by Ken Laster

This summer, my wife and I made a life altering decision to move cross-country to be near our granddaughter and family. We sold most of our belongings; home, cars, furniture, etc, packed just a few essentials and moved to San Diego to start anew. Selling my stereo system, all my CD’s and three quarters of my LP’s was part of this process. This was a big deal for me, as listening to jazz music is an integral part of my life to say the least.

In planning to replace my 30+ year old system, I wanted do eschew the traditional stereo components and take a more modern approach. There were a few requirements I set for consideration of my new audio system.

  • A compact footprint to fit our downsized living space.
  • A system built around music streaming services.
  • Ability to play audio from my television, turntable and multiple networked devices.
  • Keep within a modest budget.
  • Audiophile sound quality.

I found a solution that meets all the above requirements in a single box. The Sonos Five is a wireless powered speaker system. The enclosure contains six class-D amplifiers powering three mid-woofers and three tweeters. The woofers are placed on a curved surface, projecting the music to a wide soundstage. Two of the tweeters are placed at sharp angles, throwing the sound to either side of the room, with the other facing center. This configuration results in an impressive room-filling sound. The music is separated into left, right and center channels, but the single enclosure lacks a true stereo experience. (You can add a second Sonos Five for full stereo separation).

The primary input is from your Wi-Fi network. The Sonos S2 app is available for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows devices. The app allows for set-up of the Sonos 5 on your network, fine tuning the speaker for the room, and playing music streamed from your devices. The application lets you consolidate all of your streaming services into a single app from which you can search and play your music across all services. Besides the app controls, you can also control volume, play/pause and skip tracks using the elegant touch controls on top of the speaker cabinet.

Other than using the Sonos app, you can send audio from any application on your Apple devices using Airplay. This allows me to send the audio from an Apple TV, iPhones and Macs using any application. In addition, there is a single wired analog input that can be used to hook-up your turntable, CD player or other non-networked device. The system lacks a bluetooth receiver which inherently results in lower quality output.

As I write this review, I am listening to Hartford/NYC bassist Matt Dwonszyk’s album “Wonderful World”. This album, featuring a septet of some of Hartford’s finest musicians, really shows off the Sonos 5 wide dynamic range and high fidelity. Matt’s bass comes through with a clear, deep richness of sound on the low end, without the overpowering boom that is prevalent on many newer home systems. The mid-range from the trombone and tenor sax has a warm, smooth accurate tone. At the high end, the trumpet, guitar and cymbals are crisp and sharp as it should be. Album review can be found here.

Sonos has a wide variety of innovative products to expand the system and extend it to other rooms and outdoors, all controllable from the Sonos app. If you are looking for a new stereo system and are willing to try something somewhat unconventional, I’d recommend the Sonos 5 for its high fidelity sound, compact design and integration with Apple networks and devices.

PROS: Room filling audiophile sound; Primary input via Wi/Fi; Integration with Apple Airplay; Sonos2 software integrates all streaming services in one app.
CONS: No bluetooth connectivity; Lacks real stereo separation w/single unit; Android software lack some features; Only one wired input.

The opinions stated in this post are entirely those of the author and does not constitute a product endorsement of the Hartford Jazz Society.