Sonos S5 multi-room audio system review

Introduction: Sonos is a company that focuses on Multi-room music systems that provide a world of music at your fingertips – from the Internet and your computer.

The Sonos S5 is the latest hardware addition to the Sonos Multi Room Music System. The S5 is a high-performance wireless music system with 2 tweeters, 2 mid-range drivers and 1 subwoofer driver for bass you can feel. Each speaker is powered by a dedicated digital amplifier (5 in all) and optimized to deliver accurate tonal balance and deep bass. The S5’s all digital sound architecture provides precise sound reproduction. And all filter settings, active equalization and time-alignment are done in the digital domain through state-of-the-art DSP circuitry, so there’s absolutely no loss of audio quality or energy.

The key components for a Sonos system are: Internet access: for accessing streaming internet audio (subscription streaming audio services like SiriusXM Internet Radio), radio streaming audio, Internet streaming audio (Last.FM, Pandora, etc.). There are literally thousands of free Internet streaming options that Sonos provides. Router: if you want to have streaming wireless audio Controller: to control what music is played Zone Player: to listen to the music Media Device: as a repository for all your digital music

First Impressions and initial setup: I received the following review equipment from Sonos: 3 - Sonos Zone Player S5 1 - Sonos Controller 200 1 – Sonos ZoneBridge 100 1 – Sonos Zone Player 120 1 – Sonos Zone Player 90

For the review I was particular interested in testing synchronized multi-room audio over the S5, the integration of internet and local music and ease of use.

After unpacking all the products, the first order of business was to try to get something running. I was AMAZED at how easy and straightforward it was to set up the system using the free software on my PC and iPad. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or an Android Phone, you can also download the free Sonos application to those devices. As of the time of this writing Windows Phone 7 isn’t supported and it would have been nice for me as both my wife and I have Windows Phone 7’s.

I have done professional software development over 25 years and 18 years of that being at Microsoft. I worked on Windows Media Center for Windows 7, specifically running an incubation team that focused on connected whole home technologies targeted at the CEDIA channel. There were a number of initiatives that we focused on regarding the “connected home”. Some of the biggest initiatives were ease of use, setup and multi-room audio synchronization. When I went to the Sonos web site I noticed this on their web page:

“When it comes to setting up your Sonos system, we live by the age-old adage keep it simple. You don’t need to be a tech genius or a wireless expert. You don’t have to break through walls or hire someone to re-wire your house. And you don’t need to know what hex keys and SSID are. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection, a router and two fingers so you can push the buttons on every ZonePlayer.”

The barrier of entry to get a Sonos multi-room audio system up is the lowest bar of entry that I have experienced on any connected home system to date. If you have ever setup an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone, setting up a Sonos multi-room audio system will be as easy as that process.

Setup was as easy as plugging in the Sonos ZoneBridge 100 to my router, plugging in my Sonos S5 and associating the Sonos ZoneBridge to the Sonos S5 and my Sonos Controller 200. The association over the Sonos wireless mesh network was as simple as holding down two buttons on the Sonos ZoneBridge or the nearest Sonos S5! While I was using the Sonos Controller 200, I also installed the Sonos software on my Windows 7 PC, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

Getting the music to play: The next part was getting the music to play. I already had a subscription to SiriusXM Internet Radio, Last.FM and Pandora radio, so I set that up first.. That was as easy as going to the Service Settings option on Sonos software and answering the username and password prompts. It then just worked.

I also wanted to get to my vast library of digital music that I already had. Since I worked on HD DVD and Windows Media Center focusing on the CEDIA channel, I am pretty picky about my video and audio when it comes to how they are stored. I had all of my 2.2TB of music stored on my dedicated Windows Media Center in WMA lossless format. I quickly found out that Sonos didn’t support WMA lossless format, which became an immediate problem for me. The default for Windows Media Player is not in WMA lossless format which means the majority of people reading this review won’t have this issue. I had re-ripped all of my music years ago because I wanted them in Windows friendly lossless format (note: Sonos does support ALAC and FLAC lossless audio). This forced me to download a tool that would convert my WMA lossless to MP3 file format that I then stored on an entirely different PC in the house. After I had done this, I was easily able to point the Sonos PC software to the share with all the MP3 files and it imported and indexed them and I was immediately able to play that music on the Sonos S5’s. Something to note: if you keep your music on a computer and you want to always be able to play it, you need to make sure it never goes into sleep mode. After installing the Sonos software, it will change the default for you. If you are energy adverse, you might consider putting all of your music on a NAS.

