Design: A lovely compact speaker

The Play:1 is the best-looking Sonos speaker yet. The Play:3 and Play:5 both have a refined look that tends to blend well into your home decor, but can sometimes feel just a touch bland. The Play:1 has the signature Sonos look, but adds just a little bit of stylish sizzle, especially the black model. (It also comes in white.) It looks at home in a kitchen, bedroom or living room, and it’s humidity-resistant, so it works as a bathroom speaker, too.

You’ll notice its heft as soon as you pull it out of the box and although the cabinet is essentially all plastic, it never feels cheap. Even the power cord on the bottom has a nifty design, tucking into the bottom for a seamless design. Despite the weight of the Play:1, note that there’s no battery built-in. The Play:1 is designed to be placed in a room and left there.

There’s a slight change to the standard Sonos controls on the top. The familiar volume rocker and status light remain the same, but the Mute button has been replaced with Play/Pause. It’s a smart change, since it still immediately quiets the speaker, plus you have the option to resume whatever you were listening to with a single touch, even if it’s hours later. (Sonos is also releasing a firmware upgrade to change the functionality of the Mute button to Play/Pause on its existing speakers.)

Behind the nonremovable grille, there’s a mid range woofer and a tweeter. That makes it Sono’s first “mono” speaker, although you were unlikely to hear much true stereo separation on the other models, especially the Play:3. It’s also powered speaker, so there’s no need for speaker wire or a separate amp, plus you can sync it with a second Play:1 for true stereo pairing.

Setup: As painless as wireless audio gets

If you’ve already got a Sonos system, adding the Play:1 is as easy as you’d expect: tell the app you want to add a speaker, press the volume-up and Play buttons when prompted, and you’re good to go. It’s seriously that easy.

If the Play:1 is your first Sonos, you have have two choices: you can plug in an Ethernet cable to the speaker’s backside, or you can connect it to your Wi-Fi network. That second option is a new feature as of a September 2014 software update; previously, at least one Sonos component needed a wired connection. Now, if you’ve got three or fewer Sonos units on your network, you’ll probably be fine on Wi-Fi. If not, you can invest in a Sonos Bridge ($50/AU$75) with a wired connection.

While other systems have tried to make a virtue of running on your existing Wi-Fi network, Sonos’ mesh network is really a strength. It may seem redundant to have a wireless network dedicated solely to stream music, but you can’t argue with its reliability and low latency.

You’ll also have to configure the Sonos to find your personal music collection. If it’s stored on your PC, it’s as easy as pointing it to the right folder, although note that you’ll need to leave your computer running to access that music. You can also have Sonos pull music off a network attached storage (NAS) device, although setup is slightly more difficult — I needed to input the network address of my NAS. It supports a reasonably large assortment of file formats (including FLAC and Apple Lossless), although high-resolution audio isn’t supported.

What can you stream?

Sonos has all of its competitors beat when it comes app support. Many major services are supported, including Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Cloud Player, Rdio, SiriusXM, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Rhapsody, MOG, Slacker, and Last.fm, plus plenty of neat niche services such as Wolfgang’s Vault, Songza, 7Digital, 8tracks, Murfie, batanga, aupeo!, Dar.FM and Hearts of Space. For comparison, Samsung’s Shape M7 supports only Amazon Cloud Player, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and Rhapsody; Bose’s SoundTouch only supports Pandora.

Some of the streaming limitation and support for high-profile services it lacked support earlier have also been added. YouTube has announced that, starting today, YouTube Music is now available within the Sonos app and can be played on all Sonos speakers. Users with a YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium subscription will be able to stream albums, remixes, covers, playlists, and more to their Sonos speakers. , including Google Play Music, Apple Music,Amazon Music, Gaana, Saavn, and even Bandcamp.

Granted, YouTube is the biggest music streaming platform on the internet, but much of that traffic comes from free accounts, not people paying for Premium services.

YouTube Music for Sonos is now available in all countries where YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium are available. Here is a complete list of Supported streaming Services that is available on Sonos Today

The apps: Widely available,

The Play:1 is controllable by Sonos’ Controller app, which is available on iOS, Android, OS X, and Windows.

The app offers up a lot of flexibility — letting you stream different music to different room or sync the same songs everywhere — but it can take some time to get used to. For example, on the Android app, if a track is currently playing and you’d like to listen to something else, you need to press a tiny nondescript button in the upper left right hand corner, select Music, then you can navigate to the music you’d like — it’s not intuitive at all. The experience is more straightforward on iOS, especially the iPad, with its generous screen space making the multi paned layout feel less cramped.

Sound quality: A potent small room speaker

On its own the Sonos Play:1 is an excellent small speaker, offering pretty much class-leading sound quality for a wireless speaker of this price and size.

