Sonos is famous for its wireless multi-room speakers but it can be hard to know which one is best for you. We explain everything you need to know about Sonos including the app, controller, music services, features, reviews and more.
Founded back in 2002 in California, Sonos has been setting the bar and leading the way in the multi-room speaker market for a long time. Designed to be easy to use, stylish and sound great, there’s little not to like about the Sonos range of speakers.
Scroll beyond the chart for our Sonos buying guide explaining how the system works and how to choose the right speakers.
Update May 2020: Sonos has announced some new speakers including the Arc soundbar, which features Dolby Atmos. The firm has also updated the Sub and Play:5 to Gen 3, with the latter now called the Sonos Five.
This means some of the products in our chart below have been discontinued, including the Playbar and Playbase, but you might still be able to buy them. In fact, it's likely retailers will discount them to clear stock so you might get a bargain.
We'll add the Arc and other new speakers as soon as we get them in for review.
1. Sonos One
- $199
It's more expensive than many other smart speakers but it's worth the extra if you want those smart speakers. And compared to non-Sonos rivals it offers much better build quality and sound.
The Sonos One has Google Assistant added in the US, and from July it will be supported in the UK, Australia, Canada and other countries.
2. Sonos Move
- $399
We think it really achieves what it sets out to by being both an indoor part of the Sonos system, but also something you can take outdoors (or around the house) when needed. The addition - finally - of Bluetooth means that you can go even further than your garden. Wherever you like.
The design is robust, sound quality is excellent and powerful and Auto Trueplay makes sure the Move sounds good wherever you put it.
The price might put some off and it's not the Sonos speaker for everyone, but it certainly the Sonos speaker we've been waiting for.
3. Sonos One SL
- $179
Not including the Ikea speakers, the One SL is the cheapest in the range and replaces the older Play:1 which was a staple speaker.
Not a huge amount has changed, but it didn't really need to. This is effectively the regular One without the microphones for voice control via smart assistants. So you get things like touch controls and AirPlay 2.
The One SL isthe one to go for if you don't want or need Alexa or Google Assistant. For example, making a stereo pair with the One or using them as rear surrounds with one of the home theatre speakers.
4. Sonos Beam
- $399
It's more affordable, more compact and yet still sounds excellent. Plus it has features not found on its bigger brothers like Amazon Alexa and HDMI ARC. Only those with a much larger room and budget need to opt for the Playbar or Playbase.
Since Alexa is built-in, the Beam is also a smart speaker and a great choice if you're looking for one to sit in the living room.
5. Ikea Sonos Symfonisk Lamp Speaker
- $179
Believe it or not, the Symfonisk lamp sounds just as good as a Sonos Play:1, with all the same Sonos functionality, while managing to include a light fitting on top. The design will be divisive, but if you like the look and don't want to make the space for a separate lamp and speaker, this is a surprisingly good solution.
This collaboration between Ikea and Sonos essentially fits the Play:1 into the body of a table lamp, which will take a regular E14 (in the UK) or E12 (in the US) light bulb fitting - including support for smart bulbs if you so fancy.
The sound profile is almost identical to the Play:1 (though like that speaker it has no voice assistant support), and the Symfonisk lamp is fully supported by the Sonos app, including support for stereo or surround sound.
Essentially, this is a Play:1 that looks a bit different and has a lamp. You can only buy it from Ikea directly, but it costs the same as the Play:1 in the UK (£150) and a little more in the US ($179).
6. Sonos Play 5 (2015)
- $499
It's pretty chunky so you'll need space for it, but like others it looks great and we like the touch sensitive controls. It's easily the best sounding of the regular Sonos speaker range but doesn't offer the same value for money.
7. Sonos Playbar
- $699
It costs a lot of money but sometimes you get what you pay for. It looks great, is extremely well-built and has fantastic sound quality - plus has all the advantages you get with the Sonos experience.
We actually prefer it to the newer Playbase, namely on design but both are excellent products.
