Replacement for Sonos Play 5?

Danepak

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

Chizz

I'd replace it with two Play 3s, paired as a stereo pair.

PopIcon

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

cafcdave123

SuedeAdidas

cafcdave123 said:

Would need to see a video of a tape being ejected to know if it's any good or not.....or st least that's how we evaluated the quality of such items in the 80's.

1) Rocket eject where tape flies out and kills bystanders = Shit

2) Slow and smooth eject = A thing of wonder and all that you needed to know when assessing quality.

NB - Bonus points if you were using metal tapes that cost more than 2 albums

Danepak

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

kings hill addick

I thought the speakers were supposed to be high quality, it was the software that was, apparently, the reason that the quality of the sound was limited - I now realise that I don't understand why but it has something to so with K or bits or something. It doesn't do flac, what ever that is!

PopIcon

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

I have quite a bit of Sonos gear and have had buzzing issues with the old play 5. If I were you, I would factory reset and move it elsewhere in house. I had mine surrounded by lots of other electronic gear and it wasn't happy.
I would take them up on a half price play 5, even if you sell it on. I have a pair of the new play 5's and for the price nothing gets near as good sound.

Danepak

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

If I were you, I would factory reset and move it elsewhere in house.

I would love to do a factory reset, but for some reason it's impossible to back up your Sonos playlist.
We've got a lot of playlists, which we would hate to have to rebuild manually.
Obviously, if there are no other options, we'll have to do it, but it will take days for us to restore.

Danepak

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

If I were you, I would factory reset and move it elsewhere in house.

I would love to do a factory reset, but for some reason it's impossible to back up your Sonos playlist.
We've got a lot of playlists, which we would hate to have to rebuild manually.
Obviously, if there are no other options, we'll have to do it, but it will take days for us to restore.

So, did the factory reset. Still same issue.
Poxy piece of shit.

cafcdave123

Danepak said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

If I were you, I would factory reset and move it elsewhere in house.

I would love to do a factory reset, but for some reason it's impossible to back up your Sonos playlist.
We've got a lot of playlists, which we would hate to have to rebuild manually.
Obviously, if there are no other options, we'll have to do it, but it will take days for us to restore.

So, did the factory reset. Still same issue.
Poxy piece of shit.

and lost your play list?

Stefco

The Bose Soundtouch 30 is worth a listen. as it is the most like for like speaker on the market. It has WIFI connectivity, with app control, plus added bluetooth connectivity, & also a 3.5mm jack input too.

Marshall have some pretty phenomenal sounding speakers on the market, but with bluetooth, optical, RCA & 3.5mm inputs, not with WIFI.

Danepak

cafcdave123 said:

Danepak said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Our Sonos Play 5 is dying slowly and out of warranty.
Only 4 years old, so we're a bit disappointed with the quality of this unit (after all, it's out of warranty).
We can get a replacement for half the price, but curious to know, if there's something else in the market, similar, quality wise to the Sonos Play 5? Well aware that there are superior products out there, but something like Sonos Play 5 fitted out budget and was perfectly fine, quality wise for us.
I know that there in 4 years, far more WiFi speakers have entered the market, so just after advise, if we should look for something else, better, in the same price bracket.

What you mean slowly dying? Those things should last forever. Have you been in touch with Sonos?

If you were going to replace I'd recommend a new play 5, the latest generation is superior and better than pair'd play 3's.

The speaker hasn't turned off for approx 1 1/2 years. You can hear a slight humming, when you stand close to it. Basically, when you stop listening to Spotify or whatever, it should turn off, but it doesn't. And now the sound quality is becoming poor, which undoubtedly is due to the above issue.
I've been in touch with Sonos, but as this is out of warranty, I can't get it replaced for free. However, they can supply another one for half the price, which I guess isn't a bad deal. However, I didn't expect the speaker to start acting like this after a handful of years. I know this isn't a top of the line speaker, but I still paid 700 Aussie dollars for this.

If I were you, I would factory reset and move it elsewhere in house.

I would love to do a factory reset, but for some reason it's impossible to back up your Sonos playlist.
We've got a lot of playlists, which we would hate to have to rebuild manually.
Obviously, if there are no other options, we'll have to do it, but it will take days for us to restore.

So, did the factory reset. Still same issue.
Poxy piece of shit.

and lost your play list?

Took screenshots of the play lists, so will be adding them back manually, when I get a new speaker.

Rob7Lee

If you use spotify etc won't your playlist be on there?

I've never found the likes of Sonus to have good enough sound quality, try Ruark, excellent Hifidelty, I have the R4 but will get the R7 soon when the wife's not looking

cafcfan

kings hill addick said:

I thought the speakers were supposed to be high quality, it was the software that was, apparently, the reason that the quality of the sound was limited - I now realise that I don't understand why but it has something to so with K or bits or something. It doesn't do flac, what ever that is!

According to the inventors, the MP3 codec is dead in the water because AAC is the codec of choice now. With AAC you get better quality than in the equivalent compression as MP3. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It does what it says on the tin. That is you should get no loss of quality on compression from the original. I'm surprised a modern piece of kit can't cope with FLAC. Does it cope with AAC?

Danepak

Rob7Lee said:

If you use spotify etc won't your playlist be on there?

I've never found the likes of Sonus to have good enough sound quality, try Ruark, excellent Hifidelty, I have the R4 but will get the R7 soon when the wife's not looking

No, we'd created the playlist in Sonos, not Spotify. Lesson learned.
Sonos sound quality is good enough for our ears and I've been offered a new replacement for less than half the price. I guess we're going down this route, although I'm pretty disappointed with the quality of the speaker. Surely it won't happen again though. I've googled the issue and it doesn't look like anyone else have had the same problem.

