The US manufacturer Sonos now has a large range of speakers, soundbars, home theater speakers and portable rechargeable speakers. But which Sonos speakers are the best?
Sonos speakers are often a little more expensive than models from other manufacturers. However, you also get a lot in return: The build quality is very high, compatibility with smartphones is great and, most importantly, most speakers sound fantastic.
What’s so good about Sonos?
The special thing about Sonos is that it is a multi-room system. Several Sonos devices can be placed in different rooms and either play the same music in all rooms at the same time or different music in each room.
It is also possible to play the sound from the TV not only on a soundbar – but also in the bathroom or kitchen at the same time.
The central control element for a Sonos system is the Sonos app: the music source can be selected here and the volume can be set for each individual speaker. Sleep timers, alarm clocks and sound adjustments are also possible.
In recent years, Sonos has focused on devices for the home theater. There are now various soundbars that can be placed under the TV.
In addition, some models can be set up as surround or Dolby Atmos speakers for spatial cinema sound.
If you attach great importance to a powerful bass foundation, you can add a wireless subwoofer to the system.
I have bought and extensively tested all Sonos products myself in recent years. In this article, I present the 2024 frontrunners.
Sonos Five: Crystal clear hi-fi sound
A speaker can have so many great functions. What counts in the end is and remains the sound – and the Sonos Five is my absolute frontrunner.
If you want to enjoy music in perfect sound quality and at higher volumes, this speaker is the perfect choice.
Leonard Cohen’s sonorous voice in “My Secret Life” sounds incredibly powerful and makes furniture vibrate – even without a separate subwoofer.
The Eagles’ guitars in “Hotel California” sound beautifully clear and the bass in the song “When We’re Older” by James Blake is surprisingly solid.
The Sonos Five has six integrated diaphragms – three tweeters and three mid-woofers that provide crystal-clear sound.
Each of the six speakers is driven by a class D digital amplifier.
If you want to fully exploit the potential, you can connect two speakers to form a stereo pair. Then the effect and the sound stage are even more impressive.
Especially if you have a good listening position between the two speakers and the devices are at head height.
Sonos Era 100: The new standard speaker
The Sonos Era 100 was launched on the market together with the Era 300 in March 2023. It replaces the Sonos One as the smallest stationary speaker and comes with a number of improvements.
While the predecessor only had one tweeter and one mid-woofer behind the grille, the new Era 100 has two tweeters.
This ensures good stereo sound and even clearer sound even with a single speaker.
Another new feature is the option to send music to the speaker via Bluetooth.
If you want to connect an external device such as a turntable, you will be able to do this in future using a USB-C adapter.
The operation of the device has also been improved: the volume can now be controlled via a touch slider on the top of the device.
Other buttons can be used to skip tracks forwards or backwards and to temporarily or permanently deactivate the integrated microphones.
Sonos Move: With battery for garden & balcony
If you don’t want to miss out on first-class sound in the garden or on the balcony, you should listen to the Sonos Move portable rechargeable speaker.
The sound is excellent for a portable speaker – but this is also noticeable in the weight. At a good 3 kilograms, you shouldn’t take it with you on hikes in your backpack.
The Sonos Move’s battery life of around ten hours is in the good mid-range, but the new Move 2 plays twice as long.
As with all rechargeable speakers, the volume plays a major role. The louder, the shorter the battery life.
A special feature of the speaker: the Sonos Move uses integrated microphones to automatically adapt its sound to its surroundings. Whenever it is moved, this process begins unnoticed – but with audibly better results.
The device is charged either via USB-C on the back or via a practical charging station with power adapter.
Sonos Sub: Powerful bass for music & home theater
Sonos now has two different subwoofers in its lineup: The large Sonos Sub and the smaller Sub Mini.
Both bass speakers are wirelessly integrated into the system via WLAN and audibly and noticeably amplify the lower tones in music and movies.
I generally recommend the more expensive – but also significantly more powerful– Sonos Sub. At least if the living room has a room size of 30 square meters or more. The Sub Mini is sufficient for smaller rooms.
The special feature of the Sonos Sub: The special design prevents strong vibrations. This pleases the neighbors and reduces the risk of furniture or glasses in the cupboard vibrating.
The subwoofer is really extraordinarily powerful for its compact size. If the power is still not enough, you can even combine two subwoofers in the system to double the effect.
Sonos Arc: Cinema soundbar for large rooms
Sonos also offers two different sizes of soundbars: the smaller Beam and the larger Arc.
As with the subwoofer, the right choice depends heavily on the size of the room. I recommend the Sonos Arc for all rooms larger than 30 square meters. Below that, the Beam also performs well.
The sound is truly stunning: the eleven individual speakers in the soundbar provide a powerful, clear sound with a good bass foundation.
