Best Wireless Speaker System
- nov
- 17
Sonos makes the best wireless speaker system currently available. It's simple to set up and use, easy to expand into multiple rooms, plays smoothly, and sounds great.
Updated May 2017: Added the new PlayBase speaker to the list of home theater options.
Best overall
Sonos Play:1
Sonos are like magic. Buy a speaker, plug it into power, download and launch the app, and you're up and streaming great sounding music from almost every popular internet service on the planet. That includes Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music, SiriusXM, and much, much more. Want to go stereo? Buy a second speaker, plug it in, launch the app again, tap a few virtual buttons, and boom. Stereo.
From there you can add more speakers, take it multi-room, and otherwise set up and manage all your home audio, right from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or other devices. It's like a dream, only you get to keep enjoying it while you're awake!
Bottom line: If you want a wireless speaker that's as easy to set up as it is to expand, and gives you access to all the music on your devices and in the cloud, you want Sonos in general and the Play:1 in specific.
One more thing: Also available in white.
Why the Sonos Play:1 is the best
Wireless that just works.
Gone are the days when you had to string copper around your room or through your walls just to get the speaker you want set up in the place you wanted. Now the world has gone wireless — audio cable-less, more precisely (since most of the time you still need power cords!), and that means far more flexibility and expandability, even if there are still a few things you need to pay attention to.
All the Sonos speakers are great, but I'm picking Play:1 as the very best because it's both the best way to get started and the best way to expand into stereo, home theater, and even multi-room. They're compact, so they can fit almost anywhere, and they're loud and clear, so they sound great from almost anywhere.
Chris Heinonen from The Wirecutter agrees:
[The] $200 Play:1 is a great starting point. It costs less than most high-end Bluetooth speakers, yet measures as accurately as speakers costing several times as much. You can also pair up two Play:1s in stereo mode to get an amazing-sounding stereo setup for just $400—no amps or speaker wire required.
Plug a Play:1 into AC power, download and launch the Sonos app, and you're good to go. You can play any music stored on any device running the app, and if you subscribe or belong to any of a long, long, long list of online music and audio services, you can play them right from Sonos.
When you add a second Play:1, the app makes it easy to turn them into a set of stereo speakers. Same when you're ready for a home theater or multi-room setup. Sonos creates its own mesh network, which is more reliable than Bluetooth and less likely to suffer from interference, like your existing Wi-Fi network.
Those things you have pay attention to? The first is that Sonos doesn't support Apple's AirPlay audio streaming technology. That means you can't simply tap a button and switch the music playing on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to your Sonos speaker. Also, since they're not Bluetooth, you can't simply connect and stream to them like standard BT speakers either.
The second is that Sonos doesn't support Apple's HomeKit home automation framework. That means you can't control Sonos with Siri or the Home app. You have to go to the Sonos app and tap to change volume, mute, change source, or do anything else. They also don't offer their own digital assistant, the way Amazon's Echo or Google's Home speakers do.
Sonos is otherwise so good, though, that neither of those things are deal breakers. They're so good that, if your end-goal is a multi-room wireless speaker system, with up to 32 speakers on the same network, your go-to is Sonos.
Best for going BIG
Sonos Play:5
While the Play:1 can fill a small room or corner, the Play:5 can fill a house — and part of the block it sits on. Not really, of course, but it sounds like it could. That's the kind of power you get for the extra price you'll pay. From my colleague, Serenity Caldwell's Sonos Play:5 review:
After testing the Play:5 these last few weeks, I want them all over my house. Sonos knows its game, and it plays it exceedingly well: This is a well-crafted, dynamically powerful speaker that looks at home in your bathroom, in your office, on your kitchen counter, and in your living room.
Bottom-line: If you want house-shaking power, with all the Sonos ease-of-use and expandability that goes with it, you want the Play:5.
One more thing: You can position the Sonos Play:5 vertically or horizontally, whichever better suits your available space.
Best for living room
Sonos Home Theater
The Sonos Home Theater system starts with a Playbar. That's as simple as you can go. Want 3.1 sound? Add a Sub and feel the floor shake. Want 5.1? Add a couple of Play:1s or Play:3s.
My only regret is that you can't add two more Play:1 speakers and take it to 7.1.
Bottom-line: If you want to connect your entertainment center to your wireless speakers, you want the Sonos Home Theater.
One more thing: If you connect your Sonos Home Theater to your Apple TV, you can AirPlay to the speaker system!
One new thing: Sonos has a new home theater speaker option — the PlayBase. It's designed to sit under your TV, instead of in front of it or on the wall. It's big and a tad awkward looking, but if your set up includes a stand, it's the better option.
Conclusion
Sonos is the best wireless speaker system available today. It doesn't support AirPlay or HomeKit, which are bummers for people like me who are all-in on Apple's ecosystem, but the ease of use and expandability are so great that, once you plug them in, you probably won't care.
After all, Apple doesn't seem to — they've recently dedicated a whole display to Sonos at Apple Retail locations.
Don't want or need a wireless system? Check out our roundup of the best Bluetooth speakers
Best overall
Sonos Play:1
Sonos are like magic. Buy a speaker, plug it into power, download and launch the app, and you're up and streaming great sounding music from almost every popular internet service on the planet. That includes Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music, SiriusXM, and much, much more. Want to go stereo? Buy a second speaker, plug it in, launch the app again, tap a few virtual buttons, and boom. Stereo.
From there you can add more speakers, take it multi-room, and otherwise set up and manage all your home audio, right from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or other devices. It's like a dream, only you get to keep enjoying it while you're awake!
Bottom line: If you want a wireless speaker that's as easy to set up as it is to expand, and gives you access to all the music on your devices and in the cloud, you want Sonos in general and the Play:1 in specific.
One more thing: Also available in white.