The Experience: I never added whole home audio to the house because I just couldn’t justify the cost and maintenance of the systems I had seen in the CEDIA channels. Prior to the Sonos, I did have near whole home audio with my Windows Media Center system with Xbox 360’s at 5 different locations in the house. That required turning on the HDTV’s, the Xbox 360 and then waiting to navigate to the music I wanted to listen to. Anyone that has a HDTV, knows that good quality speakers aren’t one of the features that manufacturer spend much time on, so my audio experience was always sub-par. Also, Windows Media Center via Windows Media Center Extenders didn’t offer synchronized audio across rooms.

The first thing I did was hand my wife the Sonos Controller 200. In about one minute she was up and running listening to our digital music and streaming internet music in the kitchen. That’s a really good benchmark on if a system is going to be accepted into the house! All of the music that plays, regardless if it is from the Internet or from your digital collection displays all the necessary meta data associated with the music, including the album image and the name of the track. A nice feature request would be to have the ability to get more information ( meta data) on the album (i.e. the date it was published, more information on the artists).

Multi-Room Audio Sync: I put a S5 in the kitchen, the family room and the master bedroom. The family room and kitchen are close enough that I can hear both S5’s from standing in the room between them. This was a great test of the audio synchronization capabilities of the S5, which when I started was skeptical about. I did not hear any audio delay between the two zones and they were hooked up wirelessly. We tried pretty hard to get this done with Windows Media Center and Windows Media Center Extender, so I was very impressed with multi-room audio synchronization as I know how hard it is to do, particularly over wireless.

Sound Quality: I am very picky about audio quality (part of the reason I had WMA lossless for all my personal audio collection) and while the format lasted, really enjoyed SACD and DVD-Audio music. My home theater, which is also my listening area consists of Krell amps, Lexicon pre/pro and Revel speakers with Kimber Kable speaker cable. I have a pretty high bar for audio.

My experience with the Sonos S5 in terms of audio quality was very favorable. Given that the MSRP for a S5 is $399, the sound quality is excellent and perfect for multi-room audio. The speakers had great dynamic range (no they are not going to vibrate the dishes off the shelves from the bass) and sounded extremely well rounded and full. I didn’t walk away with a feeling that the S5 was overcompensating for bass given the size of the drivers and I also could hear very crisp definition on the high end. Let’s put it this way, I have listened to “table side” radios that cost a lot more than the S5 and the S5 easily matches or exceeds them, with a much lower cost and more functionality!

If you feel that the S5 won’t meet your sound criteria or if you prefer to utilize your existing amplifier and speaker system, you can use the Sonos Zone Player 90 or if you want to use your own speakers and don’t have an amplifier, you can use the Sonos Zone Player 120.

Experience: The experience of discovering, queuing and playing music is very approachable and easy to use. From your digital content, it is extremely easy to setup a Sonos Playlist and to add music to a queue and save that queue as a playlist. One of my favorite features is using the controller to activate, deactivate and join together multiple zones. When you add a Zone Player to the system it will automatically appear on all of your controllers. You then have the ability to play different content in each zone or the ability to group zones together to have synchronized multi-room audio. If you have two S5’s in the same room, you can set them up as a stereo pair.

Regardless what controller you are using for the Sonos system the menu interface is nearly identical. This made it very easy for my wife to move from the iPad, the iPod Touch (which I bought after started reviewing this product) and the Sonos Controller 200 without getting confused about how and where to play the music.

A feature that many people might not readily notice in the Sonos controller software is the alarm function. I particularly liked that you can have a separate alarm for each zone and have any source of music play for the alarm. I was also very impressed by having the alarm default to a regular sounding alarm if the user chooses an internet music source and the internet music source was not available! It’s that kind of attention to detail that I believe really sets this multi-room audio system apart from even the high end custom installed multi-room audio systems.

Closing: I liked the review system so much; I went out and bought my own system. I expanded it to eight S5’s and one ZP90 for nine zones in the house (family room, living room, kitchen, office, master bedroom, master bathroom, kids play room, home theater and garage) and purchased three iPod Touch devices to go with the iPad for controllers. At the end of the day, the Sonos Controller 200 was more expensive than an iPod Touch and I can use the iPod Touch for multiple tasks. Sonos also sells a nice charging station for the iPhone and iPod Touch that also allows you to play music directly from your iPhone and iPod Touch to any ZonePlayer! It’s great that Sonos figured out early in the game that they could provide free software on commodity based devices and save their customers money and provide a better value proposition.

