I have never owned a Sonos speaker but have always heard good things about their speakers. But I didn’t really make a move towards WiFi speakers since my current Bluetooth ones were serving me well. But that was until the Sonos One came with the support of Google Assistant.
TC Acoustic was very kind to send over one unit of their Sonos One smart speaker for me to test. Sonos One is a multi-room WiFi smart speaker, so it works differently from how I’d use my Bluetooth speakers. And after using the Sonos One for close to a month, I have my thoughts on it.
Unboxing
The Sonos One I have is a Gen 2 model and it retails for S$329. In the box you find the following:
- Sonos One speaker
- Power adapter
- User manual
Build quality and design
Sonos One comes in two colors – black or white. The one I have is the black version.
The Sonos One comes in a sleek, modern matte black package which screams premium (if you got the black one). The wraparound grille surrounds most of the speaker. Its clean design has only one physical button which is meant for pairing and an Ethernet port at the back. Build quality feels solid and well made with good heft to it.
Sonos One utilises touch controls at the top to control the microphone and volume. The buttons on the side control the volume, the one at the top is to turn on/off the mic, and the one in the center is a play/pause or backward/forward depending if it is a tap or a swipe.
Tech specs
- Amplifier: Two Class-D digital amplifiers
- Speakers: One mid-woofer and one tweeter
- Microphone: Far-field microphone array
- WiFi options: 802.11 b/g WiFi, Ethernet
- Dimensions: 161.45mm x 119.7mm x 119.7 mm (H * W * D)
- Weight: 1.85kg
Connectivity
Since the Sonos One is a WiFi speaker, don’t expect it to appear on your phone’s Bluetooth settings. But then again the Sonos One was really meant to be sitting at home as a multi-room speaker setup. So honestly, no Bluetooth is really not an issue.
The effectiveness of having WiFi enabled speaker is affected by the underlying services the speaker supports. And Sonos One supports many many services. From the popular music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal – Sonos One has it all. It even has premium radio service TuneIn so if your dad or mum wants to listen to their favourite Singapore radio stations like Love 97.2FM, Sonos can handle it.
The benefit of having WiFi speakers like the Sonos One is further amplified when you own more than one speaker. When you have more than one speaker, you can cast your music to any speaker with just a tap or even link more speakers.
Sound quality
The Sonos One comes with the following:
- Two class-D amplifiers, custom drivers
- 1x tweeter, 1x mid-woofer
When I first saw the size of the Sonos One, I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the volume and sound quality. But once I played some music, I was impressed by the sound I was hearing. I did not expect that the speaker of this size could have such loud, full-bodied sound.
Despite its size, you can enjoy a full range of sound and will not find any treble, mids or bass lacking. But if there is one trait that stand out it is the bass. The bass is nicely controlled with a good thump to it. Bass is able to produce deep sounds due to the dedicated woofer. Mids had a great amount detail and clarity. Vocals and instruments have a decent amount space between them, while the treble is bright and clear. Soundstage is wide and spacious.
I have a decent sized living room and I find it loud enough to have the Sonos One playing at 50% volume. At 100% it gets so loud that I worry my neighbour would complain.
Also, during the setup of the Sonos One, you are given a choice to tune your speakers using Trueplay. Trueplay maps out the shape of the room that the Sonos One is in, so that the sound that comes out of the speaker sound better. I have tried having Trueplay on and off. The difference is not very distinct but I much rather have Trueplay on as the sound just feels fuller.
Microphone
Sonos One now has Google Assistant added alongside Amazon Alexa. If you’re from Singapore, then you’d much prefer Google Assistant. When you call out the voice assistant, Sonos One plays out a nice chime to let you its listening.
The microphone on the Sonos One is pretty good. Despite having music playing, you do not have to shout loud to trigger the voice assistant. But it also depends on where you place the Sonos One, I tried placing right under my TV once, and the microphone occasionally struggled picking up my voice assistant triggers.
User experience
Google Assistant
Sonos recently added Google Assistant to their speakers and the Sonos One is included. Having Google Assistant really makes the user experience of Sonos One so much more hassle-free and efficient.
You can do so many things such as playing your favourite playlist, listening to the radio, adding a reminder, changing the volume and so many more without even touching your phone. You can even set up custom workflows using the Google Assistant app that will react via a pre-determined phrase.
I had the Sonos One for a month and have already gotten used to getting Google Assistant to play music, tell me the score for the EPL game I missed yesterday night, and even directions to my next destination.
Sonos App
All great hardware requires to be supported a great software as well, so let’s also talk about the Sonos App, which is available on both iOS and Android. You will require this app when you first set up your Sonos One speaker. Setting up the Sonos One is super easy. The app guides you step by step what you need to do.
The Sonos App has five icons on the footer of the app – (1) My Sonos, (2) Browse, (3) Rooms, (4) Search, and (5) Settings.
- My Sonos – is kinda like your dashboard where you can place different services and content there for quick access.
- Browse – shows you the services you have linked with your Sonos One.
- Rooms – allows you see the media playing on each Sonos speakers. It would be cool if you have more than one so that you can group the speakers to play the same media.
- Search – as the name suggest, search for media instead of going into your apps like Spotify or Apple Music to change song
- Settings – a lot of things you can change here so not gonna go into detail
Overall the app is very easy to use and is intuitive, and it even has a little ‘Now Playing’ bar to display the current content (much like Spotify’s Now Playing bar). The Sonos App serves as a great remote especially if you own more than one Sonos speaker.
Overall
Honestly, I very much enjoyed having the Sonos One in my house. Google Assistant works great and I can complete simple tasks and listen to music me without touching my phone. Sound quality is very good and really unexpected for a speaker of its size. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to have more than one Sonos speaker in your house to truly get the most out of the rich ecosystem that Sonos offers.
Conclusion
If you’re in the market for a smart speaker, the Sonos One sounds great and should definitely be on your shortlist. Sonos provides you a solid multi-room ecosystem, and has more media services that you think you’ll ever need. Don’t forget that there is Apple AirPlay support, so the Sonos One would already be more versatile than a Google branded smart speaker. Besides it has a great design and will seamlessly fit into any decor of a room.
With its great sound quality, amazing ecosystem and minimalist design, I highly recommend getting the Sonos One if you’re looking for your first ever smart speaker. Google Assistant really takes the whole user experience up a notch. But beware that the first Sonos speaker might tempt you to get even more Sonos speakers.
Where to buy
You can purchase the Sonos One (Gen 2) directly from TC Acoustic. They are having a sale now which you can get it cheaper at S$289! If you are too late for this deal, you can check out buying on Qoo10 because you can use coupons to lower the price.