This is a review, listening tests, and detailed measurements of the SONOS Five streaming wired/wireless smart multi-room speaker. It was kindly drop shipped... Sonos Amp has no Trueplay although people have used the official speaker like a dongle.

Understanding the Context

The Era 300 is spectacular for its size. The problem is that the Sonos Amp has superb HDMI CEC with Dolby decoding, allowing for wireless surrounds and subs. However it doesn’t work with the Era 300 as wireless rears whereas the soundbars do. Just started out and been listening to a pair of SONOS Play 5 Gen 1 speakers and a Sonos Sub Gen 2 for a year.

Key Insights

Bought used from marketplace. Satisfied listening to mainly easy going songs and jazz. Not into heavy stuff. I recently scored a Sonos Connect Amp Gen 2 very cheaply on marketplace... Sonos provides adequate sound quality and is very easy to use setup.

Final Thoughts

The separates root provides outstanding sound quality but is complex to setup and accomodate. I'm actually more surprised that the Sonos doesn't sound better than it does, knowing that it has such a good reputation (we also have a Sonos Beam in the children's playroom). Overall, though they are expensive, Sonos did a nice job with the premium feel, selecting materials which meant it is lighter and more comfortable than the AirPods Max, I thought the ANC was especially good and it does support High-res bluetooth codecs like AptX-HD and supports lossless audio via usb-c. But how does it measure! Sonos Ace Measurements *Note: These measurements were made with my ... Sonos ace - Measurements, EQ and Impressions - Audio Science Review ...

Sonos Five / Era 300 vs Sonos Amp + Airmotiv XB2 or Debut 3.0 DB63 Finally, the last straw (strike 3) for Sonos was the recognition of Atmos coding while playing 4K discs through the PS5. While watching an Atmos disc, the Sonos app was displaying 5.1 on the screen. If I switched to streaming on Disney+, I could get the app to show “Dolby Atmos”.