I purchased two Sonos PLAY:1's for myself for Christmas. I currently have them deployed in my living room, and one in my bedroom. The functionality of these speakers is really incredible - AND THAT'S WHAT YOUR PAYING FOR! Here are the things I love about the SONOS speaker system:

1) The speakers stream directly from your content sources (such as Spotify, Pandora, or other online streaming options). This completely frees up your device - which means less data usage, less battery drain, and no weird issues with your phone bugging out. You can control the speakers from your desktop (mac or PC) too.

2) Because the speakers stream directly from the sources and use your home wifi router, it's not using BLUETOOTH audio (from your device)- which was never intended to be a quality audio stream. Bluetooth was created primarily for voice applications, not high fidelity music. The streaming quality is higher.

3) I love being able to control individual zones, and volumes. I have my speaker volumes setup so when they are all grouped together (playing the same thing), as you walk from a big room to a smaller room the relative volume level is the same.

4) The "tuning" function actually makes a big different in the quality of the sound. I first setup my speakers and did not use it, then I tuned one of them. The quality difference was noticeable.

5) They look great. Modern. Sleek. And unassuming.

These 5 reasons are why SONOS speakers are expensive compared to others. Now, what you ARE NOT PAYING FOR with these speakers is audio output quality. I am a professional audio engineer and I have been involved in high end audio in the studio but mostly live for over a decade.With that said, they do not sound great - just average.

The product descriptions and some reviews talk about how loud they get (not very loud), and how much bass they put out (which they don't). For all intensive purposes, 125hz and below does not exists - and it typically doesn't in such a small box - but I didn't buy this box for thunder, I bought it for functionality and background music. If that's what your looking for, this product is PERFECT! The box will distort when turned up above 75% - which is another indicator of lower audio quality.

If you richness, bass, bump, thud, or groove - these speakers alone will not deliver. But they are not designed too (even though their product description makes it sound like they do). Either get the SONOS 5 OR get the additional sub option.

If your looking for low to medium background music, incredible functionality, music that won't bleed through your walls and make your neighbor mad, and a sleek form factor - this box is well worth the money.

Hands down the best speakers I've ever owned. At this price tag you'd expect a lot out of these tiny speakers, and trust me, you get a lot. You will be surprised when you first listen to them, I can almost guarantee it. The bass is astounding, and the music is so crisp and clear I find myself hearing new components to songs I've listened to thousands of times. You'll also be amazed at just how loud these things get with no discernible distortion, and with two of them you can create a stereo pair for a truly unreal listening experience. They're controlled with an app you download on your smart phone, and as long as both the speakers and your phone can connect to the same wi-fi connection you can play individual songs, queue up songs in a playlist, or listen to internet radio stations from a good variety of supported apps such as Pandora, Spotify, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, and more. Each speaker can be set up to represent the different rooms you have them sitting in, and can even play two different souces of music at the same time in different rooms! An undersold feature is how portable they are as well. Unplugging them and plugging setting them up in a different room only takes the speaker about 20-30 seconds to reset and can then stream music again, and setting them up in the first place or in a new home is fast, simple, and easy. The software is constantly being updated (which at times can be a bit tiresome) and the app sometimes will desync and make you wait, but really these are tiny complaints for what you get.

Yes, this is a lot of money to pay for two small speakers, but I've never been happier with an electronics purchase in my life. I've had them for a few years now and they sound and perform exactly as when I bought them. If you're looking for a home music streaming setup, look no further. These are the speakers to get.

I got the Sonos to replace a IHome speaker that I had for about 10 years, I really liked that speaker but one day it just wouldn't connect to my router anymore. (I think it was because the app became obsolete and their tech support was no help). Anyway,, I wanted a sound system that would connect to my router instead of just a bluetooth. They were pretty easy to set up but I did have to call tech support because I was trying to set them up using my laptop when I should have been using my iphone.
The sound quality is great one speaker fills a fairly large room with good sound. a sub woofer is not necessary.. If you put two speakers in one room you can get stereo sound. I know people who have expanded their system to almost every room in their house and I'm tempted to do the same. I'm glad I bought these instead of a comparably priced bluetooth system.
The only drawback is that you can't just stream anything you want like Youtube. I was warned about this in other Amazon reviews. You can stream any commercial radio like Pandora or even your local am and fm stations. This is nice so you can listen to your favorite local station before you head out to work to hear the weather or traffic. You can also play any music you have in your itunes library. However, if you want to listen to any other commercial free music like Sirius or Amazon Music you have to download the app and buy a subscription. You even have to buy a YouTube subscription and download their app. This could get expensive.

