The IT Nerd

Via a a free software update called Trueplay, millions of Sonos owners around the world will be able to precisely tune their speakers without the need for specialized equipment or complicated training. With reliable wireless strength and elegant aesthetics, Sonos speakers can now be placed anywhere in a house – from under a kitchen cabinet to the corner of a bathroom– and still sound great.  Trueplay listeners will hear the full clarity and impact of their favorite music regardless of how challenging these locations are acoustically.

Trueplay makes it easy for anyone to improve the way music sounds in any room. Using the Sonos app, the microphone on an iPhone or iPad, and a special tone emitted by the Sonos speaker, the system analyzes the acoustic profile of any room to determine how sound reflects off walls, furnishings, glass and other surfaces that impact how sound is heard. Sonos then smartly tunes that speaker in 60 seconds or less so the music sounds it’s very best. The sound profile of each speaker is changed only as much or as little as needed to sound right for the room. Whether Trueplay makes a big or small sonic adjustment, the listener always knows they are hearing the purest sound.

In addition to both the original and new SONOS PLAY:5, Trueplay is compatible with all SONOS PLAY:1 and SONOS PLAY:3 smart speakers, iOS devices, and will continue to be added to more of the Sonos lineup over time. To get started with Trueplay at home today, update to the latest software and open Rooms Settings in the Sonos iOS app.

To learn more, read about the inspiration and the making of Trueplay at Sonos.com/blog or visit Sonos.com today for more information.

You might recall that I had a look at the brand new Sonos Play:5 a few weeks ago and I was impressed with what I heard. Yesterday, the company announced that it is now available for pre-order. Pre-orders for the Play:5 start today on sonos.com. The speaker goes on sale November 20^th in all of its U.S. retail partner and dealer locations, while retail locations in Canada and across the globe will begin selling the PLAY:5 on November 25^th. Available in a custom matte black and matte white finish, the all-new SONOS PLAY:5 will retail for $549 CAD. I’d pre-order yours today as I expect the Play:5 to be a popular item. 

Last week I got the chance to sample the new Sonos Play:5 speaker and Trueplay. Let’s start with the latter.

Trueplay stems from the insight that few homes are acoustically perfect. The placement of the speaker and the room it’s in impacts the way it sounds. Now Sonos speakers are great, but they can’t make up for that. Until today. With Trueplay, anyone can tune speakers with the press of a button. The result is that music sounds great in every room and in every home. Using the Sonos app, the microphone on an iPhone or iPad, and a special tone emitted by the Sonos speaker, the system analyzes how sound reflects off walls, furnishings, glass and other surfaces in any given room. Sonos then smartly tunes that speaker so the music sounds its very best. I listened to the difference and it was stunning. It took an already good speaker and made it outstanding with minimal work. Here’s the best part, if you have an iOS device and a Sonos speaker, you’ll get this neat feature this week free of charge. Android users will be coming soon. As for supported speakers, the SONOS PLAY:1, SONOS PLAY:3, SONOS PLAY:5 will be supported at launch with support for other Sonos speakers coming soon.

If you want to see Trueplay in action, here’s a video for your viewing pleasure:

Now over to the new SONOS PLAY:5:

Built with six synchronized, custom-designed drivers, the speaker’s three mid-woofers create smooth mids and deep, powerful lows, and three tweeters deliver crystal clear highs at any volume. The array produces a soundstage that is much wider than expected in a single speaker, creating room-filling sound with precise separation of vocals and instruments. It can be oriented in three different ways as well to allow it to fit in your environment. You can have two SONOS PLAY:5s paired together vertically deliver top-of-the-line stereo sound with a focused and intense sweet spot. Paired horizontally, they create a larger stereo image for an immersive, room-filling listening experience.

Now if you look closely….:

You can see tiny holes that let the sound through and there’s around 60,000 of them. Those holes are not visible at a distance which makes the Play:5 look less like a speaker and more like a piece of art. The new SONOS PLAY:5 incorporates an innovative design that allows for the most effective wireless performance, without compromises, to ensure the music remains in perfect sync without dropouts.

These new touch controls offer an intuitive, easy way to play, pause, adjust volume and change the track. Smart sensors make these touch controls responsive to all orientations, so the volume-up is always facing up.

Available in a custom matte black and matte white finish, the all-new SONOS PLAY:5 will retail for $549 CAD.

For more details on Trueplay and the new SONOS PLAY:5, please visit Sonos.com. Also you can expect a review of the new Play:5 shortly.

Stingray has announced that its Stingray Music streaming service is now available on the Sonos Wireless HiFi System.

