Pros
- Wireless/Wifi
- Easy to setup
- Works with Alexa
- Integration with Music Services (Pandora/Spotify)
Cons
- Integrated Alexa
- Price
My Product Review
This Sonos product review comes after about 5 years of using their products. My first Sonos arrived back in 2015 and I immediately fell in love with it. The quality of sound and the ability to seamlessly integrate with various sources of music is what had me sold. But by far the biggest win for the Sonos products is the user experience when both setting up the product and when playing music. It’s just so damn easy! All you need is a connection to the Internet and the app on your smart phone and you are up and running. No wires (except for connecting to a TV), no frustrations trying to figure out where to connect things, and no figuring out what settings to turn on/off. This system is truly just plug-and-play.
In terms of configuration, we have a few different setups in our house.
Living Room: Sonos Playbar, Sub and Surrounds paired with an Amazon Echo and TCL LED 4K Smart TV.
Play Room: Sonos Beam and Sub, paired with the TCL LED 4K Smart TV.
Backyard: Sonos Amp that power 2 XXX speakers.
Porch: Sonos Connect which is connected to an old amplifier that I have which then powers 2 XXX speakers flush-mounted in the ceiling.
Jump to a specific room in my house…
Everything We Use
Below are the Sonos products that we use and everything we use with them.
| Product | Recommend | Notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonos Playbar | Yes! | This is the main source of music in my living room. It sits under the TV on our mantle. | Buy Now |
| Sonos Beam | Yes! | This is the main source of music in our play room. It sits under the TV hanging on the wall. | Beam Buy Now Mounting Bar Buy Now |
| Sonos Sub | Yes! | This sub-woofer is really amazing! Great quality sound – it sits in the back of the room and just fills the entire space with deep bass. We have it hidden next to a cabinet and you cannot tell where the sound is coming from. | Buy Now |
| Sonos One (x 2 for Surrounds) | Meh | We have two of these in the back of the room and I honestly can’t say we need them. The sound from the Playbar is fantastic and full. We had these two extras, so I am using them. | Buy Now |
| Sonos Amp | We have 2 Polk Atrium speakers in the backyard that are powered by a Sonos Amp. It’s basically the same setup we have for the screened in porch, but instead of using a separate amp, it’s all in one. | Buy Now | |
| Sonos Connect | Our screened in porch has 2 speakers in the ceiling that are powered by an old amp I use. Sonos feeds music into that amp using the Sonos Connect. | Buy Now | |
| TCL 4K Smart LED TV, 43″ | We have a few of these TVs and I think they are fantastic. Inexpensive and I have to say that I really like Roku built in. | Buy Now | |
| Amazon Echo | Yes! | Our Sonos Ones do Alexa built in, but we found them to be unreliable and wonky, so we rely heavily on our Amazon Echo which is just across the room in our kitchen. With Sonos, we can tell Alexa things like, “Alexa, play Jack Johnson in living room”. Or, “Turn volume up in living room”. Super easy and convenient! | Buy Now |
| Polk Audio Atrium 6 Speakers | Very solid outdoor speakers that we use in our backyard. I have then attached to the back wall of our house – they get pelted with rain on a frequent basis and I have had no issues whatsoever. Deep bass and very loud. Note: These are not wireless speakers. I have them wired from the Sonos Amp. | Buy Now |
Room #1: Living Room
What We Have
What I Love
What I would Change
Room #2: Play Room
Our setup has the Playbar, a Sub, and 2 Sonos Ones for a surround sound experience and I just think it’s incredible. What gives it the “cool” factor is the integration with Alexa and the integration with pretty much every music service out there.