******
- Verified Buyer
I guess I SHOULD have given Sonos Play:5s only four stars because of the ridiculous price they charge for this thing!That aside, I'm extremely pleased with these speaker's sound quality, control software and overall functionality.The Sonos products do what no other product does(AFAIK). They allow you to play music thru-out your living space wirelessly.Further, you can select speakers(other Sonos products) to play different tracks simultaneously.You can choose songs from your music library to form a cue.Re:cue; you can change the song order, add/delete, SAVE etc. Like an ITunes playlist, only better.You can adjust EQ via Bass/Treble control.You can adjust volume or mute, pause/continue, cue fwd/rev, etc.I'm able to play music stored on my PC, controlled by my phone/tablet. (you don't need music on each device)TuneIn radio (comes with the software) has 100,000 stations to choose from. They play flawlessly.You can do all this from your PC, tablet or smart phone. How do you top this?SEVERAL people can perform all these functions SIMULTANEOUSLY. (which gets interesting when your child is home from college LOL)If you ask me, it's a miracle! "Ah but, setup must be difficult!", you say.Nope, setup was a snap. Once unpackaged and plugged in, I downloaded the software and configured the speakers in less than 30 minutes. REALLY! The software is simple and intuitive.Cons: Price I wish they had a better equalizer program. The current one has a basic treble/bass slide bar. I wish they had outdoor speakers. I wish they had wireless headphones.Note: Sonos product all require AC electric supply i.e. plug them in. They're wireless, not battery operated; which I think is a good thing.My experience:My highest priority was to be able to play music off my PC located in the 26'x26' kitchen/LR/DR open floor plan, over a set of decent quality speakers. The thought of integrating the whole house seemed wonderful, albeit unattainable. We listen to a variety of music, but mostly rock, jazz and jazz fusion. Occasionally, we like to blast it. How loud? "loud enough to NOT hear myself sing" LOL. I wanted to "hit it out of the park", so I wound up buying 2 Play:5s and Sonos Sub.First, I set up the Play:5s to see if/how they would work. They immediately reminded me of Apple products with they're ridiculous gratuitous packaging. I mean the boxes alone must cost $25! LOLAs I said, the setup was a snap. I downloaded the app from the Sonos site*. It loaded quickly and I was on my way. Setup** was a couple of screens similar to pairing blue tooth stuff. What did take a while, was importing my 10K track music library(There's a serious issue here too! see below.)As for sound quality, I'd rate the speakers as "very good", to "excellent". If one considers the size of the format, ease of setup and they are wireless, I'd say "excellent"! I paired the speakers as stereo and listened to flawless music stream for about an hour. The bass response was so good, I almost didn't open the sub. I'm glad I did! While a huge expense for a seemingly frivolous component, the Sonos Sub is amazing! It definitely adds another dimension to the system.Several days later, I bought the Sonos starter set (2 Play:1s). I put one in the 12'x18' bedroom and one in the 24'x30' garage. Admittedly, these speakers do not deliver the sound quality of the 5's, but when you consider the size of the format, they absolutely rock!I'm saving my $ for more Sonos products!------------NOTES----------------------------------------------*I downloaded the app from Sonos. There's another app on the google app site which is rated rather low. I don't know if they are the same.**You need ethernet (hard wire) connection for the first Sonos product you install. Later, you can move remove the wire or move the speaker wherever you like.***my ITunes PLAY LISTS did NOT import. The library is all there and the playlists titles are there, but the data within the playlists is erroneous and does not play. I'm on Sono's site attempting to fix this. WARNING, there appears to be NO real FIX at this time.UPDATE: I found an esoteric file "fix". It will work short term. If you're good with your PC file system, you can do it too.FLASH! I was contacted by Sonos support regarding this post. I'll update.UPDATE-I'm about 30 days into these products. I listen to them almost daily. ( just ordered 2 more P5s)The Music stream(over my network) has been flawless.I experienced 2 or 3 device "lockups" on my S5 phone, which were quickly averted with an app restart.My ITunes playlist problem persists. Sonos has been very attentive, emailing me several times about it. They say the issue is in ITunes(I don't doubt them), but I can't find the playlist files in order to examine and repair them.I WISH the P5s had more treble (brighter). I play them with the treble setting maxed out 100% of the time.I WISH the software had a real equalizer, rather than the vanilla bass/treble adjustments.UPDATE-I purchased 2 additional P5s. Now I have 2P5s + Sub in one room(24'x24') and 2P5s standalone in another(20'x20' with lower ceiling). I'll say the standalones are still pretty impressive. In fact, the sub tends to be a bit over-the-top and requires adjustment on some songs. Generally for classical music I'll turn it up a notch, then have to back it off for rock music. It's interesting to hear the extra bass when listening to talk radio. The standalones are by NO MEANS lacking. Don't hesitate to get two P5s if you can't afford the sub.
