Sonos Speaker System

Sonos built a multi-room speaker system around the idea that every room in your house should play the same song or different songs from a single app. Concept has generated a $1.5 billion company. Speakers connect to your WiFi network rather than using Bluetooth. The means the audio does not cut out when you walk to another room with your phone. The latency between speakers is low enough that you can play the same track in the kitchen and the living room without hearing an echo. Setup takes about 5 minutes per speaker and the app lets you group and ungroup rooms with a tap. I've 2 Sonos Ones in my apartment, 1 in the bedroom and 1 in the living room. Playing music throughout the space from my phone while I clean or cook has changed how I use audio at home. Sound quality from a single Sonos 1 is better than any Bluetooth speaker in the same $200 price range. Partly because the speaker runs Trueplay room calibration that uses your phone's microphone to measure how sound bounces off your walls and adjusts the EQ accordingly. Lock-in is the obvious downside. Once you have 2 or 3 Sonos speakers, switching to a different brand means replacing everything because the system is proprietary. The company has made controversial decisions about sunsetting older speakers that angered long-term customers. However, the system approach creates a cohesive experience that mixing brands can't match. Most people I know who own Sonos continue buying into the system rather than mixing it with competitors.