SonosOriginal Play:1 - Compact Wireless Speaker for streaming music. Compatible with Alexa devices for voice control. (metallic black)

Best network player at this price range. I have 5 of them. Stereo setup in 2 bedrooms. Have to buy 3 more. Then i will have stereo setup in all 4 rooms. Works like charm. Buy western digital my cloud and use it as media server. Then your setup can compete with anything. Excellent sound quality. I have denon av receiver and stereo amplifier too. After buying sonos they almost retired as it is so easy to control & play sonos from your mobile. One thing more buy subscription from gaana or saavn.com. voila.

This product and the Sonos family in my opinion are the best out there in this price range. The Play 1 does a great job by itself, but put two together and they are notably better. And put them with their sub and it is pretty amazing. You can move them around the house and with the Sonos software you can pair them together for sound throughout the house or set them up in stereo in one room. And in either situation you can use their new Truplay app software to analyze the sound and reconfigure it to optimize their room placement.Their software and app are fantastic. Some have problems with interrupted play or cant find the system, but a good router makes this all seamless. Some complain about the updates not working but they do work and as all of this stuff today, sometimes you have to start and restart the mobile device, or router no different that your satellite receivers, pc's and smart TV's, etc.But every update that Sonos makes has improved my experience. Had these products through multiple generations of portable and mobile devices and have to say that every update that Sonos has done has made it better for the customer vs others who make it better for the company.For example it has never lost my music, it has never put multiple copies of my music different on every device, unauthorized play back of some songs on the same album, remove all of my music from my portable devices and put it up in a cloud requiring me to pay for gigabytes of data to download it all back, and do this with both your own music that you copied off CD's and others that you purchased, and on and on.The system works slick and the music is awesome. And had a faulty ConnectAmp out of warranty and they looked after me! You get what you pay for, at least in the case of Sonos.

