SONOS PLAY:1 Smart Wireless Speaker, Black

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Do bear in mind, though, this width can be helped or hindered by the size, shape and furnishings of your room, because this is a system that relies upon bouncing sound off walls. There’s just one traditional button on the whole thing - a round, recessed little number on the left-hand side you use for linking the Playbase to your network and any other Sonos speakers you might already have. Others take a different approach. For example, the Riva Arena sounds a lot more detailed and refined than the Sonos Play:1 at low volumes. It has a more hifi-like timbre, and greater finesse. The Sonos Play:1 is easily the most accessible speaker Sonos has made, though. It’s the prettiest, the smallest and the cheapest.

In our dedicated listening room, it does little to the sound, but move the speaker to a less ideal location – a kitchen or a corner for example – and the difference is audible. It tightens up any boomy bass, adds clarity to the midrange and really cleans up the sound from top to bottom.The app will tell you either to hold the Play/Pause and Volume Up buttons at the same time or to hold the dedicated Join button The other major advantage that the Playbase has over almost any other rival (barring the Beam or Playbar of course) is that it’s got the full breadth of features that you’d get with any other Sonos speaker, namely seamless, simple multi-room integration and almost limitless musical options. At least everything else about the setup process is simple, with the Sonos app having a step-by-step guide complete with simple instructions, diagrams and even videos. During the process you’ll assign the Playbase to a room of your house, program it so the volume can be controlled via your TV’s standard remote and, if you’re an iPhone user, tune the sound to your room using Sonos Trueplay.

The Playbase still has a number of strengths that haven’t yet been mentioned. The first is, unlike most soundbars and soundbases, it can be upgraded to a full 5.1 system with the addition of a Sonos Sub and two Sonos Play:1 (or even Play:3 or Play:5) speakers to act as the LFE, surround-left and surround-right channels. The Play:3 and Play:5 can be positioned horizontally and vertically so you’ll want to make sure they’re in the same orientation if you plan on pairing them. Despite the multi-room system, of which the Play:5 is an integral part, remaining our favourite, the result is a lost star for Sonos’s flagship speaker.Make the move to stereo (with a second unit) and the sound is even bigger, with a solid stereo image. You can choose to place them horizontally or vertically in this arrangement, and while horizontally will certainly offer a wider sound, we preferred it when vertical. In the early days of the Sonos system you had to buy a bridge to connect your speakers to your home Wi-Fi. But now it’s much more like a standard wireless speaker.

It helps give the Sonos Play:1 excellent, rich and meaty sound for its size. Voicing is fairly neutral, but the depth and scale of the bass the speaker is able to produce is very impressive. For more information about Sonos or to locate an authorized Sonos dealer in your area, please visit www.sonos.com or call 877.80.SONOS. Add more PLAY:1s or combine with other Sonos wireless speakers or components around the home for the ultimate, multi-room HiFi system. You’ll do much of your controlling via the app, with the ability to add your streaming services of choice, as well as search out music saved on the local network.

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That rich bass response is even more emphasised in this set-up though, so you may find a visit to the EQ settings might be necessary to level things out to a more neutral playing ground.

But, viewed as a wireless speaker in its own right, it’s impossible to deny that the Play:5 can now be beaten for sound quality, not just by the more affordable Audio Pro Addon C10, but also by the more expensive Bluesound Pulse 2.Sonos was created upon the belief you should never have to choose between quality sound and an easy way to access all your music at home," said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. "The PLAY:1 makes getting started with Sonos even more accessible to music lovers than ever before." When you connect a Sonos Boost to your router, all of the other devices in your house will continue to connect to your router as usual except for your Sonos products which will be redirected to the Boost on a dedicated wireless network. If you’ve splashed out for more than one speaker, your Boost will actually daisy chain the wireless signal from one device to the next. This can significantly improve the signal quality – especially in larger homes. Adjust the wireless channel the router is using (If ‘Auto’ is enabled, disable it and use channel 1, 6 or 11) However, for similar size, stature and features, the Braun LE01, Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin or Sonus Faber Omnia are considerably pricier – so depending on your priorities, the Sonos Five does still represent value.