Sonos Wireless Speaker & Soundbar Review

This is probably the completely full overview of the Sonos range, especially since the latest Sonos products so far.

If you’re relatively new to the world of Sonos, then hopefully, this post will be an excellent place to start and give you a better idea of what you might be looking for. I’ll pop timestamps below to skip forward to certain products if there is already a speaker you’re interested in. So here is to give you a quick summary.

Sonos is a home audio company specializing in smart wireless speakers founded in America almost 20 years ago in 2001. They’ve always been a very forward-thinking brand pushing the limits with the most cutting-edge technology. They’ve come a long way with their products, and today we’re going to discuss their range of wireless speakers and soundbars and cover who they might be right, giving you some pros and cons of each product.

I’ve got the lineup of Sonos products. I’ve got their five wireless speaker options, The Sonos One, the Sonos one SL, the SONOS Move and the Sonos 5. I’ve also got their two soundbar options, the Sonos beam and the Sonos Arc. And this is their wireless subwoofer, the Sonos sub. They also offer a few other products l, but we’ll focus on just these seven products today and cover those in another post.

Sonos speakers are plugged into mains power and then control Wi-Fi, which offers a much more reliable connection than Bluetooth. For example, your music won’t be interrupted if you get a phone call or watch a social media video. And it also means you’re free to roam around your home without worrying about moving out of range.

Instead, the Sonos app is used to stream music from over a hundred different streaming services and global radio stations and can also be used to group speakers and control your multi-room setup. All of these speakers also benefit from free software updates via the Sonos app, which enables your speakers to get smarter over time as new technologies and updates are released.

For example, Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Assistant voice control were added for Sonos one speakers via a free software update in the Sonos app, thus increasing your investment.

Sonos One

So let’s start with these Sonos One Gen 2. That is their entry-level wireless smart speaker. It’s suitable for small to medium-sized rooms such as a bedroom, kitchen or a home office. This little speaker is packed with features. It offers built-in voice control with either Amazon or Google Assistant, so you can control your music hands-free using your voice. It’s also compatible with airplay.

So that means you can cast any audio from an iPhone and an iPad or Mac device. If you’re a Spotify user, you can use the Spotify app to send your music straight to your Sonos speaker.

Like all other Sonos speakers, the Sonos One offers true play tuning for enhancing a sound to suit your room. The Sonos one gen 2 is a sleek, compact speaker available in either black or white to suit your room decor. It also features a touch control top panel, enabling you to play or pause skip tracks, change the volume or cut the power to the microphones for complete privacy.

The one also offers impressive sound for a speaker of this size. With one tweeter for crisp high frequencies and vocals. One mid-wafer for rich bass and mid-range vocals. These are both powered by two Class D amplifiers, while it does sound great on its own.

The one can also be used in a stereo pair with a second Sonos One or Sonos one SL for precise stereo separation. You can also use a couple of ones as rears to the Sonos beam or the Arc to add extra immersion to your content.

So onto the pros and cons. What HiFi has awarded the Sonos one five stars. The main pros are its compact size allowing you to place it almost anywhere in your home. It’s impressive sound quality and built-in voice control. On the other hand, it doesn’t offer Bluetooth, as we mentioned earlier, which some may be looking for, and it’s also not portable.

Sonos One SL

So if we on to the Sonos one SL, you’ll notice it looks almost identical to the Sonos One. Essentially it is the same speaker with the same build, the same internals, the same sound, and pretty much all of the same features.

The only difference is that the Sonos ONE SL does not offer voice control and therefore doesn’t have a mic touch control on the top panel or any built-in microphones.

It’s also cheaper than the one with so this speaker is perfect if you wouldn’t use voice control or look for a slightly less expensive alternative. I would recommend a pair of Sonos one SL if you’re looking to add rears to a Sonos soundbar as both the BeamBeam and the arc offer voice control. So it’s not needed in the rears. You can also pair the Sonos one SL with one to be used in a stereo pair or as rears.

So for the pros and cons. They’re pretty much the same as those for the one, but this time an SL would be no voice control if that’s something you’re not interested in.

Sonos Move

Moving on to the Sonos Move. In terms of sound quality and price, first and foremost, this is a Sonos Wi-Fi speaker for your home, but it also offers Bluetooth connectivity and control, making it a portable speaker. As you can see, it is not a small portable speaker as this has been designed primarily as a home speaker, which you can carry from room to room.

