The IT Nerd

I recently got the chance to try a SONOS PLAY:3 in my condo recently and got more than what I bargained for. In the process of testing the PLAY:3, I got the chance to test the following:

• The BRIDGE which interfaces SONOS products into your home network so that you can place SONOS speakers anywhere you want and interact with them wirelessly.
• The new SONOS app which controls your SONOS environment.
• Google Play Music and its integration with SONOS products.

Now setting up the PLAY:3 was incredibly easy.

• Plug the BRIDGE into my home network and provide it with AC power.
• Plug in the AC power of the PLAY:3.
• Download the SONOS Controller app for iOS onto my iPhone.
• Follow the directions on the app to set everything up which involved pressing buttons on the BRIDGE and PLAY:3
• Declare victory and have a beer while enjoying the fruits of my labours.

In under 5 minutes, I had everything setup. The bottom line is that anyone can set this up and do so quickly.

Now, when it comes to the sound quality, it is impressive. It’s not a single speaker. The PLAY:3 has three Class-D digital amplifiers and three drivers–one tweeter and two 3-inch midrange drivers, as well as one passive, rear-firing bass radiator. All of this conspires to give you superior room filling sound. The bass is relatively full and well-defined and the speaker is capable of playing music quite loudly without distortion at high volumes. One nice touch is that the PLAY:3 can be laid down horizontally or positioned vertically. An internal sensor detects which position the speaker is in and will switch from stereo mode (horizontal) to mono (vertical). That’s handy if you want pair two PLAY:3’s to give you true stereo separation.

The PLAY:3 itself has only three buttons: volume up, volume down, and mute. To control the PLAY:3 you need to use the SONOS App which comes in Mac, PC, iOS and Android flavours. The new version has a brand new user interface that makes it much easier to use. One thing that I really like is the fact that you can set an alarm and wake up to your favourite music from either the streaming service of your choice or from your music library. You can also build independent playlists within the app, store favorites and search easily for radio stations all over the world. The most significant new feature is universal search. For example, type in the name of an artist and you’ll find relevant tracks in your music library as well as across any streaming services you subscribe to. You might get pointed to Pandora, Spotify or something else. If you’re used to the layout of the old app, you will find the new layout takes some getting used to. But once you do, it is an easier and prettier app to use.

Now SONOS adds new music services all the time. But one of those additions is huge. Google Play Music is now available to SONOS users….. As long as you have an Android device. iOS users are sort of left out of the cold for the moment. More on that in a second. Now assuming that you do have an Android device, there are two options to stream music from the service:

• Choose Google Play Music from the services menu on your Sonos app and log in with your Google Account.
• Play directly to the SONOS system from within the Google Play Music App on your Android device by selecting the cast icon. If you think this sounds like ChromeCasting, you’d be right. When I tried it, it was very easy to do and the Google Play Music App is the first non-SONOS app that I am aware of that directly interacts with SONOS hardware.

Either way, you get access to thousands of tracks in a quick and easy manner. iOS users only get the option of using the SONOS app. Streaming currently doesn’t seem to work from the Google Play Music app. But the good news is that iOS users get the complete Google Play Music experience. So it’s not a total loss.

Negatives? Other than the lack of iOS streaming support for the Google Play Music app, I really don’t have any. The SONOS PLAY:3 goes for $329. You’ll also need the BRIDGE which is $59. My advice would be to try it out at your local store and I suspect you’ll be taking one home.

This entry was posted on May 22, 2014 at 6:47 am and is filed under Products with tags Sonos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.