I have a lot of friends with high end multi-room audio systems and been involved in many custom install systems with CEDIA installers that have incorporated multi-room audio into the whole home connected house. I’ve played with their proprietary controllers and looked at the money they have spent to get it going. It’s not cheap and it requires the custom installer to set it all up before the homeowner can use it. If there are special things that need to be done to change it (like adding in another music source, there is more money involved). Now can those systems provide better sonic quality? Sure, but those systems cost substantially more than the Sonos system, have to be installed during construction (or require expensive retrofitting) and the maintenance is higher. I don’t listen to music critically anywhere in the house outside of my dedicated home theater room. The Sonos S5 sounds great for listening to music casually throughout the house. I can crank it up when my wife is gone and have the kids dance to music in their play room and I don’t get distorted sound.

The only issues I had with the review system were that I had to re-encode all my WMA lossless music to MP3 (and rip twice for new music I purchase), no Windows Phone 7 support and some odd quirks I had with the Sonos Controller 200 losing battery power, which for some reason caused the music to start playing. Of course, this happened when I was travelling for work, and scared the pants off my wife and prompted a call from her telling me to stop remotely logging into the system and turning the music on! For anyone that can setup an iPad and download apps, they can setup a Sonos multi-room audio system. It’s that easy. The value of this product is incredible for the features, functionality and sound quality.

I highly recommend the Sonos S5 system for anyone looking for a multi-room audio system or even for a system to extend music into a hard to reach area, like the garage. I’m not aware of any multi-room system that is as easy to setup, easy to use,

Feel free to discuss the Sonos S5 review and your experience with Sonos in our discussion forums.

It is hard to determine from the SONOS website if the connecting amp will take optical inputs or inputs from a turn table. Also, does it have analog outputs for recording purposes and driving a Harmon Kardon power amp? We already put everything from our computers onto our wide screen TV. The thing is I have some Bose 501 speakers that would love to get their signal straight from the TV’s optical output.

I’m not a big audio guy, as far as home systems go, but this does sound like at least a good candidate for your home setup. I think FreedomPoster made a good call. Perhaps worth the effort of seeing if there are any establishments by you that sell them, so you can see them firsthand. Good luck, either way.

While I still have my turntable & a mini-disc somehwere, my personal idea of good sound reinforcement is usually just the JCM 800. ;)

Hi there, I actually work for SONOS (engineering team, down in Santa Barbara). The Connect:AMP has analog inputs, but not optical input and no outputs. So if you’re looking at the unit with the built-in amplifier, it will take an analog in and power your speakers - but you won’t get analog outputs from it.

The Connect has analog inputs and analog and optical outputs - but no optical input. So you can record from the analog outputs without a problem. It can stream its analog input to the Connect:AMP or any other SONOS product (just like the Connect:AMP).

So, in your case, since you already have an HK amp and speakers, you might want to consider the Connect - use the analog inputs from a source, or put the Connect inputs and outputs in a tape loop of your HK amp so that you can play OR record through your SONOS product.

Our customer service team is great, they’re available pretty much 24/7 as well if you have any system questions - I do technical things (acoustics), and like you I have my own audio amp and speaker system I prefer to use for my main listening system, so the Connect works great for me. I do have a Play 3 in the kitchen, and a Play 5 I use on the deck however!

Thanks for your information. The problem is my LG TV has two outputs. One is for headphone and the other is an optical output that supposed to go into these new type receivers that will put out front and rear stereo with a sub woofer. We want to keep it simple with a simple stereo with a sub woofer using my present amp. If we use the headphone output, it cuts out the TV speakers. That means unplugging the headphone jack if we want to use the TV speakers only. The optical output means we would need a optical to analog converter. I am not sure which unit will work on my LG TV. I guess I will need to make a few phone calls.

The SONOS system looks like a simple way to put music in other parts of the house without running wires and going with a special PA type amp with the correct output impedance for long speaker wire runs. I could see having the cable box in the base station SONOS sending audio content to the remote speakers in my bedroom. We could then watch the program in the bedroom with great audio. Comcast has MoCA cable boxes that play high definition DVR content to other TVs in the house while being controlled by satellite MoCA boxes in other rooms. Imagine running satellite SONOS speakers with the sound being generated by the base MoCA box.

Also, Comcast will soon be making available Skype to bring its video chat service to subscriber living rooms. It will make it easy for consumers to take advantage of high-quality video conferencing with friends and family through their HDTV sets and Comcast broadband connection. Imagine talking to your son in college and hearing the sound in high quality stereo.

Hmmm... I’m not sure how to configure at that point, since we don’t have an optical input unit available. Definitely worth talking with the support folks, they’re insanely good at solving such problems.

SONOS really works well for multi-room/whole-house type setups. Easy, quick, very well sync’d and super simple to use.

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