Something very old-fashioned is happening as technology continues to innovate music: We are listening to it out loud again.
The engineers and music geeks at SONOS appreciates personal listening but exists to get us to pull out our earbuds once in a while. It’s latest smart speaker, the SONOS PLAY: 5, is an unassuming package that delivers a vibrant sound with the help of software and the microphones in your iPhone or iPad, which analyzes room acoustics and adjusts the sounds.
The SONOS Trueplay app sends out a special tone through your device to see how sounds reflect off the walls and other elements of the room to properly tune the speaker.
Bluetooth technology has led to a recent explosion of portable, wireless speakers with long-running batteries, surround sound and protection from the elements that projects our personal playlists into social settings.
The PLAY: 5, which will retail for $499 in the U.S., is built with six synchronized drivers, with three mid-woofers and three tweeters that can fill a room with sound with clear separation of vocals and instruments. Two Play: 5’s can work a room together and positioned vertically or horizontally. Crank the volume without the concern of distortion, according to the company.
“We are obsessed with improving the home music experience, which must take into account acoustically unfriendly rooms,” said record producer, composer Giles Martin, of SONOS. “Tuning a room is the first of many software enhancements that make the experience richer and more personal.”
The Trueplay software will work with previous speaker models, the PLAY: 1 and PLAY: 3
The PLAY: 5 will also work with other SONOS speakers and pull your music from your favorite music streaming service.