8. Ikea Sonos Symfonisk Bookshelf Speaker
- $99
Sonos hasn't managed to perfectly recreate its classic sound in the £99/$99 Symfonisk, but it’s done a decent job if you don’t mind compromising a little on the bass. Throw in the fact that you can wall mount it to double as a bookshelf or hang it from an Ikea kitchen rack, and it's a handy little speaker for smaller homes.
Otherwise, the bookshelf is appealing for two sets of people. First up, if you’re an Ikea regular looking for a more affordable entry point into the world of Sonos, these are a budget-friendly way to get into the app - though be warned, before long you’ll be eyeing up the pricier models to add on.
The bookshelf will be just as appealing to Sonos regulars looking either for a friendly way to bring that Sonos sound into the kitchen, or for a cheaper way to upgrade to surround sound. This is as close as you can get to a cheap Sonos tweeter to bolster a home cinema setup, and £200/$200 plus some extra for wall mounting will get you a massive audio upgrade - and a couple of extra shelves to boot.
9. Sonos Playbase
- $699
Like with most Sonos products, you get you what pay for so the Playbase offers superior sound quality, design and all the additional features that Sonos has. This really comes down to design and whether you want to sit your TV on top of the speaker.
We still prefer the older Playbar, hence the lower chart position here.
10. Sonos SUB
- £599
The Sonos SUB seamlessly integrates into the Sonos system wirelessly (of course) but we don't think many customers will feel the need for it.
Partly because it costs as much as the Playbar or Playbase and those both offer pretty good bass anyway. You're more likely to notice a complimentary difference if you use the SUB with some of the smaller Sonos speakers.
Just make sure you have the space for it, and friendly neighbours.
What Is Sonos?
In the company’s own words: “Sonos is the smart speaker system that streams all your favourite music to any room, or every room. Control your music with one simple app, and fill your home with pure, immersive sound.”
That’s a pretty accurate summary and Sonos is easily one of the easiest wireless speaker systems for consumers to get to grips with and set up. Watch the video at the top of the page for a nice visual overview.
Sonos speakers simply connect to the internet and each other via your home Wi-Fi network and you control them with the Sonos app which is available for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows (download it via here). The speakers also have buttons for basic functions. The Sonos Controller app has replaced the physical controller which used to be the traditional method.
There was a time when you needed the Sonos Bridge to connect the speakers together but those days are gone - although the Sonos Boost is available if you have poor Wi-Fi in your home. You just need to connect one to your router instead to create a Sonos Mesh Network. A handy feature is that the Ethernet ports on the back of Sonos speakers can be used to provided connectivity to other devices, like laptops, via the Sonos Mesh Network.
Price And Where To Buy
Sonos has previously been out of many consumers’ budgets but the Sonos One is a reasonable £199/$199- while the Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf is even cheaper at £99/$99. Prices then go up to £699/$699 for the full-on home theatre speakers.
There are many places to buy Sonos speakers including the firm’s official shop but you can also buy Sonos speakers from Amazon, John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Currys.
There are two exceptions to that however: the company partnered with Ikea to make two different Symfonisk speakers - one in a bookshelf design, one designed to double as a lamp. Both of those speakers are available exclusively through Ikea - even the Sonos store doesn't stock them.
If you can't afford the Sonos speakers you want, then the new Flex subscription service might be the answer. Sonos has alo launched a Trade Up scheme so you can get up to 30% off by recycling an old device.
How Does Sonos Work?
One of the great things about Sonos is you can simply start with one speaker and add more as and when you like (or can afford more). You can have as few or as many as you like. Adding a new speaker into the system takes a matter of seconds via the app.
Each speaker is assigned a zone, or room, and you can play different music in each zone from a number of different sources (see below) or you can group them up so the same tunes are playing throughout the house - this is great for parties.
It’s easy to move speakers around and there are many different sizes and prices to suit different needs (see below).