Each Sonos Play:1 has two drivers, a mid-range/bass driver and a smaller tweeter. Traditional bookshelf speakers use the same arrangement. However, its main driver uses stronger-than-average magnets to allow the speaker cone to move back and forward further than normal.

It helps give the Sonos Play:1 excellent, rich and meaty sound for its size. Voicing is fairly neutral, but the depth and scale of the bass the speaker is able to produce is very impressive.

I’ve used the Sonos Play:1 on and off since it launched years ago. I’m impressed by the depth of the bass and its ability to fill rooms with ease every time I plug it back in.

It’s a very enjoyable listen, with enough finesse, a rich enough tone and more than enough punch to make you forget the size of the speaker you’re listening to. This little guy sounds unusually at home playing at high volumes, and I believe many people would be happy to use this as their main music source. It’s something to consider if the price of the excellent Play:5 is off-putting.

Treble is a little soft, without the piercing clarity you often get with a dedicated tweeter. However, I take this as a sign Sonos has done its best to work with the compromises of a relatively small speaker, to make it sound as big and satisfying as possible.

Others take a different approach. For example, the Riva Arena sounds a lot more detailed and refined than the Sonos Play:1 at low volumes. It has a more hifi-like timbre, and greater finesse.

However, as volume is increased the Sonos sound scales up much better. The Riva Arena starts to sound strained before the Play:1, and doesn’t have the same sense of scale. It can’t fill mid-size rooms anywhere near as well.

Any speaker the size of the Play:1 has to deal with a compromise or two. But Sonos has nailed it here.

Should I buy the Sonos Play:1?

The Sonos Play:1 is a great little speaker. We have no hesitation in recommending the Play:1 if you find the Play:5 too pricey. It works just like any other Sonos Play-series speaker, and offers excellent sound for both the size and price.

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The post SONOS Play:1 Wireless Smart Speaker Review appeared first on SmarThingx.

FASTER PROCESSING AND 4K RESOLUTION NOW BUILT IN

Google’s popular and affordable Chromecast device is all new! Enjoy all your favourite movies, shows, games and music plus the latest 4K content with Chromecast Ultra. This redesigned streaming device plugs into your TV’s HDMI port to bring streaming content to nearly any TV.

Plus the new Chromecast Ultra also brings 4K video resolution to your streaming experience. With support for much faster performance you’ll see minimal buffering and smoother streaming. With 4K video, you’ll be able to see all the new movies and TV shows that are being shot in improved 4K resolution.*

Chromecast Ultra works with many devices and platforms: use your iPhone, iPad, Android phones or tablets, and even Mac and Windows laptops and Chromebooks to stream using over a thousand Google Cast-enabled apps. You can also screen mirror your Android device or laptop’s Chrome browser on your TV for a big-picture view.

Google’s re-invented Chromecast Ultra lets you use cast-enabled apps to send content from your mobile device right to your TV. With Chromecast, your phone is your remote, so it’s easy and convenient to operate. Just tap the ‘cast’ button from one of over 1000 Google Cast-enabled apps to watch your favorite content on your TV.

If the content you want isn’t cast enabled, you can use your Android device’s screen mirroring function to send the content to the TV anyway. Chromecast Ultra lets you enjoy channels like Netflix, YouTube, HBO Go, WatchESPN, Google Play and more.

Looking to share more personal content? Cast your vacation photos with Google Photos, play your favourite tunes with Spotify and Pandora, or go head-to-head in a game of Scrabble with your friends.

ENJOY SUPERIOR 4K RESOLUTION WITH HDR SUPPORT FOR BETTER COLOUR

4K TV is the ultimate in video quality, and now you can access it at home easily and affordably with the Chromecast Ultra. When combined with a 4K TV* and 4K content** Chromecast Ultra offers a crisper picture, deeper colour, and smoother streaming.

The new Google Chromecast Ultra also has Dolby Vision technology, which supplies 60 frames-per-second full HD streaming, and more intense, richer colours in your video.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a 4K TV. Chromecast Ultra automatically optimizes your content for the best picture quality your TV is able to deliver. So, whether you have an HDTV or 4K TV, you’ll get all your content at your TV’s maximum resolution.

FASTER STREAMING AND MORE POWER MEANS LESS BUFFERING

Waiting for content to buffer is frustrating and can ruin a key movie moment. With stronger processing power, the new Chromecast Ultra gets your shows playing faster and more reliably with smoother video.

Wi-Fi not as fast as it needs to be at your house? Now you can go hard-wired. Chromecast Ultra comes with an optional built-in ethernet adapter so you can enjoy rock solid streaming where a wired connection is available. All of this is packed into a compact design that fits snugly behind your TV so it won’t clutter your home theatre. Plus it’s so portable, you can bring it with you on vacation, to a friend’s and even to the office.

Chromecast Ultra is also super versatile; it works with many different platforms like iPhone, iPad, Android phones or tablets, Mac or Windows laptops and Chromebooks so it’s a great option for just about anyone.

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