The sound is not only emitted to the front, but also to the sides and even to the ceiling. The latter is particularly impressive for movies in Dolby Atmos format.
No question: other manufacturers such as JBL, Bang & Olufsen and Bose also make great soundbars. I recently pitted the latter manufacturer against the Sonos Arc and didn’t notice any huge differences in terms of sound quality.
When choosing a soundbar, it’s more about the additional components – Sonos is a multi-room system and very flexible.
Sonos X IKEA: Lamp with Sonos box
A few years ago, two large companies joined forces in an unusual cooperation called Symfonisk: The furniture store IKEA and Sonos.
The result is lamps, picture frames and pieces of furniture with integrated speakers from Sonos.
While Sonos provides the speaker technology, the rest, such as picture frames and lamp frames, is produced by IKEA.
The quality and sound of the speakers is therefore just as high as in original Sonos products.
The special feature: As is typical for IKEA, the prices are rather low – in any case, they are significantly lower than the prices of the original Sonos devices.
A Symfonisk speaker for shelves or the kitchen is available for as little as 99 euros and the sound is almost as good as the Sonos One.
The table lamp from IKEA has the loudspeaker in the base and sounds even better, it is currently available for 189 euros.
All Symfonisk devices can be operated with the Sonos app just like the original speakers and can also be connected to other speakers.
Some IKEA speakers can even be used as rear speakers in a home theater, which is particularly useful for picture frames due to their shallow depth.
Sonos Era 300: Brand new for home theater
In March 2023, not only the new Sonos Era 100 was launched, but also the Era 300.
Equipped with six internal speakers, it is designed to provide a particularly spatial sound. This is primarily relevant for home cinema, but can also sound great with music. The first providers such as Apple Music, Amazon Music and Deezer already offer special songs for this purpose.
The Era 300 already sounds fantastic as a single speaker. Just like the Sonos Five, this effect can be doubled if you form a stereo pair with two devices.
The sound quality here comes very close to audiophile hi-fi systems costing several thousand euros.
The touch buttons on the top of the Era 300 have been rearranged and are now better and easier to use than on its Five predecessor.
There are additional buttons for microphone muting and a slider for the volume.
An adapter can be connected to the rear via USB-C. This can be used to connect external players or even a LAN cable for particularly stable connections in rooms with weak Wi-Fi.
Sonos Roam: Bluetooth speaker for traveling
Sonos’ smallest speaker is called Roam and is the perfect size for traveling, trips or outdoor adventures.
It is built according to protection class IP67, so it can be submerged in water up to 1m deep for short periods.
Depending on the volume, the battery lasts around ten hours and can be charged either via USB-C cable or even inductively.
The manufacturer offers a separate charging station for this, where the Roam can be placed and charged wirelessly.
The sound and volume of a speaker are physically linked to the volume – i.e. the size of the speaker. That’s why you shouldn ‘t expect party volume or hi-fi sound from the Sonos Roam.
However, the little one is perfect for background music in a hotel room, on the balcony or in the park.
Despite its small size, the Roam has integrated microphones for voice assistants and automatic sound adjustment.
It is the only speaker from the manufacturer that is available in many different colors.
Sonos Beam 2: Small soundbar with Dolby Atmos
I have been using the Beam 2 from Sonos in my private living room for years. The soundbar offers a perfect compromise between size and sound quality at an affordable price.
Inside, there arefour mid-woofers and a centered tweeter. Unlike the large Arc soundbar, there are no upward-facing speakers.
Surprisingly, the Beam 2 still produces impressive Dolby Atmos sound for movies. This is made possible by processor-controlled calculations.
The Beam 2 sounds very good on its own and is perfect for movies, TV and background music. If you want a little more power, you can expand the soundbar with the subwoofers or rear speakers for surround sound.
An integrated infrared sensor ensures that the soundbar and connected devices can be controlled using the existing TV remote control.
The signals are forwarded to the respective device via the HDMI eARC connection. In my case, I have connected an Apple TV with projector to the soundbar.
Sonos One SL: affordable classic
The Sonos One is certainly one of the world’s best-selling speakers. Whether in bars, stores or private living rooms: The small, rectangular speaker is everywhere and provides good sound.
Even if there has been a successor since 2023 with the Era 100, the Sonos One will probably still be available to buy for a long time and will be supplied with software updates for just as long.
Equipped with a mid-woofer and a tweeter, the Sonos One always sounds surprising – especially in the bass range.
With some songs, it’s hard to imagine that so much sound comes out of this small device.
If you’re looking for a bargain, you should take a closer look at the Sonos One SL. It is identical to the One – with one small difference: it has no integrated microphones and therefore no voice control.
Everything else is absolutely the same. However, the price is significantly lower.
Table: Compare all Sonos products
I have compared the functions and features of the 32 most important Sonos devices and put them in a clear table.
