The connected speaker wars are upon us, and one day they will be detailed in history books for all to remember. But here, now, it can be hard to cut through the various narratives surrounding the options out there and pick a winner. Now that the cards are on the table in terms of offerings from the major players, it’s pretty clear that Sonos has the best option available for most people.
Sonos One, the connected speaker the company released last year, is a terrific sounding Wi-Fi-enabled speaker that also has built-in support for Amazon’s Alexa, which is if not the best smart assistant out there, then at least tied for first with Google’s Assistant.
On the sound front, Sonos has the most experience of any of the top three companies making smart speakers worth your consideration, too. The Sonos One is, in many ways, just an updated version of the Sonos Play:1 that’s acoustically very similar — but that’s actually a really good thing. The Sonos One, like the Play:1, is a terrific-sounding audio device, especially given its size and physical footprint.
I’ve been using a pair of Sonos Ones for the past couple of weeks, and it’s clear they do a great job of filling a room with sound, thanks in part to Sonos’ sound-shaping tech that uses a two-minute setup process involving waving your phone around to properly model the audio they put out for your space.
Individually, a Sonos One is already a strong contender, even against the Google Home Max and HomePod, for sound quality for most people (who don’t need the additional power or won’t notice the auditory improvements afforded by the larger speakers) — but the Sonos One has a another neat trick up its sleeve, because it can form a stereo pair with a second Sonos One. This provides true sound separation, meaning left and right channels reproduced as they were actually meant to be, instead of via some simulated stereo separation effect (which can be pretty cool, as HomePod reviews show, but which ultimately can’t match true stereo separation).
Another huge benefit of Sonos versus the competition: the Sonos One integrates out of the box with the rest of your Sonos setup, should you have one. You can control all speakers via voice, and group them together for whole home/room-by-room playback. Google’s Home Max can work together with Chromecast-enabled speakers for similar multi-room streaming setups, and HomePod is set to get an update that will add multi-room and stereo syncing, but Sonos One offers both of these now, and using a method that’s proven to work.
There’s also pricing to consider. Sonos One, in a bundle with two, is available for $349 right now, which is the same price as a single HomePod. It’s an unbeatable deal, given the other advantages listed above, especially because it means you can see if you like it alone, or equip multiple rooms with Alexa smarts and quality connected sound in one go.
There are reasons to consider other options, to be sure, especially if you’re 100 percent committed to the Apple ecosystem of device and services, but in general, for most people, for most use cases, Sonos One is the far better choice.
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