Features include the ability to create a stereo pair if you get two identical speakers, using any Sonos speakers as an alarm (with your choice of music or radio station to wake up to) and plugging in devices directly with the line-in port on the back.
One of the latest features is True Play which uses the microphone on your iPhone or iPad to tune the Sonos speaker based on various factors like the size and shape or your room and even where the speaker is placed within it. This doesn't work with Android devices though, as there's too much variation in microphone hardware.
In 2018, Sonos updated the system with AirPlay 2. That means you can stream directly to speakers from your iPhone or iPad without using the Sonos app. It also means you can watch video content on your device while using a Sonos speaker for the audio and controlling the system with Siri.
Sonos Music Services
Once you’ve got a speaker (or many speakers) set up, it’s time to play some music and the choice is vast.
Via the app, it’s easy to choose where to play music from which starts simply with any stored locally on the device where the app is installed. Sonos supports AirPlay but doesn’t have Bluetooth. You can also stream music which is on any computers that are on the same network as the Sonos system. There’s also support for NAS (network attached storage).
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Most users will want to use online music streaming services, though and there are plenty to choose from. There are too many to list here but the big names include: Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Soundcloud, Google Play Music, Napster and Tidal.
There’s also TuneIn Radio so you can access more than 1,000 internet radio stations for free. Sonos has added YouTube Music as a supported service, too.
Check the complete list of supported services here.
Which Sonos Speaker Should You Buy?
Sonos splits its wireless multi-room system up into three categories: speakers, home theatre and components.
We’re not looking at components (the Connect and Amp) here as they’re not speakers but they are handy for adding an existing Hi-Fi, vinyl turntable or pair of speakers into the Sonos system.
Find out how to turn any speakers into a wireless streaming system with Sonos.
Speakers
So, to start with the speakers, there are three sizes to choose from which gradually increase in price.
The range starts with the Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speaker, which at £99/$99 is as affordable entry point into the system, especially since you can buy two of them and get stereo sound for less than £200/$200.
The cheapest in the core Sonos range was the Play:1 but it's now been discontinued and replaced by the One SL which is £179/$179. The old Play:3 is also no longer part of the range.
The Sonos One is then £199/$199 and is essentially the Play:1 speaker but with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. We also have a round up of the best smart speakers.
Note that Sonos announced that older products, those launched before 2015, would stop being supported with software updates and new features leaving customers with any newer devices with an ultimatum. They could leave the entire system on the older software or stop using the older devices.
However, after plenty of media coverage and customer outrage, the firm has now come up with a plan to keep the older devices working. You can read what Sonos said here.
The S2 app will launch on 8 June to support 2020 Sonos products, but doesn't support some older devices (see below). If you have these, they won't stop working but you'll essentially have to run them separately on S1 instead.
- Sonos Bridge
- Sonos Connect
- Sonos Connect:Amp
- Sonos CR200 wireless remote
- Sonos Play:5 (Gen 1)
- Sonos Zone Players (ZP90, ZP100, ZP120, etc)
In 2019 Sonos added the Move, whch is both portable and the first to offer Bluetooth - two things customers (and us) have been requesting for a long long time. You can finally use Sonos outdoors without a tricky setup and it's not just a Sonos One with a battery attached.
Those wanting extra bass can get the Sub (now Gen 3), which can be paired up with various Sonos speakers in different arrangements. Most Sonos speakers have good enough bass and the Sub is extremely powerful so will be suited to those looking for the most luxurious setup - and perhaps detached houses.
Home theatre
Sonos has now restructured its home theatre range for 2020 and it's about time since the Playbar has been on sale since 2013.
That, along with the Playbase, have been replaced by Arc, Sonos' latest premium soundbar that includes features like Dolby Atmos and HDMI eARC. It also comes with a new design, 11 speakers and runs on the new S2 app.
The Beam is now the other soundbar in the range, suitable for those wanting something both cheaper and more compact. Each can be paired up with other speakers like the One SL and/or the Sub.
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