You can also take the Move outside or on a trip. It’s so versatile, With a reliable Wi-Fi connection at home and the option to switch to Bluetooth when you’re out of range of Wi-Fi. It’s not a cheap speaker; however, it does offer incredible sound and several great features.

First of all, like the Sonos One, the Move offers both Amazon and Google Assistant voice control for hands-free control of your speaker. Six far-field microphones ensure that you can be heard even when it’s noisy.

It’s also compatible with airplay 2 and Spotify connects, offering a range of different control options. The Move also comes supplied with a charging base to sit in your home as a dock. It also has a built-in rechargeable battery, which offers around 11 hours of battery. So you can enjoy your music on the go.

Design-wise, the Move is a pretty durable speaker with a drop-proof design and an IP 56 weatherproof rating, which means it’s fully resistant to rain, extreme temperatures and more. The Move has a perforated grill and a rubberized non-slip base that is available in either black or lunar white and carry, handle, and touch controls on the top panel.

Inside, the Move boasts two Class D digital amplifiers, one mid-woofer and one downward firing tweeter, which all come together to offer a balanced, smooth sound with deep rich bass. The Move differs from other Sonos speakers.

Instead of manual tuning, it provides automatic true play tuning. So whenever it’s been placed in a different position for 15 seconds, it will acoustically optimize itself whether you’re indoors or outdoors.

The pros and cons of the Move, on the one hand, I love its durable design. It offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, a long-lasting battery life, and it is quick to recharge, with the addition of voice control as well. However, there are cheaper portable speakers on the market, and there are a few things that we would hope to change.

You can’t use the Sonos app to control music when connected via Bluetooth, and you can’t check the battery percentage unless you’re connecting to Wi-Fi.

Sonos Five

Let’s move on to the biggest and the boldest wireless speaker, the Sonos 5. That is the third generation of Sonos’s, following on from the Sonos 5 Gen 1 and Gen 2. The 5 is the obvious choice for true music lovers, offering studio-quality room-filling sound. For even larger spaces like the Sonos One, you can use it as a standalone speaker, in a stereo pair or as rears to a soundbar, which would be a pretty serious setup.

The 5 offers a sleek appearance in an all-white or all-black design to suit your deck. It has touch controls on the top panel, a perforated grill and little rubber feet on three sides. That is because the five can be placed in two orientations, horizontal or vertical. It will automatically adjust the acoustics for whichever or you choose.

As I mentioned earlier, the five offers the best sound experience out of these four speakers. So you’ve got three woofers for deep rich bass and a trio of tweeters for vocal clarity. Impressive detail all packed into a sealed architecture, and this eliminates reverb and echo.

The left and right tweeters are positioned outwards in a phased speaker array to offer a more expansive sound stage, and this fills a room comfortably.

The Five also has a 3.5-millimeter line-in jack for connecting a turntable or CD player. That offers a great partnership with traditional HiFi sound enjoyed.

The great thing about the Sonos ecosystem is you can send this audio to any other Sonos speakers in your system by the Sonos app. So you can enjoy the sound of your vinyl records anywhere in your home. Unlike the Sonos Move and the Sonos one, the five does not offer built-in voice control, which will be disappointing for some.

There is, however, a workaround as you can connect a smart device such as an Amazon Echo or Google Home to access voice control. It does also still offer airplay 2 and Spotify Connect for other control options.

The five’s main pros are a vibrant room-filling sound, a sleek design, and updated internals. That lining option for a simple connection to a turntable is convenient. On the other hand, there’s no built-in voice control. You can’t make a stereo pair of the new five with the older generation.

At play five speakers, there’s no support for Bluetooth, and that connection line is disabled if you decide to use the speakers as rears to a soundbar.

So that covers the four wireless speakers in the range, let’s move on to soundbars. So the two soundbar options that you have on your TV are the SonoArcrc and the Sonos BeamBeam. I’ll point out that while their primary usage is for TV audio, they’re also designed to play music and can be used as part of your whole-home sound system in that regard.

Sonos Beam Soundbar

The first option is the Sonos Beam. This is their most fordable option and is suitable for small to medium-sized rooms. The BeamBeam is a compact smart soundbar that will take all of your content, whether it’s films, music, gaming or TV shows, to the next level. It’s a great way of experiencing cinematic sound in your living room at an affordable price point.

