Which Sonos speaker should I buy on Black Friday?
Sonos is one of the most popular wireless speaker brands in the world, and for good reason - its range of portable Bluetooth speakers, soundbars, and home audio systems are among the best you can buy.
These speakers all play nicely within the wider Sonos ecosystem, which makes it an easy choice for anyone looking for a no-fuss multi room audio setup that minimizes annoying cables.
However, Sonos speakers can be pricey, which means they're incredibly popular during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when the brand and third-party retailers tend to offer the best Sonos deals of the year.
There are lots of different Sonos speakers to choose from, which can make it difficult to know which models you should be looking out for in the sales.
So, if you're hoping to bag a Black Friday Sonos deal this year, read on for our run down on the top Sonos speakers you should be looking out for in the run up to November 26.
How much do Sonos speakers cost?
Sonos speakers tend to be fairly pricey, which is why any Black Friday Sonos deals are so welcome. In fact, Sonos recently increased the price of some of its products:
- Sonos Arc: was $799 / £799 / AU$1,399, now $899 / £899 / AU$1,499 ($899, AU$1499)
- Sonos Sub: was $699 / £600 / AU$999, now $749 / £749 / AU$1099
- Sonos Amp: was $599 / £599 / AU$999, now $699 / £699 / AU$1099)
- Sonos One: was $199 / £179 / AU$299), now $219 / £199 / AU$319)
- Sonos One SL: was $149 / £149 / AU$269), now $199 / £179 / AU$289
- Sonos Five: was $499 / £499 / AU$749, now £499 / $549 / AU$799
- Sonos Roam: was $169 / £159 / AU$279, now $179 / £179 / AU$299
Can I use Sonos speakers with an Android device?
You can, but you'll miss out on one of the Sonos ecosystem's best features: TruePlay. The room calibration feature tunes the sound of Sonos speakers to the dimensions of your room, and right now, it only works with iOS devices. You could always borrow a friend's iPhone to setup your new Sonos speaker, though.
Which Sonos speaker is right for me?
We've tested a lot of Sonos speakers over the years, and they regular top our round ups of the best wireless speakers and best soundbars you can buy. Here are our top picks for every budget and situation.
The best Sonos soundbar you can buy is the Sonos Arc, and we'll be keeping a keen eye for any discounts this Black Friday.
If you're looking for a soundbar that can do it all this Black Friday, the Sonos Arc is the one to look out for.
It comes with support for the Dolby True HD and Dolby Digital Plus sound codes to deliver the best quality lossless audio from your Blu-ray discs and streaming services. It then enhances the 3D soundscape using Dolby Atmos object tracks to bounce certain sounds off the walls around you so they feel like they’re coming at you from all angles.
While all this might sound complicated, the Sonos Arc setup couldn’t be simpler, involving just a couple of steps on the smartphone app. The minimalist cable connections and all-in-one system construction add to this no-fuss feeling and streamlined aesthetic – making it the best soundbar you can buy in 2021.
It's also great for listening to music, so if you want an all-in-one home audio solution, the Sonos Arc is well worth considering.
Read more: Sonos Arc review
If you're in the market for a cleanly designed, exceptional sounding connected speaker, you'll find none better than the Sonos One - and it's sure to be discounted this Black Friday, as it's been out for a few years now.
Offering the best of both Sonos' multi-room speaker platform and both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant's smart home prowess, the Sonos One is the pinnacle of connectivity.
Want to hear your favorite song from Spotify? All you need to do is ask! Want every speaker in the upstairs to play the same song? Group them together via the Sonos app and you'll have a house party in minutes.
While there are more powerful speakers on the market, the Sonos One is more than capable of filling your room with sound - and like all Sonos speakers, you can easily hook it up to a wider multi room audio system.
Read more: Sonos One review
The Sonos Roam is our pick for the best Bluetooth speaker on the planet, with a powerful sound, rugged design, excellent connectivity features, and smart home control.
Not only that, but it's also priced quite competitively at $179 / £179 / AU$299, and it's the cheapest way to buy into the Sonos ecosystem. Of course, that's not cheap for a regular Bluetooth speaker, but the Sonos Roam comes with a few extra tricks up its sleeves.
