The Sonos Five is one of the best investments I ever made
The Sonos is my go-to home speaker when I’m listening to music — whether through a record player or streaming off my smartphone.
The Sonos Five sounds incredible. The Sonos Five’s sound filled up various apartments I’ve lived in across Brooklyn — it worked as well in a massive living room with 20-foot ceilings as it did handling the smaller living space of a studio apartment. Its sound was clean and crisp, and the voices on each track I played separated themselves neatly from the instruments that reverberated in the background. It felt fresh and exciting to hear music in ways I hadn’t before.
It’s very easy to control, a mixed bag for some. After I hooked it up to my phone, it’s simple to access my music through the Sonos app. If I want to, I could connect it directly to the music streaming service of my choice. It has no physical buttons: My phone controls it completely, from song choice to volume. That might be jarring if you’re someone who prefers to have your hands on your controls. But if you’re like me, you appreciate your Sonos sitting in the corner of your room, behind a couch and just out of reach — the fact that I can control every different facet of the Sonos’ sound through my smartphone has been game-changing.
The Sonos Five looks really, really good. It bears repeating: For a fairly chunky accessory that some people like to leave out — or center — in their apartments, aesthetics can be important. The Sonos Five comes in two colors — entirely white or entirely black — and it can be positioned in a variety of different orientations (horizontally or vertically on either side), which is a blast for my inner design nerd. Change its orientation with your moods, when Mercury is in retrograde or when you’re nervously preparing for a big meeting.
It plays well with record players but doesn’t pair through Bluetooth. You can also pair the Sonos Five with a record player if you’re into that sort of thing — my Audio-Technica record player (predecessor to this newer model) is hooked up to my Sonos Five, and I enjoy hearing the crisp sounds that come through my speakers when I’m relaxing or making dinner. You can clearly hear the needle through the speaker as it tip-toes into the groove of the record and settles. That said, Sonos only pairs via Wi-Fi so it won’t work via Bluetooth connections across devices — I’ve personally never found this to be an issue but you might.
Here are other speakers that may work for your home instead, especially if you want a voice-enabled speaker, a slimmer profile speaker or a master quality authenticated option.
If you’re looking for a smart speaker that’s similar to the Sonos Five, but smaller and less expensive, the Amazon Echo is a great alternative. It’s also rounded around the top and sides, so make sure you can get into that design choice first before investing. You can control the Echo using Alexa via your voice or with the app — the Sonos Five does not have a microphone built in to hear a voice command. It comes with a 4.7 star rating from more than 105,000 customer reviews on Amazon.
If you value a taller and slimmer profile than the Sonos Five and you love presettings, the Bose SoundTouch 10 Wireless Speaker is worth looking into. The Bose SoundTouch 10 allows you to save presets, which means you should be able to quickly listen to your favorite radio stations, songs or podcasts. Like the Amazon Echo, the Bose SoundTouch 10 works with Alexa for voice control (although you’ll have to buy an Alexa device separately). It comes with 4.5 stars from nearly 3,800 customer reviews on Amazon.
If you’re looking for especially hi-res audio and MQA support, the Bluesound Pulse Mini 2i supports both and looks similar to the Sonos Five. The Pulse Mini 2i has its own app, too — the BluOS Controller — that you can download to make it easy to use the speaker, too. Although it only has 4 stars over a handful of Amazon reviews, it’s highly-rated by review outlets like What Hifi and TechRadar.
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