In addition to stereo functionality, other factors are important with Sonos:
Can the speakers be used as a rear for surround sound? Can the devices be controlled via Apple AirPlay? Which speakers have voice assistants and which Sonos devices can be connected to external players such as record players or CD players?
The Sonos table should provide answers to all these questions. Here you can compare the different models quickly and clearly…
Terms: Sonos products
Release date
Under Release, I show the year in which the product was launched on the market. This is the US market launch.
Sonos with stereo function
Although Sonos soundbars generally produce stereo sound, the right and left speakers are very close together due to their shape.
That’s why you can’t speak of a classic sound stage that separate stereo speakers produce.
With Sonos amplifiers such as Connect:Amp, the stereo sound is generated by external, passive speakers that are connected to the amplifier by cable.
Individual speakers such as Five, Sonos One or the Symfonisk devices from IKEA can only produce stereo sound if they are connected to the same speakers via the Sonos app to form a stereo pair.
Accordingly, two devices are required for these models. This is why the tick is shown in brackets (✓) in the table.
Rear-compatible
In the Rear column, I specify whether the Sonos device can be used to play surround sound.
A classic home theater system consists of 5.1 components. This means: 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer.
A center speaker is usually positioned centrally under the TV or screen and reproduces speech, sounds and music. Two further speakers are located to the right and left of the TV and the two bear speakers are located behind the viewer, for example behind the sofa.
This distribution creates a spatial sound in movies; sounds move through the room, so to speak.
Sonos soundbars can also take over the task of the three front speakers in a 5.1 system, so that only one subwoofer and two rear speakers are required.
Sonos App
Unfortunately, some older Sonos devices are not compatible with newer devices. For this reason, there are two different apps.
The so-called S1 app for older devices such as the 1st generation Play:5 or old ZonePlayers such as ZP80, ZP100 and ZP120.
The new S2 app from Sonos is for new devices such as Roam, Arc, Ray and Five. Some devices also work with both apps.
Sonos voice control
Newer speakers have integrated voice control from Sonos Voice Control, Amazon (Alexa) and Google (Google Assistant). The volume or music selection can be influenced by voice command.
Other devices such as smart lamps or the room temperature can theoretically also be controlled. Siri from Apple has not yet made it onto the Sonos speakers.
In the future, this would at least be technically possible, as Apple has opened up the system to third-party providers.
The voice assistants are deactivated by default. If you want to use them, you need a corresponding account with Google or Amazon.
As soon as voice control is activated on a Sonos speaker, a small LED next to the integrated microphone lights up.
Hi-Res
With a software update in December 2021, Sonos introduced the option of listening to Hi-Res music – i.e. in “High Resolution”.
This should noticeably improve the sound, even if there is still a certain amount of compression and the sound is not “losless”.
Hi-Res can be played via Amazon Music, for example, where the format is called Ultra HD. Music is now also available in Dolby Atmos.
Bluetooth with Sonos
Sonos devices are normally integrated into the home network via WLAN. However, portable speakers such as Move or Roam also have integrated Bluetooth.
This means that the devices can also be connected to the cell phone on the move if no WLAN is available.
Recently, stationary speakers such as the Sonos Era 100 or Era 300 have also been equipped with Bluetooth.
AirPlay 2
Many years ago, Apple developed its own technology, AirPlay, to stream music and videos wirelessly.
The latest version is called AirPlay 2 and is already integrated into many Sonos devices. Music can therefore be sent directly from many Apple applications to one or more speakers.
Line-in connection
External devices can be connected to Sonos via a so-called line-in or AUX input, e.g. a turntable or CD player.
This music can be played not only on the connected Sonos device but on all speakers.
Optionally, playback starts automatically as soon as a signal is detected.
Some speakers have a 3.5mm jack input, amplifiers such as the Sonos Amp have an RCA input.
Prices for Sonos
In the price column, I have integrated some providers who sell new and old Sonos devices. These include the official Sonos store, Amazon, eBay and other providers.
Prices for Sonos change almost daily, so changes cannot always be updated immediately.
I generally recommend taking a look at the refurbished offers, where refurbished Sonos devices are sold at lower prices.
Gen 1 and Gen 2
The designation Gen 1 and Gen 2 on some Sonos products refers to the respective generation of the device.
Sonos products are technically revised after a few years, the new version is then called Gen 2, the first version Gen 1.
Found an error?
Despite all the care I have taken in creating my table, I cannot rule out errors. If you notice anything, please let me know via this contact form.
Lars Grudzinski has been working as a sound and lighting technician since the 90s, was a DJ for electronic music, has a large collection of vintage speakers, and has been working for various radio stations in Germany for 20 years. At home, he enjoys high-quality home theater products such as soundbars and projectors and has installed an extensive Sonos system in his own home.