Sonos One Speaker Test

Sonos One was Sonos first smart speaker to hit the audio-hi-fi market in 2017. If voice control isn’t important to you, you might want to opt for the cheaper Sonos One SL model, which has been available since 2019, and is essentially the same as the Sonos One, only without built-in microphones and audio assistant support.

Features

The Sonos One speaker has built-in music streaming features, is moisture resistant, making it ideal for use in the bathroom or garden. It also has a Wi-Fi connection and an Ethernet port. Like the Play:1, the Sonos One is powered by a pair of Class D amps. The far-field microphone array provides intelligent sound recording and noise reduction.

Multiroom system

The Sonos One connects wirelessly to other Sonos speakers, allowing you to expand your home’s sound system.

Two speakers at a time

Two pieces of Sonos One together in the same room provide excellent stereo sound; we can further enhance the sound quality by adding a subwoofer for deep basses.

Voice control
Sonos-speaker-control

Sonos One allows you to control your music with your voice. With the Sonos app, you can control all your music in one place: Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, radio, podcasts, and more.

The Sonos One can also be placed on a wall, ceiling or a speaker stand. Its small size makes it even perfect for a bookshelf. The illuminated LED ensures that we always know when the speaker microphone is working, and touch screen to control effortlessly the device.

Supported audio formats are: MP3, AAC (without DRM), WMA, AAC (MPEG4), AAC +, Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, Flac music files, as well as uncompressed WAV and AIFF. Power supply: 100 – 240 VAC, 50/60 Hz. Dimensions: 119.70 mm x 161.45 mm, weight: 1.85 kg.

Sonos-One-speaker


In terms of shape and size, the Sonos One looks virtually the same as the Sonos Play:1 model. The only significant difference is that the grey speaker grille on the Play:1 has been replaced with a black or white grille. Depending on the colour you choose, the speaker blends in more effectively with your environment than its predecessor. The three buttons of the Sonos Play:1 have been replaced by a touch-sensitive panel for the Sonos One, with tiny white LEDs and symbols displaying play / pause, the microphone and certain settings, while white LEDs indicate whether voice control is on or not. Unlike Sonos Play:1, the Sonos One also gets a dedicated pairing button directly above the Ethernet jack. Sonos’s wireless network is extremely reliable, so you are unlikely to encounter too many problems with a Wi-fi connection. Alexa and Google Assistant can be turned off completely if you don’t want to use them.

Sonos-1-speaker-white


Alexa works particularly well on the Sonos One using basic voice control. If you want to control the music by means of Sonos One in other rooms, you need to determine where to play the music (e.g., “Alexa, play Michael Jackson in the bedroom”) and the Sonos One sends the music to the Sonos speaker in use at the specific location, and this will work even for a non-Alexa-compatible Sonos speaker such as the Sonos PlayBar or the Sonos Play:5.

Sonos One also supports Amazon Music with voice control, as well as Spotify, Deezer, TuneIn, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Audible.

In addition to playing music, you can set timers and alerts, check the weather, and add items to your shopping list.

It’s worth noting that while voice control is obviously one of the main attractions of the Sonos One, we can of course still use it like any other Sonos speaker. Sonos’s own application remains the best in terms of usability, and virtually of any streaming experience; AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect are also available on the device.

Sound of Sonos One

We tested the speaker in a smaller room where the acoustics were not yet perfect. In small, square rooms, the biggest problem is the echo, so it is imperative to acoustically treat the walls, ceiling, and corners. With double wood membrane panels and the use of acoustic diffusers, we can significantly improve sound issues. It is recommended to place bass traps in the corners, so that we can effectively correct acoustic flows even in the most problematic areas of the room. Without proper acoustic treatments, even the best quality hi-fi system will not sound good.

We also tested the Sonos One for several musical styles. The stage was spacious and impressively accurate. Sound was natural and realistic, the stereo picture was also good.

The Sonos One produced massive basses, which is a pleasant surprise for a speaker of this size. The rhythm and dynamics also proved to be quite excellent. The treble sounded sharp and clear, sometimes with an excess of sharpness, but for the most part it radiated shimmering and subtle treble.

As with Sonos Play:1, two Sonos One can be combined to create a stereo pair that can fill a room.

Not surprisingly, you can also use the Sonos One as a surround speaker for Sonos Beam, Arc, PlayBase, or PlayBar-based systems, with or without a subwoofer. The Sonos Amp allows you to create a 4.1 system with a phantom centre channel from a wired front speaker.

In summary

Overall, despite its size, the Sonos One proved to be surprisingly excellent, not capable of outstanding sound though, but the voice control was an extra feature we appreciated. The price is very affordable. Configuring the device was a bit cumbersome.

Written by Róbert Polgár

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