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.
Photo: SONOS
“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.
David Pierini is a former newspaper writer and long-time photographer. Considered a luddite by most of his friends, they did not believe him when he broke the news that he would be writing for a technology website. He is fascinated by human nature and would love to cultivate stories about the people driving the tech bus. Reach out to him at [email protected].