The Play:1 is a an ideal speaker for a bedroom, bathroom, den, or stereo pair, and with more than enough power to fill up a mid-sized room with deep, rich, clear sound. Not tinny like many similarly-sized spears, nor overly bass-filled (like many other modern speakers), it strikes an excellent balance of sound and range, with crisp sound for classical/orchestral music, to the thumping base of the latest summer jams.

Setup with an existing Sonos network is super simple (Sonos is so far unbeatable in this department compared to other wireless speakers) with never a drop or lag. The clean and minimal design reminds you that you don't need some futuristic-looking architect's shroom-inspired dream to make a great sounding speaker.

The Sonos app for phone, desktop, and tablet works very well, and integrates music from your local library, mobile device, Spotify, and a huge litany of other sources seemlessly. Grouping various speakers and controlling the grouped volumes for balance is a breeze, even on a mobile device. Quick caveat: while removing speakers from a currently-playing group does not disrupt playback, adding speakers to a group - for example, adding your living room speaker to your already-playing kitchen speaker - will disrupt playback in order to sync the speakers.

The only thing that I feel is lacking is a more detailed equalizer. Some rooms just need more balance than adjusting treble/bass levels can deal with. But this is very minor in comparison to many exceptional qualities of these speakers.

This is my first foray into the world of Sonos. I figured I'd dip my toe into the water before diving in head-first because I've heard really good things about Sonos in general, but they definitely aren't cheap. So, a pair of 1s seemed to be the way to go, especially with the $50 discount promotion they're running.

Though these are the smallest of the Sonos line, I was surprised by their heft; they are quite solid, and not tiny by any means.

Setup was incredibly simple, probably the simplest wireless devices I've ever set up (with perhaps the Hue being on par). However, if you decide to move the speakers around, changing their location in the app is nearly impossible.

The sound quality requires a big caveat. It's phenomenal if you place them in a corner. However, any other placement won't result in nearly as good of sound. First I put the pair in my kitchen, in corners on the countertop and set up as a stereo pair. It filled my large kitchen surprisingly well. I could only turn the volume up to about 10% before my wife said that was loud enough (though she has somewhat sensitive hearing). I can't ever really imagine needing to turn these up more than maybe 50% absolute max, even if you're throwing a really loud, crowded party.

So next, I tried a single speaker in my office, which is probably the smallest room in my house at 12'x10'. Sitting it on my computer desk, the sound was... not nearly as impressive. Bass not nearly as rich, definitely sounded like it was coming from a single source and not as much of that room-filling largeness to it. The experience was so different I wondered if it was the lack of stereo, or the placement, so I put it in the corner to see how that affected it. It was a *huge* difference. The bass was again richer, and the sound once again filled the room.

Moral of the story: with the Play:1s, definitely place them in a corner. It makes much bigger of a difference than you'd think.

The main downside of this system, to me, is that Sonos doesn't support AirPlay. So if you are on iOS that could be annoying. However, it does support tons of music streaming services through its native app (all the majors like Pandora, Spotify, Google Music, and tons of smaller services too), so you can play just about anything you want. You can even queue up different songs from different services. And you can also control play/pause directly from a button on the speaker itself, even if your phone isn't around. I even tried turning off my phone, and it continued playing, so I'm assuming it connects directly to these services and doesn't actually use your phone as a go-between.

The Sonos app itself could be slightly more polished too. It was a little tricky even finding the shuffle option, plus the aforementioned issues moving around speakers, but it's pretty functional overall, and I imagine they will continue to improve it as time goes on.

Overall I give it an 8/10. One point off for lack of AirPlay, which may or may not matter to you, and one point off for the cost (these definitely aren't cheap). But between the sound quality, ease of setup, and wireless nature (which I guess also falls under "ease of setup"), I do highly recommend Sonos as a great whole-home audio solution for anyone who has it in their budget (and doesn't already have a whole-home audio setup), and who doesn't want to run a bunch of speaker wire. I also recommend to anyone looking to replace/upgrade their current system.

Assuming no deal breakers emerge, next I plan to get the bar, sub, and a pair of Play:3s as a 5.1 media center setup. I heard one of those (the 3) in an open-air market over Halloween weekend in New Orleans, and I was really impressed by how well it filled that space.