced audio, but its bass doesn’t shake the room quite as much.

With something super bass-heavy, such as OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass, the Move delivers the bass drum as it should be felt, but there’s a little bit of distortion around the Play.

The Move 2 has wider range, too. With Hank Levy’s Whiplash, the Move 2 presents a bigger soundstage, with more clarity to the individual instruments; the Play sounds a bit more bunched up and less expansive.

That’s to be expected, as the Move 2 is more expensive and should have more power. None of this is to say that the Play is a bad speaker and, for its size, it does a lot right.

While there’s no true stereo separation, as the dual speakers are too close together for that, there is at least stereo audio. With Foo Fighters’ Open Space, the guitars do feel like they’re swirling around the speaker.

Listening to the Play in isolation, Sonos has got the balance right, with the DSP neatly controlling the output to stop anything from getting out of balance as the sound goes up. 

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here is rendered beautifully, with the guitar from the opening solo brightly projected from the gentle strum in the background. 

I’d say that the Play is best enjoyed at volumes up to 75, with the higher end of that scale best for outdoors. Above this, and things can start to sound a bit harsh and muddled. For example, Mansun’s Wide Open Space sounds a bit muddled at max volume, but down at volume 75, the clarity through the track and its subtlety come to life.

There’s no real discernible difference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but it’s easier to use Wi-Fi where available and use Bluetooth as a fall-back for when you’ve taken the speaker out with you.

I used two Play speakers in a stereo pair, and you get all of the benefits that you might expect. Enough Space plays properly, with the guitar intro swirling between the two speakers. Play Johnny Cash’s cover of NIN’s Hurt, and his voice is beautifully placed in the centre of the speakers.

Bass is arguably better and cleaner, too, with two speakers able to split the strain between them. 

Stereo pairing is a clear improvement, but as described above, does make it more of a pain for portability.

Should you buy it?