In a recent meeting Sonos sat down with EFTM to highlight two new pieces of news which can now revealed. The new Sonos Play: 5 and the introduction of a new tuning feature called Trueplay.
Trueplay
For anyone who has a Sonos speaker, listen up! Trueplay is coming through as a software update. Essentially what Trueplay is going to do is allow your speaker to know a 3D map of the room it is in to enable the speaker to adjust itself for the room. If your speakers are in corners of the house it will adjust accordingly. The idea here is that no room has the same acoustics so why should Sonos assume.
The software works extremely easily. Using your iPhone or iPad you’ll run the program, the speaker will play sounds and you will wave your phone or tablet up and down as you walk around the room. The technology uses the microphone on your phone or tablet to listen to the speaker sounds and maps your room. Extremely clever and the difference between a tuned room and untuned will be very surprising. The only limitation today is that the software is only for iOS and only applies to the Play:1, Play: 3, and Play: 5.
Sonos Play: 5
The Sonos Play: 5 is a beast. I’ve seen and heard this new speaker in action and it not only looks great but sounds stunning. It is a big unit, around the size of three Play: 1’s. It has a different design from the previous 5 and they’ve also opted for more touch sensitive buttons than physical volume buttons. We’ve learnt that this is so that if you choose to stand them up the speaker will always have the volume up facing up regardless of which way you rotate the speaker. The Play: 5 will also allow you to swipe across the volume controls to skip song rather than just play/pause.
The most notable thing with this new speaker from Sonos though is the sound. We experienced these speakers via the Sonos app streaming from Deezer and the audio experience was phenomenal. Every note, every strum, every word sung, all sounded so clear and so full and vibrant. It was one of those moments where you wonder why you watch TV when you could just be sitting and listening to fantastic music delivered so well. That experience alone is something to relax or entertain you.
The new Play: 5 will be $749 in Australia, for most houses one of these will be enough to entertain a house full of guests. If you want to go all out and buy two then you can configure them as a pair and use them as left/right speakers. They look great standing up and it is a little surprising that Jony Ive had nothing to do with the design, they’re just sexy.
We’ll be bringing a couple into the EFTM household shortly for a proper road-test but in the meantime, Sonos people – update your app and tune those speakers!
