Sonos recently changed the way the app that controls your system. Sonos now requires you to signup for an account in order to have full use of your system especially if you're buying their expensive Base. Do realise you are now giving up some measure of privacy (THINK Facebook)!! Privacy they claim they won't sell but of course, they can change that agreement at will without your consent as they have previously forcing consumers to share personal data in order to have full use of the system. This was not their policy for the last decade. For all those consumers who've owned Sonos previously to this change don't have a say in the matter. It's unfortunate the company has chosen to do this without giving consumers a choice to opt-in. The speakers are good but are pricey especially compared to Apple's Home Pod which is better and does not mine your data without giving you a say in the matter.
For this poor choice and new direction by Sonos they are now 1 star. Consumers deserve better after all they are only speakers. There's no need to mine our data for it to work!!!

Finally after months of debating I finally bought my first Sonos Speaker and know I'm going to by more so buying the bridge was a great cheap investment to make my experience better and seamless. Right now Sonos made the bridge optional but I saw if your planning to get the 3.1 or 5.1 surround sound so it worth getting. What the Bridge does since it connected to your router is makes your Sonos system it's own network so it doesn't interfere with your extorting wifi. But now I guess you can get the connect but that only to boost your wifi signal.

I used to be a Sonos fan. Everything worked out so smoothly.... sound is great.... functionalities are (were?) almost ideal ...... adding components was a blast...... easy....... until they decided to rush a new controller version so that there is no need to use de Sonosnet and allow to use own wifi network to transmit music. This was made in the last few weeks (august september 2014). Then everything turned into a major nightmare. Components are lost from the network; those components that are still "seen", cannot access web music services, new components are not registered in the system. I can go on with issues out of this 5.1 software version "upgrade" made by Sonos. I invested quite a lot of $ in this system (three Play 1, one play 5, two Connects and a bridge) and can't use it at all. Support is obviously going through the same nightmare, so are totally helpless. This initiative by Sonos looks very much like the typical marketing driven desperation to rush into the market with a new feature that was not adequately tested in all conditions. Very likely, not even tested in the most usual conditions.

UPDATE: After Sonos Customer Service. After a couple of failed attempts in Phone CService, I reached a CSR that was with me for about 1 hour or 90 minutes. He was probably the more patient CSR I experienced ever. A supervisor was handy to support him in the process. I also involved my own router technician. It happened to be that some Sonos items were not recognizing a fictitious MAC address of my router. All of my about 20 ethernet devices including two Play 1s, accepted this 11:11:11:11:11 MAC address. But the Bridge and the Connect did not. Therefore the whole thing was not working. The sonos CSR figured there was a MAC issue, and my router technician figured that might had to do with the MAC address masked for the router. He changed that to the original MAC, and voila, everything went back to be as smooth as ever. I understand this is a sophisticated device but there is some inconsistency in the design issue that allowed some Sonos devices to work and some other not under the same condition. I guess the new software did not help. BUT I do recognize that after going through various Tech Support processes, Sonos one, overall, is very good considering they sell 300 usd items and not 3000 usd items. I've had serious hard time with significantly higher ticket audio items like Denon receivers or Sony TVs, among others. This is why I raised the one star initial vote to 4 stars.

SONOS...... This system is a phenomenon, it's an art, it's joint effort of many Engineers, scientists and many technicians and a great CEO at SONOS Lab, and it's from California With Love.( I do not work for SONOS, but I simply love SONOS bridge and speakers.)

I, first heard SONOS sound system from Arizona, when I was on a trip to Scottsdale visiting a relative of mine.
There was a small speaker residing in a corner in their kitchen it was playing Rick Braun " Kissing in the Rain" and it was dusk.
It was awesome, fantastic, marvelous and I have never ever heard such quality in my entire life, from such a small speaker.
It was SONOS Play One, speaker.

SONOS System works in a different way, different style, different perspective. SONOS brings songs from all over the world, right at your home, with such clarity, frequency by frequency, decibels by decibels and you'll fall in love with SONOS sound system.
In order to obtain these lovely music, it's necessary to buy an item called BRIDGE. I call it a HUB. It's almost like a Router at home.
And that's what I bought as a starter along with a single SONOS Play One speaker. This is strange to call a speaker system " Play One". It doesn't play just one song.... It play 1000s songs from all over the world. Even from India !

Since the advent of these two items, I have started listening to songs more than ever and I am amazed that there are such lovely Radio stations out there in the world. It has, even VOA !

I bought two additional SONOS Play One Speakers. My wife, who doesn't care too much of listening to songs, has started listening to SONOS. She knows how to pair stereo in our bed room.

I highly recommend that each and every one of you people out there, to buy SONOS BRIDGE and SONOS Play One Speakers and enjoy the music of the world.

I have two SONOS BRIDGES and 3 SONOS Play One speakers at this moment. I will add more SONOS Play One speakers sooner.
Why 2 SONOS BRIDGES? It's a back up or to use it during my travel overseas.

Thank you SONOS, thank you AMAZON for introducing SONOS to us.

I was looking for a replacement speaker to use outside for barbecues and pool parties. My current speaker is a rechargeable, waterproof speaker, but it is not wireless - I have to hook an MP3 player up directly to it. After much consideration and reading hundreds of reviews, I decided to go the SONOS route. I am not disappointed in the least with my decision. I have had this bridge and the PLAY:1 speaker for a couple weeks now, and from initial setup to configuration to library management and operation, this system is an absolute pleasure.

I read the instructions, but there's really not much need - this thing is super intuitive. Plug it in and connect it via Ethernet cable to your router, download the app (mine is Android, but I also use the Windows desktop software from SONOS), and when you're prompted to add a device, you simply push a button on top of the bridge. Repeat that for any additional components you want to add, and you're set up.

Adding music libraries and services is very easy as well. I set up a share on my Windows PC, then entered the share and authentication information into the SONOS app, and it found and indexed everything automatically. The only drawback of a local library share is that when my computer goes into sleep/hibernate mode, the share is unavailable. If that happens, and I don't want to just use another music service, I just head into the office and hit the space bar on my keyboard to wake the computer back up. I am now using the local library, Pandora, Google Play music, Amazon music, and iHeartRadio for my sources. I can easily add new items into the current queue from my library, Google Play, and Amazon, and they will all play in the correct order seamlessly. Or if I don't want to put forth the effort to create a queue (or load a saved queue), I just find a station on Pandora or iHeartRadio. I have not used this with Spotify, as the app told me I needed a premium (paid) account with Spotify to use it in SONOS, which I don't have.

The range is very good, and I have never experienced dropouts or any other issues. The PLAY:1 speaker is often 75+ feet from the bridge (3 rooms over and through an exterior wall).

I am thrilled with every aspect of the SONOS system, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it over a Bluetooth setup, mainly because of the increased fidelity and flexibility WiFi offers.

The PLAY:1 speaker amazes me as well, but I'll save that for a review on that item.