Although it's about the size of a large shoe-box (and heavier than it looks, at 6.36kg) the Sonos Five isn't quite a cuboid since its grille portion is slightly bigger than its rear end and the baffle is slightly bowed out and angled upwards too, to aid with sound dispersal. You can also use two of them (in the upright position) as rear surrounds for a home theater set-up with a Sonos Arc–though, to partner the smaller Sonos Rayor Sonos Beam 2nd Gen, we'd suggest a pair Sonos One SLunits instead. In our dedicated listening room, it does little to the sound, but move the speaker to a less ideal location – a kitchen or a corner for example – and the difference is audible. It tightens up any boomy bass, adds clarity to the midrange and really cleans up the sound from top to bottom.

The only significant gap in the Sonos arsenal is high-res music, which the company resolutely doesn’t support. The argument is that hi-res stuff is still too variable in sound quality, which is a good point, but with MQA finally gaining some traction it would be good to one day see it supported. It looks and feels different to the original, but fits in perfectly with the company’s other more recent additions, such as the Sonos One and Sonos Beam. Sonos was created upon the belief you should never have to choose between quality sound and an easy way to access all your music at home," said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. "The PLAY:1 makes getting started with Sonos even more accessible to music lovers than ever before."For the replacement, Sonos lost the port and went for a sealed architecture, increasing the acoustic volume to allow it to go louder and lower in the bass. Sonos says the Play:5 is capable of deeper, cleaner bass than even the Playbar– quite an achievement for a product around one-third of the size. The ability to go loud (and we mean loud) helps, but there’s so much space to the presentation that even at lower volumes this sounds like a much bigger speaker than it is. Podcast fans may find their app of choice isn’t supported. Sonos’s solution is TuneIn Radio, the most popular internet radio app and also a good way to listen to podcasts. It comes ‘preinstalled’ in the Sonos app. So why did it even refresh the product? Well, you're also getting an upgraded processor here, which is key – it signifies that Sonos is likely future-proofing this speaker for potential firmware upgrades, ie. the oft-rumored addition of hi-res music support. So, there's that. When you do get listening you’re going to be immediately impressed by the width and three-dimensionality of the sonic presentation, particularly if you’ve previously been listening to your telly’s own speakers.

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. Read our review of the Sonos Play 1 My Wi-Fi still isn’t working (and I don’t mind getting technical) If your Sonos runs old firmware, or if the app struggles to find your Play:1, you just need to plug it into your router using an Ethernet cable to get started. There’s such a cable in the box. Either way, setup takes just a minute or two.The result is unquestionable – this is a speaker that could fill even the biggest room of the house, and yet for a single box it sounds huge. The app itself struggles slightly under the weight of all of these features, but universal search makes it easy to get to what you’re looking for and, if you’re using Spotify or Tidal, you can stream straight from their respective apps. The only other controls on the unit itself are a touch-sensitive play/pause button and two little touch-sensitive panels for volume control that flank it on the front of the top panel. You might actually find you’ll never touch these controls, because you can control everything from Sonos’ simple, exhaustive app. That’s not to say the Play:5 isn’t capable of plenty of detail. Play Diana Krall’s Peel Me a Grape and the soulful vocal is articulate, richly textured and full of sass. There is clarity in the midrange no matter what you play, which ensures vocals are always pushed to the front of a mix and never overshadowed. If your computer or smartphone won’t allow you to play music files on your speaker, you may need to configure your firewall.

If you’re not familiar with the Sonos system, here’s how it works: any music sent to the Sonos Play:1 is not streamed using AirPlay or Bluetooth, but Sonos’s own Wi-Fi-based software system. You access this through an iOS/Android app, or on your computer. The app will tell you either to hold the Play/Pause and Volume Up buttons at the same time or to hold the dedicated Join button That rich bass response is even more emphasised in this set-up though, so you may find a visit to the EQ settings might be necessary to level things out to a more neutral playing ground. PLAY:1 lets you stream all the music on earth and access it all using a single, easy to use app. Play millions of songs and playlists from the most popular music services like Pandora, Spotify, Hype Machine and Rdio; listen to your personal music library, whether it’s stored on your computer, in the cloud, on your smartphone or on your tablet; or tune in to more than 100,000 free Internet radio stations, podcasts, and shows from around the world. With the introduction of the current Play:5 came Trueplay, Sonos’s audio optimisation software. Trueplay uses the microphone in your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (Android devices aren’t currently supported) to measure the response of the speaker in your room and tweak its sound to suit. It takes only a minute or so to do and is quite effective.Take two identical speakers – the Sonos One, Play:1, Play:3 and both generations of Play:5 are all stereo compatible That's not to say it's bass-heavy overall though. Listen to Fontaines D.C.'s Skinty Fia and you'll hear a low-end that, while impactful and unwavering, never bloats or muddies other musical passages such as accordions, drum riffs, angered vocals and keys.

This is a flaw that’s most pronounced when you have Trueplay active, but it’s also there when you turn Trueplay off. Turning Trueplay off also seriously reduces the width, dynamism, punch and clarity of the presentation, so ultimately we’d recommend leaving it on - even though it brings the harsh treble to the fore. 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. 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.