Sonos is the smart speaker system that streams all your favourite music to any room, or every room. Control your music with one simple app, and fill your home with pure, immersive sound. Stingray Music has now been added to the line-up of music services available to Sonos users around the world.

With Stingray Music on Sonos, listeners can tune in to hundreds of music channels in every genre in 320kbs digital sound quality.

Special Features:

• Unlimited streaming
• Bookmark favourite channels
• View current track, channel and artist names

Oh, by the way I should mention that Stingray is Canadian. If you haven’t heard of them, you may know them better as Galaxie Music, the 24-hour music channels included in pay-TV packages.

Coming to Sonos.com on July 21st is the limited edition SONOS PLAY:1 Tone.

The minimalistic tone-on-tone styling presented in absolute black or pristine white has a soft matte finish that looks as elegant as it feels. This same soft touch treatment flows all the way to the packaging, making your entire PLAY:1 Tone experience beautifully simple, from the moment you open the box and set it up, to the time you spend with it listening out loud.

And just like every Sonos PLAY:1, its two custom-designed drivers with dedicated amplifiers fill the room with powerful, crystal clear sound. Listen to your favorite music from over 60 streaming services, controlled anywhere in the home from your smartphone, tablet or PC/Mac.

The limited edition PLAY:1 Tone will be sold exclusively on Sonos.com for $250 USD or $280 CAD. There will only be 5000 of them produced and you’ll be limited to two. So get yours while you can.

Sonos users will be happy to know that version 5.4 of the software that controls those amazing speakers and was in a public beta is now out of beta and free to download. A blog post on the Sonos site has details, but I’ll hit the highlights here:

• Clearly see what songs are up next
• Google Play Music can choose music based on your mood.
• TuneIn Radio improved
• Enhancements for users of the Play:1

If you’re a Sonos user, you might want to update today.

Sonos has announced through a blog post that there are significant upgrades to Spotify on the Sonos platform. Those upgrades include:

• Genres + moods
• Time-of-day recommendations
• The ability to start a radio station from any artist or track

For more info, check out the blog post in question. These improvements are available in beta for Android users starting today with iOS and desktop support coming soon.

John MacFarlane, co-founder and CEO of Sonos, wrote a piece for Re/Code about how streaming is changing the way we listen to music. He touches on several things, the state of the industry today, to Apple’s entry into the streaming music biz to what the future of streaming looks like.

Here’s a few of the highlights from this article:

• 50% of all music listening is done in the home
• John predicts that by 2021, a billion people worldwide will be paying for streaming music
• Globally, 92% of all music being listened to on Sonos is streaming radio or paid on-demand – meaning only 8% of what we listen to is from our own private libraries
• Canadians love Sonos. In fact, Canadians listen to more music on their Sonos than anyone else in the world– almost 25 hours per week on average! The Netherlands, Germany, the United States and France round out the top five.

One key point that caught my attention was this:

Our ultimate goal as an industry must be to create a sustainable ecosystem that both ensures artists can succeed and flourish and provides music lovers with seamless access to that music alongside a revitalized listening experience. Fully free on-demand services will most likely not exist in the future; it’s just not a viable model for artists. But paid on-demand has reached a tipping point that we believed in from the beginning and that has tremendous benefits for music listeners and artists alike.

This is an article that is worth reading this weekend. Especially consider that Apple is about to announce a streaming music service at WWDC this week.

I’ve reviewed the Sonos Play:1 before and I thought it was a great way to get started with having a Sonos system in your home. Now, here’s another reason to jump onto the Play:1 bandwagon. From May 18, Sonos has a deal that bundles two PLAY:1s together. This is a limited time promotion but the bundles will be available online and in-store. The Canadian price is $379 instead of the normally priced $438 which makes this a good way to save some money.

In case you needed another reason for Sonos in your Father’s Day or Grads gift guide – now you have one. But you should hurry.

Sonos’ latest software update which is version 5.4 is now available in beta for Android and desktop – and rolling out to all devices this summer.

This update adds a further improvement to Play:1’s sound, especially for vocals at higher volumes and bass performance when paired with a Sub. It is also now possible for Sonos home theatre to work over standard Wi-Fi, no first wire necessary. Those who already have a Playbar set up with a Bridge or Boost have no reason to change anything. For those with more challenging wireless environments, a Sonos Boost is still recommended.

Other features of the update are largely developer-focused, making it easier for streaming partners to build and create new features for the Sonos platform, but also include some minor consumer creature comforts such as a new look for TuneIn on Sonos and an improved shuffle feature in the Sonos app.

More info can be found on the Sonos Blog.