Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
I ’ve made no secret of my dearest for the Sonos Multi - elbow room Music System ( ) , a organisation design to let you listen to your music all over your house . It ’s the musical contrivance I use most often in my home . But it ’s not cheap . To get started you ask at least a $ 349 ZonePlayer 90 and a pair of powered speakers . And if you desire a path to see the system apart from your computer , you require either an iPhone or iPod touch with the barren Sonos Controller app or a $ 349 Sonos Controller 200 hardware controller ( ) .
Sonos is seek to bring down this toll of entry with its just - let go of $ 399ZonePlayer S5 , a totable , tabular array - top whole that ’s the first ZonePlayer to pop the question integrated speakers . Whether it tempts you to join the Sonos family will depend , in large part , on how you wish its sound .
Parts and ports
The S5 carries five speaker unit — a 3.5 - inch woofer , two 3 - inch midrange driver , and two tweeter . Each loudspeaker system is driven by its own Class - five hundred digital amplifier . On the back of the S5 you ’ll find a 3.5 millimeter earpiece port ; a 3.5 mm audio - input signal port for connecting an analog audio reservoir such as an iPod , portable disk player , or telly ; and two Ethernet larboard . you could use one for connect the S5 to your router and another to fork up a internet connexion to your computer . If the S5 is connected wirelessly , you’re able to practice both ports for internet purposes — one for the computing gadget and another for a networked connected storage ( NAS ) drive , for lesson . On the top of the building block are volume and mute button .
As with other Sonos ZonePlayers , the S5 offers no way to control playback . Rather , you use the free Sonos Desktop Controller software on your Mac , a Sonos hardware remote such as the Sonos Controller 200 , or the free Sonos Controller for iPhone app . Via any of these controllers , you could employ the ZonePlayer S5 to act music pelt from your music program library as well as cyberspace tuner and content from such services as Pandora , Last.fm , Napster , Rhapsody , and Sirius ( subscription services such as Napster , Rhapsody , and Sirius require rank ) .
The single Sonos
you’re able to consider the S5 from a twain of angles . If you already own a Sonos system , the S5 is a very round-eyed way to tote up another way , talker and all , to your audio frequency system . Just stop up in the S5 , add it as a zone , and you ’re quick to rock ( or gavotte , depending on your musical mouthful ) . The bass porthole on the back also dissemble as a recessed handle so it ’s very well-to-do to move the S5 from the sleeping room to the kitchen to the patio .
The S5 can also operate as a one - elbow room Sonos system of rules , but as such its movability is limited without the additional leverage of a $ 99 ZoneBridge . The Sonos arrangement ask that at least one ZonePlayer , or a ZoneBridge , be plugged directly into a internet router . If that router is in the back bedroom and you want the S5 in the living room , you ’ll necessitate to either feed a long Ethernet cable’s length between the router and S5 , or bite the fastball and buy that ZoneBridge and plug it into the router . Do the latter and the ZoneBridge then acts as the bridge between your music library ( hosted somewhere on your connection ) or cyberspace connector and any ZonePlayers in your home .
The convenience
When you latch on to a Sonos unit , you ’re not just obtain something that will play medicine from your iTunes library or a machine you could conveniently jack your iPod into . It ’s truly a medicine arrangement . With it you may bring all your music together — whether on your computer ’s laborious drive , a internet crusade , or on the Internet — and play it seamlessly as if it were all stored topically . And there ’s existent economic value in that .
Sonos ’ way of doing things is very exchangeable to Apple’s — ease of use is primal . The system is designed so that you may set up and control the unit easily . The controllers ’ interfaces are made so you may find the euphony you desire to listen to without a wad of elbow grease . It just works . ( See myfull brushup of the Sonos systemfor more details . )
The sound
Those who see Apple ’s now - defunct iPod Hi - Fi empathise that the one - piece euphony organisation is a bad testis to crack . It ’s intimately impossible to get good stereo legal separation from such devices , and many of them deliver unbalanced audio . The S5 certainly bear from the first limit . All the music is there , but there ’s very piffling quad between the left and right channels .
It does a honest job with the latter , however . There are real high and Sir David Low and plenty of music in between . Part of the low end comes courtesy of a Loudness pick that ’s on by default . But it ’s not a cheat . Switch Loudness off using one of the controllers and the basso does n’t disappear , you simply get less of the satisfying fullness . Which is a adept thing : I ascertain the S5 to be a picayune too rich on the gloomy end . fortuitously , as with other Sonos ZonePlayers , you’re able to aline the S5 ’s threefold , basso , and balance to your taste . The S5 also has flock of loudness — crank up it up and you could make full a large room with distortion - destitute music .
Sonos suggests that you commit the S5 within two feet of a wall — an old acoustic trick for convey out more bass voice from utterer . The manual of arms also recommends that you place the S5 across the elbow room from where you ’d typically take heed to it . And that ’s good advice — close up the S5 sounds too bassy .
Sonos ZonePlayer S5
Good as the S5 sounds , Sonos ca n’t ferment miracle . The S5 sounds like a single corner . As such , it makes a welcome spouse in a larger home ’s kitchen or hideaway , but wo n’t replace a set of skilful calibre speaker with a few feet of blank between them .
Macworld buying advice
The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 has a muckle function for it . For $ 399 — just $ 50 more than a speaker- and adenosine monophosphate - less ZonePlayer 90 — you get a good - sound box that delivers plenty of loudness and easy admission to all the medicine you like to render to it . However , the requirement of a direct mesh connection ( or a ZoneBridge ) may not be convenient for those who do n’t already have a Sonos system . And not everyone will care for the S5 ’s undivided - locker sound . For current Sonos system owners , it ’s an obvious and welcome MBD - on . For those just begin out with Sonos , take advantage of Sonos ’ 30 - daylight “ for any reasonableness ” return insurance policy and see if you like what you hear . I ’m uncoerced to bet you ’ll keep it .
