As some of you may remember, I'm working away from home presently, and I was looking for music options to keep me entertained and relaxed in my new space. I had originally thought of headphones, but I couldn't find anything I liked. Then I was thinking an amp and a pair of small speakers, but it didn't really work in the space I'm in. Finally, I started looking at bluetooth speakers, as I don't have wifi where I'm at. While I have to say the state of the portable bluetooth speaker art is almost ridiculously high, they just weren't quite what I wanted.
So, having been quite impressed with time spent listening to a Sonos Move while on my vacation, I figured maybe i should at least give Sonos a listen in my own space. To be honest, I think I have been a bit of an anti-Sonos audio snob. As a proper audiophile, they were just too easy, and I must say, a bit too limited. My idea of a stereo includes multiple sources and options. Just streaming through the Sonos app took all the challenge out of it.
But as desperate times call for desperate measures, I snagged a new Sonos Era 100 and gave it a try. Setup was a breeze. The Sonos guys do software better then anyone, by far, in the audio space. I had to fake a wifi setup using one of my two phones to create a network, while the other installed and updated the software.
The next step was the room tuning. I gave it a listen as was, and it sounded a bit off. The bass was a bit boomy. The highs weren't quite right. So I fired up the Truplay app on my iPhone, and spent two minutes walking around the room, waving my iPhone around like an idiot. Once the app said it was done, the speaker did its tweaking, and it was ready to play music again. I played the same song as before and the difference was not subtle. The bass was now smooth and full, but not boomy. The highs had cleared right up. It was a wide and smooth sounding, single speaker system. Sound quality through bluetooth was nice. Ease of operation was fantastic. Two thumbs up.
So, just for shits and giggles, I got myself a second one to try and see what a stereo pair would do. It's not something I can use where I am due to the lack of wifi right now, but in the future I thought it might make for a nice small room system. Again, it's Sonos setup, so getting everything running was a breeze. Just a couple of minutes to pair them and do the room tuning. For the stereo pair, bluetooth was no longer an option, so I did my two phone wifi setup again and let it rip with some Tidal masters. Well, great Caesars ghost! This setup was sounding way better than the sum of its parts. I'm sure the fact that I was running high res wifi rather then the usual bluetooth helped a lot too, but the stereo pair just blew me away. I've had a lot of systems that haven't sounded as good as this. Running the one speaker with Bluetooth always left me with the impression that some technical trickery was happening. That the speaker was doing some stuff that was not quite natural. With the stereo pair, all of that went away. It just sounded like a very nice pair of mid size speakers. I could settle down with nothing but these and not regret it. I was seriously bummed when I had to give back the second speaker.
For $500 USD for thr stereo pair it might be the best audio value of all time. These little guys absolutely kill the vast majority of the solid state vintage gear I have heard. I can't imagine being without a Sonus system anymore.
So, having been quite impressed with time spent listening to a Sonos Move while on my vacation, I figured maybe i should at least give Sonos a listen in my own space. To be honest, I think I have been a bit of an anti-Sonos audio snob. As a proper audiophile, they were just too easy, and I must say, a bit too limited. My idea of a stereo includes multiple sources and options. Just streaming through the Sonos app took all the challenge out of it.
But as desperate times call for desperate measures, I snagged a new Sonos Era 100 and gave it a try. Setup was a breeze. The Sonos guys do software better then anyone, by far, in the audio space. I had to fake a wifi setup using one of my two phones to create a network, while the other installed and updated the software.
The next step was the room tuning. I gave it a listen as was, and it sounded a bit off. The bass was a bit boomy. The highs weren't quite right. So I fired up the Truplay app on my iPhone, and spent two minutes walking around the room, waving my iPhone around like an idiot. Once the app said it was done, the speaker did its tweaking, and it was ready to play music again. I played the same song as before and the difference was not subtle. The bass was now smooth and full, but not boomy. The highs had cleared right up. It was a wide and smooth sounding, single speaker system. Sound quality through bluetooth was nice. Ease of operation was fantastic. Two thumbs up.
So, just for shits and giggles, I got myself a second one to try and see what a stereo pair would do. It's not something I can use where I am due to the lack of wifi right now, but in the future I thought it might make for a nice small room system. Again, it's Sonos setup, so getting everything running was a breeze. Just a couple of minutes to pair them and do the room tuning. For the stereo pair, bluetooth was no longer an option, so I did my two phone wifi setup again and let it rip with some Tidal masters. Well, great Caesars ghost! This setup was sounding way better than the sum of its parts. I'm sure the fact that I was running high res wifi rather then the usual bluetooth helped a lot too, but the stereo pair just blew me away. I've had a lot of systems that haven't sounded as good as this. Running the one speaker with Bluetooth always left me with the impression that some technical trickery was happening. That the speaker was doing some stuff that was not quite natural. With the stereo pair, all of that went away. It just sounded like a very nice pair of mid size speakers. I could settle down with nothing but these and not regret it. I was seriously bummed when I had to give back the second speaker.
For $500 USD for thr stereo pair it might be the best audio value of all time. These little guys absolutely kill the vast majority of the solid state vintage gear I have heard. I can't imagine being without a Sonus system anymore.
