Sonos PLAY:1 review, great sound in a small package

Sonos is a great system for playing music around the home, I love being able to control music for the whole home from a phone or tablet. The problem with a multi-zone setup is the cost of multiple Sonos players makes it a very expensive setup but Sonos have a new device that makes it a little easier on the wallet.

The Sonos PLAY:1 is the smallest Sonos player in their range and comes in at £169, if you want to get started with Sonos then it could be a great way of getting into the system. The devices is much smaller than their other Sonos players. It’s a single cylinder design that is 11.91cm wide and 16.15cm tall, it has two class D amps, a 3.5″ mid-woofer and a tweeter, it has a play/pause button and volume controls on the top. The PLAY:1 has a very solid feel and is pretty heavy, it but its small enough to be portable and move around if needed but there is no battery option so you are always going to need it plugged in to the mains.

As with other Sonos devices it has a fantastic sound, not up to the standard of the bigger units but it’s good for its size. he PLAY:1 isn’t as loud as the bigger units and doesn’t have as much bass but the sound is very clear even when pushed up to its full volume, its equally at home playing classic music as it is rock and dance.

It would fit nicely in a bedroom or small room but for a large room you would need a bigger player or have multiple Play:1 devices. Another use for it could be in combination with other Sonos devices, for a home theatre you could have the Sonos PLAYBAR (see my review), Sonos SUB (see my review) and two PLAY:1 as rear speakers and for that it would work very well.

I like the PLAY:1 and its lower cost makes it great way to get into Sonos, personally I would go for a bigger unit if you are going for one device and if you want to use it wirelessly you are going to need a Sonos Bridge which connects your network to the proprietary Sonos network (Sonos include a Bridge with the Play:1).

In this video I take a look at the PLAY:1 and put it through its paces.

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