Sonos PLAY:5 Black - The Wireless Hi-Fi (formerly S5)

OK I think on balance, taking into account all the reviews, we can take it as a given that the Sonos S5 is something quite special. While I cannot disagree with the consensus of opinion why have I given it 4 stars instead of 5?

In a word RELIABILITY. I live in an average house in average conditions with no children and yet on three occasions have had to have replacement Sonos components within the guarantee period. This is too frequent an occurrence to be bad luck.

The first S5 suddenly lost its ability to produce any bass response within the first 6 months. After the usual factory reset it still failed to perform so I had to invoke a replacement unit within the warranty period.

The second problem occurred with the very expensive Sonos controller which developed a touch-screen fault. Part of the display failed to respond to touch commands. Once again I had to request a replacement.

The third occasion was the same problem as the first - the sudden inability to produce a bass response after 10 months of working flawlessly. This time the problem was suffered by my other S5 unit, located in a different part of the house and was purchased at a different retailer from the first.

So in summary - out of 4 Sonos components only the ZoneBridge has not let me down. Not a good track record is it?

These days manufacturers have their products 'Made in China' purely because it is cheaper and it vastly increases their profit margin. Unfortunately in my experience components have a much higher tendency to break down be it intermittent electrical faults, failure of rechargeable batteries or transformer failures. They just don't have the longevity expected of them.

Sonos are a very good company and have no hesitation in quickly responding and replacing faulty products. But what lifetime can I expect of these products? It doesn't bode well.

***** UPDATE 11 July 2011 - The replacement Controller 200 now refuses to hold its charge - although still under guarantee it is yet another instance of UNRELIABILITY that lets Sonos down.

I love the sound quality and the versatility of set up and music choice BUT I have dropped a star for one big omission in my view. If you have invested in a good robust wireless n technology you may have to reduce it's capabilities via your router settings to avoid interference with the proprietary Sonos mesh network. I had to disable the 40mhz band to stop dropouts. I am sorry but in this day and age this is not good enough. The reach of my wifi is now much reduced around the house thanks to a proprietary Sonos protocol. Funny how these things are glossed over in the adverts. If they are pitching this stuff at non techies it is a potential show stopper.

However, the compromise in my view is outweighed by the quality of the music and the software and the choice of source material. Another thing, disable windows firewall on the initial setup if the first component cannot be found. I struggled with this initially.

Having used a Squeezebox system for a couple of years, I decided to upgrade to what must be the 'gold standard' for wireless hi fi. The S5 is part of a wider Sonos system at my home (S5, bridges, zone players and the CR200).

Firstly the software interface for the PC is much more user-friendly than the Squeezebox (which is rather clunky in comparison), secondly it works almost immediately out of the box, thirdly it's very easy to use - finally it sounds great.

The S5 looks like a bigger version of the Bose docking station, quite a bit bigger. I think it sounds better too - the Sonos system features a graphic equalizer on the PC and handset, so you can shape the sound to suit. I have one or two massive sound files (50MB +) and they sound better than a CD, the S5 and Sonos system definitely appear to have an audio edge over anything else.

The handset (CR200) is very cool. Album art appears, radio is easy to set up... it just works! The handset/controller is worth buying - it's the main reason I switched to Sonos.

The only minor issue is that the range seems 'ok' rather than exceptional, however I've fixed this by putting another couple of bridge units around the house so nothing drops out. You can name individual zones and control them individually or link as many or as few as you like...

Cost is the only downside with the Sonos system, however I have to say that once you've used it, it is actually good value. It's well made, looks very 'Apple-like' and seems to have bullet proof software.