The Sonos Zoneplayer S5 is the American sound slinger’s first foray into an all-in-one jukebox for its multi-room audio rig, and a bold new move to bring more price conscious folk into the fold. We’ve just gone hands, eyes and ears-on with the sound system, so if you want to know how it fares, read on for photos and impressions.
Looks-wise, we’re loving the Sonos Zoneplayer S5. Daubed with white paint, it makes a change from Sonos’ grey favouritism for its gear until now. And as you’d expect, the Sonos Zoneplayer S5 is incredibly simple to set up, since there’s no hooking it up to speakers required, and it jumps on your Sonos network quickly and easily.
As for the sound quality? The five Class-D amplifiers inside the Sonos Zoneplayer S5 sounded fantastic in the lofty room we tested them in, with clean sound and great bass, so it’d be ideal for the ol’ master bedroom.
It’s worth pointing out that if the Sonos Zoneplayer S5 is the first sound box you’ve snapped up, you’ll need to hook it up to an ethernet connection, or buy a ZoneBridge alongside it. But if that’s not a problem, and you happen to have an iPod touch or iPhone to hand for the remote, the Sonos Zoneplayer S5 is shaping up to be an entry level bit of kit you’ll want to take advantage of.
We also got a sneak peek of the Sonos 3.1 software update, which rolls out in early November. Along with a UI overhaul, adding tasty graphical icons to menu options, there’s Twitter integration as well. It’s well managed so you can auto complete a tweet with artist and song title, or just write what you like – and since the CR200 remote and iPhone both have capacitive touchscreens, tapping out your playlist to your followers is easy.
The Sonos Zoneplayer S5 is out next month, but help your peepers to a plate full of hands-on pics while you wait right here in our gallery.
Out 10 November | £349 | Sonos