The sound performance is pretty impressive. With four full-range drivers and a tweeter, the BeamBeam is particularly notable for its crystal clear sound and attention to detail. Its compact size can also produce a wide soundstage, pushing the sound wider and further. It also offers three passive radiators that supercharge the base. So this ensures you feel every explosion in your favorite movies and TV shows.

A nice feature on both of these Sonos soundbars is night mode and speech enhancement. Night mode is excellent if you’re watching a film late at night as it suppresses the louder, more bassy sounds. So you don’t wake up the kids. Speech enhancement goes hand-in-hand as it brings out dialogue, ensuring you don’t miss anything when the volume is turned down.

The Beam also offers voice control with Amazon or Google assistant airplay 2 and Spotify connect. The BeamBeam has also picked up multiple awards, including the WHAT HIFI award for the best soundbar in the three-to-five-hundred-pound category in 2019.

For us, the Beam is probably our favorite Sonos product in terms of value for money, When it comes to performance and versatility. It offers a simple connection via HDMI Arc, a compact design to suit any room, impressive sound for your TV, voice control, and it can be built on to create a 5.1 surround sound set up.

On the other hand, it doesn’t offer support for Dolby DTS or Atmos. And you can not connect a Sonos subwoofer. You can’t connect a non-Sonos subwoofer to boost the bass.

Sonos Arc

The second option you have for a Sonos soundbar is the Sonos Arc. And it’s Sonos’s premium soundbar, best suited for larger rooms. ThArcrc offers support for Dolby Atmos for a superior sound experience when watching Dolby Atmos content. Dolby Atmos is a 3d object base sound format that allows you to experience movies, TV and games with precise immersive sound.

The Sonos Arc has upward-firing drivers, which create a multi-dimensional soundstage that moves around you, rendering every vocal and explosion with dramatic clarity, detail and depth.

As you can see, the Arc is considerably longer than the BeamBeam, making it suitable for 49 inches or larger TVs. This elongated design offers an ultra-wide soundstage. It houses 11 multi-directional custom woofers, which surround you in the story and enables you to access that next level of the listening experience, full of rich sound and clarity.

Design-wise, although the Arc is a wide soundbar, this 270-degree curved design ensures it doesn’t draw attention away from the screen and also boasts a mesh grille and touch control top panels. It’s also available in matte white or matte black to suit your room decor. The Arc also offers voice control with Amazon and Google Assistant, and it’s compatible with airplay 2, and Spotify connects the same as the other Sonos speakers.

Night mode and speech enhancement are also available on the Arc and auto remote syncing for simple control using your existing TV remote like the BeamBeam. The Arc can create a full surround sound set up by wirelessly adding a sub and rears. That would be one incredible set up filling the largest rooms with great sound.

Sonos Sub

Let’s move on to the final product, the Sonos Sub. This is their powerful wireless subwoofer. The Sub can be wirelessly added with a simple one-button set up to any Sonos speaker or speakers apart from the Move. It adds vibrant deep impact bass to any setup to take your audio to the next level, whether it’s a movie, TV show, music, gaming, etc. As you can see, it offers a sleek design and is available in black or white to suit your home internally it houses.

Separate Class D amplifiers power two speakers, and they’re positioned face-to-face. This eliminates vibrations, which means there’s no rattle or buzz from this Sub. You can place it anywhere in your room and even lay it flat under a sofa without impacting the sound experience.

I love how simple it is to add that extra bass. It’s quick and easy to connect. It can be placed anywhere, and that zero rattle and buzz is something that we can appreciate. However, it isn’t compatible with non-Sonos wireless speakers.

Conclusion

So that wraps up these seven products, as I mentioned. Sonos products can be grouped to create a variety of different setups. You can opt to have just one speaker or several different speakers in different rooms of your home, which can all be controlled via the Sonos app and either play other music in different rooms at the same time or the same music throughout your home. You can also create stereo pairs with two Sonos One or one SL speakers, or two Sonos fives.

And you can also create a home cinema setup using either the BeamBeam or the Arc with the Sub and two rears for an immersive surround sound experience. One of the best things about Sonos for us is that you can grow your set up over time to start with just one speaker and add more and more as and when you want or can afford it.

Also, all Sonos speakers offer true play tuning, which acoustically optimizes the speakers for space. Using the Sonos app on an Apple device, true play detects your room’s size and layout and the furniture in it and then tweaks the EQ settings for the best acoustic performance possible in that space. This is a feature that we love on Sonos speakers as it ensures that you’ll be getting the best sound possible from your room.