With both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, the Sonos Roam works as a portable speaker as well as part of your wider multi-room Sonos system – and with Google Assistant and Alexa onboard, it doubles up a smart speaker too.
In spite of its (relatively) low price you’re getting a lot for your money here - and if it's discounted over Black Friday, it'll be a real bargain.
Read more: Sonos Roam review
If you're tight on space, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is the best soundbar you can buy from the audio company.
It's compact size means it will easily slot beneath your TV, whether you pop it on a TV stand or mount it to your wall, and it's sleek design means it won't look out of place with your decor.
It improves on the company’s original Sonos Beam soundbar with virtual Dolby Atmos, HDMI eARC compatibility, and a refreshed design.
While it doesn't have the upfiring tweeters necessary for 'true' Dolby Atmos (and as a result, the sonic height isn't as impressive as the Sonos Arc), the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) boasts a wide soundstage and an immersive audio performance.
HDMI eARC compatibility allows for hi-res audio streaming, making it ideal for listening to music, too.
As the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) was released quite recently, we don't expect to see any huge discounts this Black Friday, but it' worth keeping an eye out for it all the same. And, if you don't care about virtual Atmos, the first-gen Beam is likely to be heavily discounted now that it's been discontinued.
Read more: Sonos Beam (Gen 2) review
If you're looking for pure audio fidelity and a room-filling sound, the Sonos Play:5 is the best Sonos speaker you can buy on Black Friday.
Like other Sonos speakers, the Play:5 is controlled directly from its own app, which has built in integration for a number of streaming services, including Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, TuneIn, and a whole range of smaller services.
Since the Play:5 comes with multi-room support, you can also add additional speakers such as the Sonos Play:3 and Sonos Play:1 to built up a complete surround sound system, but if you want to keep it simple, then you should find the Play:5 to offer more than enough volume.
Read more: Sonos Play:5 review
Where the Sonos Roam is optimized for using on the go, the Sonos Move is a great Bluetooth speaker to use around the home and in your garden. And now that it's a little older, we're expecting it to be discounted over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
With two quality drivers, a solid app that unlocks playback from hundreds of wireless sources, multi-room capabilities and smart audio-tuning tech which tweaks the output based on the speaker's immediate surroundings, the Sonos Move is engineered well beyond your average Bluetooth speaker. It's a versatile speaker, one that stands solidly alongside the built-for-home Sonos speakers that the company made its name on.
It’s not perfect – it’s heavy as a byproduct of its incredible sound, it’s expensive due to its rich feature set, and it sadly can’t be used as rear channels for a home cinema set-up. But if you’ve got the money, it’s hard to fault the Sonos Move when it comes to hunting down the very best Bluetooth speaker in the world.
Read the full review: Sonos Move review
Other Sonos speakers and devices to look out for
Sonos isn't limited to connected speakers, and there are some other devices we'd recommend buying over Black Friday.
If you want a pair of rear speakers to pair with a Sonos soundbar, you should look out for deals on the Sonos One SL - it takes all the specs of the Sonos One, but it doesn't have an inbuilt voice assistant, so you don't have to worry about Alexa or Google Assistant listening in on your conversations. It's also cheaper than the Sonos One.
Another great addition to a Sonos home cinema setup is the Sonos Sub, a wireless subwoofer that will boost the bass of the rest of your setup. Inside the glossy cabinet are two force-cancelling speakers positioned face to face to avoid cabinet buzz, dual acoustic ports and two Class-D digital amplifiers specially tuned for the hardware.
Want to create a proper surround sound system? Look out for Black Friday deals on the Sonos Amp. You can either, as you can with Sonos’s soundbars, add two of the company’s speakers or you can add a second Amp and two standard, passive speakers of your choosing.
The latter is actually the better choice, sonically speaking, as it enables you to create a system using four identical speakers, or at least four from the same range. That will make for a far more consistent surround sound presentation than mixing traditional hi-fi speakers and Sonos’s wireless speakers.
And yes, we really are talking four-speaker systems here: the Amp is designed to work without a dedicated centre channel. Instead, it creates a so-called ‘phantom’ centre through clever processing.
- Read our guide to the best stereo speakers you can buy today
Contributer : Techradar - All the latest technology news https://ift.tt/3BR1nHj
Reviewed by mimisabreena
on
Sunday, November 07, 2021
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