Full disclosure, I am a Sonos user and have fully adopted into their wireless speaker ecosystem. I currently have two Play 5s (Dining Room & Great Room), two Play 3s (Living Room, Guest Bedroom), and a Sonos Home Theater setup in my Media Room (one Sonos Playbar, one Sonos Sub, and two Play 1s).After hearing all of the pre-release hype about the Denon HEOS Wireless speaker system, I want to compare it to my Sonos system. So I picked two HEOS 3s up this weekend and tried them out.In my opinion, the Sonos Play system provides a slightly better overall experience and value for the money you spend. However, the Denon HEOS system has a distinct edge over Sonos - not requiring the $99 Denon HEOS Extend Wireless Range Extender just to use the system. News reports have leaked that Sonos is working on a solution to remove the requirement of their $40 SONOS BRIDGE Instant Set-up Solution for SONOS Wireless Network, but until that software/firmware release comes, I can definitely see why the HEOS system will be a serious contender and solid alternative for some households.MUSIC SOURCES:Both Sonos and Denon work with the following music service providers:- Pandora- Spotify- Rhapsody- Tune-InHowever, Sonos is able to work with the following additional music services:- Amazon Cloud Player,- Google Play Music- Beats Music- SiriusXM Internet Radio- Slacker- Stitcher SmartRadio- Songza- Rdio- Last.fm- iHeartRadio- SoundCloud- Audible- and many more lesser known digital music sourcesAs of the date of this review, Denon has only been able to gain partnerships with Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, andTune-In. That's nothing to sneeze at, however if you are a subscriber to any other music service, you may want to wait before giving the HEOS system a try. In my opinion, just having access to Google Play Music is a deal maker for me with Sonos. And the ability to control what plays through my Sonos speakers with the native Google Play Music app (versus having to be in the Sonos app) is a serious step in the right direction to satisfy my needs as a customer.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE LOOKS:Cosmetically, the look of the Sonos Play 1 is considerably more traditional versus the HEOS 3. The HEOS 3, measuring 10.7" x 5.1" x 6.5" is taller, sleeker, and stylish than the 6.36" x 4.69" x 4.69" cylindrical Sonos Play 1. However, in my opinion, the Sonos Play 1 has a more solid feel with its metal mesh front plate and and smooth lines with no major edges. It also has a denser feel than the HEOS 3, packing in just over 4lbs of audio hardware in such a small casing.Depending on your personal style and if you want your speakers to blend in to your room, the winner of the looks category is totally up to you. While I like the minimalist look of the Sonos, the clean edges and sleek design of the Denon is very eye catching. And if you like to have cool lines in design to draw attention to an exceptional piece of audio equipment, the Denon is a clear winner. So for being different by blending elegance with a touch a touch of flash, the winner for this category is Denon.** Point Goes to Denon **UNDER THE HOOD:Both speakers house two class D digital amplifiers pushing a tweeter and mid-woofer that generates a crisp, clean sound for both higher frequency vocals and mid level bass tones. There is no doubt that both Sonos and Denon installed great amplifiers and speakers into their systems as they both generate a solid range for all genres of music - equally.The HEOS 3 does have a ported designed enclosure, which the Sonos Play 1 does not. I found that the ported enclosure was a nice touch to add a little more depth to the bass, but for certain music tracks played through the device, it seemed the sound was muddier than the Play 1. Nothing horrible, but very noticeable depending on where you have the Play 3 placed in the room.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE APP:Sonos recently changes their app's user interface for iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. This was another big development for Sonos as the old user interface for their controller looked like it was stuck in the early 2000s. And while it still leaves mush to be desired, the Denon HEOS controller app is not much better. It adds features like grouping rooms by dragging widgets together within the app and other functions that seem to be geared towards easier control. However, depending on the phone you are using, pinching and dragging are more cumbersome than tapping to select. Again, this is not a big issue, but something I found slightly clunky and annoying with my smaller iPhone screen.Again, this is a personal preference. I like the new Sonos controller app, but can definitely understand why Denon went a different direction. Denon seems more built for a tablet experience, in my opinion as some of the key actions call for pinching, dragging, and precision dropping.** Sonos & Denon Tie **THE SETUP:Both Denon and Sonos are extremely easy to setup and both customer service teams are OUTSTANDING. However, given the fact that Sonos currently requires more steps in their setup process (connect a Sonos Bridge), the point goes to Denon for sure.During the initial setup of your first Sonos speaker, you must either connect it directly to your network router or purchase a Sonos Bridge, connect the bridge to the router, then wirelessly connect the speaker to the SONOSNet network created by the Sonos Bridge. Did that sound confusing? Well, it may be for the first time user of novice electronics buyer. The really nice people at Sonos customer service had to hold my mother's hand in setting up her first Play 1 and it took almost an hour as she was not familiar or comfortable with making changes to the router the cable company had installed in her home - true story. On the other hand, once you have a bridge set up, adding additional Sonos components is extremely easy.Denon, on the other hand, has an extremely easy setup from the beginning. Plug the speaker in the wall, download the app, use the supplied cable to connect the speaker's AUX jack into your phone's headphone jack, follow the in-app directions to connect to your network, unplug the speaker from the phone, place the speaker in any room, blast music from the app. Simple!** Point Goes to Denon **EXPANDABILITY:Both the Sonos and Denon systems allow for multiple speakers to be added. Additional speaker may be played independently, paired as a group, or paired as a stereo pair. In my test, I only purchased two HEOS 3s. So, I cannot speak for pairing different size HEOS speakers together.The biggest advantage regarding expandability goes to Sonos. With a playbar and subwoofer in their arsenal of components, Sonos has a huge advantage for users who also want to bring the wireless music technology to home entertainment. The Sonos Playbar and Sonos Sub can run as a 2.1 home theater or 5.1 home theater system when paired with two Play 1s. And believe me the sound is amazing. So, with Denon only building an ecosystem for music based consumption, I think it leaves room for growth to catch up with Sonos' expandability into home entertainment. Again, this is not a deal breaker for getting into the HEOS ecosystem, but should definitely be considered before going too far down the Denon rabbit hole.** Point Goes to Sonos **THE RESULTS:The Sonos Play 1 is a great, compact speaker that will definitely bring attention to your home's sound system. It has a bigger sound than you would expect from such a small speaker and having two play 1s paired together can fill most rooms with a crisp, clean sound.The Sonos Play system does require a Sonos Bridge (for now) and that is the biggest negative that I would give it in my book. But that is not a deal breaker as the Play ecosystem as a whole is much more powerful than the Denon HEOS ecosystem is currently.At a $199 price makes me give the Sonos Play 1, 5 out of 5 stars. I definitely don't think you will be disappointed with the performance or functionality of the HEOS system. I just believe that you can get more for your money with Sonos.

Very good sound- bass & treble.Lots of free radio stations.Plays from stored songs from my device.Needs wifi at home.No battery back-up. 240 v connection is fine (needs an adaptor)Meets expectations of music lovers.

I bought this as an expansion to my existing setup with a Play:5, which I have in my kitchen. I placed this in my living room, and it blends in nicely with the decor that I have in that part of the house.Setup:It was setup very easily, like all Sonos. Plugged it in, and then drove the setup from my phone. This includes the room sensing and optimization which happened seamlessly. I paired it to my existing setup through the app easily. Now my music is synced perfectly between the rooms. I love that I can both adjust the volume control for the group, or individually, very easily.Sound quality:I was very impressed with my first P:5, and knew that this wouldn't have as much low end. However, even with high expectations after my fantastic P:5 experience I was still surprised at how good this sounded. It's a HEAVY speaker, which to me indicates high build quality. There's more low end than I expected. But don't think that this will produce the same as a 12" subwoofer. It goes up loud without any distortion. Just sounds like a high quality speaker. Pair it with some bigger speakers in other rooms, and you won't miss the sub (which isn't as location-specific to our ears).Overall, I would definitely buy this again. I'm now addicted to sonos and want them all over my house!