Rob7Lee

Half price is hard to turn down but i'd still check out the Ruakr R2 (amongst others) to be honest,

kings hill addick

cafcfan said:

kings hill addick said:

I thought the speakers were supposed to be high quality, it was the software that was, apparently, the reason that the quality of the sound was limited - I now realise that I don't understand why but it has something to so with K or bits or something. It doesn't do flac, what ever that is!

According to the inventors, the MP3 codec is dead in the water because AAC is the codec of choice now. With AAC you get better quality than in the equivalent compression as MP3. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It does what it says on the tin. That is you should get no loss of quality on compression from the original. I'm surprised a modern piece of kit can't cope with FLAC. Does it cope with AAC?

Gosh, I don't know. Thanks for the information though. My understanding was that the music is CD quality but no better - if that helps.

I have never thought it was that important, especially when I only have one speaker in each room. Although the Play 5 has lots or speakers in it, apparently.

In case you haven't realised I don't, really, have much understanding of music.

cafcfan

kings hill addick said:

cafcfan said:

kings hill addick said:

I thought the speakers were supposed to be high quality, it was the software that was, apparently, the reason that the quality of the sound was limited - I now realise that I don't understand why but it has something to so with K or bits or something. It doesn't do flac, what ever that is!

According to the inventors, the MP3 codec is dead in the water because AAC is the codec of choice now. With AAC you get better quality than in the equivalent compression as MP3. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It does what it says on the tin. That is you should get no loss of quality on compression from the original. I'm surprised a modern piece of kit can't cope with FLAC. Does it cope with AAC?

Gosh, I don't know. Thanks for the information though. My understanding was that the music is CD quality but no better - if that helps.

I have never thought it was that important, especially when I only have one speaker in each room. Although the Play 5 has lots or speakers in it, apparently.

In case you haven't realised I don't, really, have much understanding of music.

That made me laugh - you seem to have the same music listening ability as I have! As an experiment, I once took a CD and ripped it to MP3 at 128kbps, 192kbps ( but at a variable rate) and at 320kbps. The latter supposedly similar to CD quality. I couldn't tell the difference between any of them! But I've tended to stick with 192VR.

PopIcon

Danepak said:

Rob7Lee said:

If you use spotify etc won't your playlist be on there?

I've never found the likes of Sonus to have good enough sound quality, try Ruark, excellent Hifidelty, I have the R4 but will get the R7 soon when the wife's not looking

No, we'd created the playlist in Sonos, not Spotify. Lesson learned.
Sonos sound quality is good enough for our ears and I've been offered a new replacement for less than half the price. I guess we're going down this route, although I'm pretty disappointed with the quality of the speaker. Surely it won't happen again though. I've googled the issue and it doesn't look like anyone else have had the same problem.

Its odd that you lost playlists as they not stored on the speaker itself. They are created through the app.

I would recommend checking the line-in on the back. If any metal is in contact with that it could create static noise. You could also try a different power supply, any c7 will work.

Have you tried moving the speaker elsewhere in doors? Would be that it is receiving static feedback from somewhere.

Have you ran a diagnositic check? The guys at Sonos will be able to locate problems like amps not powering down.

Finally if none of those options work, i'd take up the offer of a half price speaker.

Good luck.

Danepak

PopIcon said:

Danepak said:

Rob7Lee said:

If you use spotify etc won't your playlist be on there?

I've never found the likes of Sonus to have good enough sound quality, try Ruark, excellent Hifidelty, I have the R4 but will get the R7 soon when the wife's not looking

No, we'd created the playlist in Sonos, not Spotify. Lesson learned.
Sonos sound quality is good enough for our ears and I've been offered a new replacement for less than half the price. I guess we're going down this route, although I'm pretty disappointed with the quality of the speaker. Surely it won't happen again though. I've googled the issue and it doesn't look like anyone else have had the same problem.

Its odd that you lost playlists as they not stored on the speaker itself. They are created through the app.

I would recommend checking the line-in on the back. If any metal is in contact with that it could create static noise. You could also try a different power supply, any c7 will work.

Have you tried moving the speaker elsewhere in doors? Would be that it is receiving static feedback from somewhere.

Have you ran a diagnositic check? The guys at Sonos will be able to locate problems like amps not powering down.

Finally if none of those options work, i'd take up the offer of a half price speaker.

Good luck.

When you do a factory reset of the speaker, the playlist disappears. There's no fix for this.
https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/sonos-playlist-export-or-back-up-17314

We've had the issue for a while and I've tried to move the speaker elsewhere. Didn't make a difference.
I've also tried the line-in on the back. Nothing in contact with it.
I've also submitted the diagnostics to Sonos. They can't seem to fix it.

Yep, looks like I'll take up the offer for the half price speaker.

Danepak

Sometimes life is just too good!
I called the Sonos agent here in NZ and asked if I still should return the speaker to the same address, as they supplied me with back in December (when I originally reported that the speaker didn't power down). He confirmed. I also asked how I should transfer the money for the new Sonos Play:5 replacement.
He said 'No need to. We'll replace it for free'.
I told him it was out of warranty and that it was purchased in Australia.
He said that it didn't matter. 'Just return it and we'll replace it for free!'
No idea what's changed since I was in touch with them back in December, but I'm stoked!

cafcnick1992

If you're streaming over Bluetooth, the quality of your sound will always be constrained by the bandwidth of Bluetooth anyway.

Even more so on Apple devices which don't even have the aptx codec.

Danepak

cafcnick1992 said:

If you're streaming over Bluetooth, the quality of your sound will always be constrained by the bandwidth of Bluetooth anyway.

Even more so on Apple devices which don't even have the aptx codec.

Sonos streams over WiFi, not Bluetooth