Sonos Five. The high-fidelity speaker for superior sound (Black)

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when the physical surrounds are bonded, then the side firing woofers will be used to help with the left and right channels. Launched in 2019, the Move was Sonos's first-ever portable Bluetooth speaker, giving users the option to take their audio into the garden, or even into the bathroom to keep them company. Speech Enhancement: Tap the speech bubble icon on the Now Playing screen to emphasise dialogue so you won’t miss a word — even when the action gets intense. Those incidental details are lovely, but the Arc is dynamically deft too, and it’s this combination of qualities that makes the performance so evocative. Each part of the plane sounds different – areas open to the elements are airy and cacophonous, while others are more enclosed and keep outside noise more muffled. As the camera switches between positions, the Arc conveys the subtly unique volume and texture of each. We've now tested the Arc with many of the best TVs, and it's clear that mileage varies based on brand and age. The Now Playing screen in the Sonos app flags up that Dolby Atmos is being received, while the About My System part of the settings menus confirms the format in which it’s being transmitted. With a bit of fiddling in the TV menus, all of the LG OLED and Samsung QLED TVs that we've used have been able to transmit Dolby Atmos to the Arc from their integrated apps and pass through True HD Atmos from our Oppo UDP-203 Blu-ray player without issue.

We didn't know what to expect when IKEA and Sonos first released a bookshelf that could sing... but the results are actually quite impressive. The Sonos IKEA Symfonisk wi-fi bookshelf speaker can be wall-mounted (or stand upright) and hold up to 3kg of books, ornaments or any other clutter you decide to place upon it. But as well as that, it also has all the Sonos wireless multi-room functionality you'd expect.It isn’t that the Symfonisk is particularly bad in any regard, but its rhythmic sense and organisation isn’t quite the tightest we’ve heard from a wireless speaker at this price. Though there is certainly more space here than with IKEA and Sonos’s bookshelf speaker, it isn’t impossible for the presentation to seem a little busy, particularly with denser arrangements, and clarity can suffer on such occasions too.

If you want help making dialogue more intelligible while boosting your overall TV sound without spending too much, then quite possibly. We initially gave it three stars out of five because of that buzzing sound – since it was fixed, we upped that score to four. The speaker will connect to your home wi-fi when in range, and switch over to Bluetooth when you're on the go, such as connecting to your smartphone (it'll reconnect automatically after you've connected for the first time). With a set of Sonos speakers acting as the rear channels and a Sonos Sub onboard, the Arc takes another step forward, delivering a more convincing soundstage and better positional effects. Just be prepared to pay a hefty premium for the experience. Set-up Soundbases appear to have had their day; there aren't many around any more. People clearly prefer soundbars that sit in front of your telly to soundbases that are designed to go underneath them. That said, if that isn't you, the Sonos Playbase is a very decent option and, yes, probably the best one out there for its significantly reduced price.

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The Sonos Arc soundbar was subject to a price increase. (Image credit: Future) Sonos Arc: price and availability Basically a re-branded Play:5 with extra processing power, the Sonos Five is the least intelligent speaker in this line-up. It has the same design, the same six drivers inside and still no voice assistant support. So what does it have? Sound quality in spades. Designed to deliver outstanding audio over Wi-Fi, the Sonos Five serves up big, authoritative sound. If you’re replacing a full Hi-Fi system with a Sonos speaker, this is the one to do it with. If you want a light, portable, Bluetooth Sonos speaker, you'll want to consider the smaller, smarter Roam. However, while the Move 2 is heavier and more expensive, it also delivers a sense of scale and weight that the Roam cannot match. The Sonos Arc’s audio capabilities are seriously great. Eight elliptical woofers combine to deliver a solid overall bass response and the tuning balances a nice amount of warmth through the mids with an impressive level of clarity.

Its clean, streamlined chassis can be stood up or laid flat: the Five will cleverly detect how it’s positioned and adjust output to suit. If tinkering is your thing and you’ve got an iOS device, you can also deploy Trueplay tuning tech to tweak the listening experience. We're not used to seeing Sonos compete at the budget end of the market, and unfortunately, its inexperience shows. Because while the Ray is an assertive, punchy soundbar, it did struggle with an annoying bass buzz at the lower end of the frequency range. It's a shame, but it has since been rectified via a firmware update. Although the Sonos Era 100 is better than its predecessor in every way, I'm struggling with the higher price. We're in an (ahem) era of price rises, so I'm trying to factor that in – and yet, if you don't want the smart speaker functions (which, let's face it, not everyone is so hot on these days), the Era 100 is a full 39% higher in price than the Sonos One SL in the UK. I don't think I can say I see an equivalent amount of extra value in it. (I'm sure a Sonos Era 100 SL will come one day to help even out that price imbalance, but that day is not today.) If you don't care for voice control and simply want Sonos integration, the One SL makes a lot of sense for you and your bank account. But it also serves another purpose for those who do want voice control: to work in a stereo pair with the One. Pair aOneand One SL together in stereo – a set-up that looks and sounds good for the money – and you’ve created a pair of stereo speakers where the One can handle voice activation.It's certainly far more fully-featured than its similar-looking Bluetooth speaker rivals. While most speakers this size are simple devices you simply connect to your smartphone using Bluetooth, the Sonos Roam offers full compatibility with the Sonos app and multi-room ecosystem the brand is known for.

It’s worth pointing out that because the system uses your room to actually get the sound around you there’s going to be some variation in the Arc’s ability to deliver surround sound. If you have other Sonos speakers at home, you can put the Roam in a group with them to play music simultaneously, even if you're streaming via Bluetooth from your phone. The setup process is designed to be as simple as possible, all done through the Sonos S2 smartphone app. (Image credit: Future)This is a well made product. I held off buying a soundbar becuase I thought that it might impede the view of the bottom of my TV screen, but I have no issues with this product. Without upward-firing speakers, it’ll never deliver as much immersion as a full Atmos speaker setup. But the Gen 2 does a surprisingly effective job of replicating overhead effects – and the soundstage is impressively expansive for a compact soundbar. It’s a simple, effective solution for superior sound – and you can always add a Sub if you want more oomph. The lamp itself is not entirely unassuming itself – especially if you opt for the white finish of our test sample – resembling something of an Apple Homepod in a hot air balloon, but being half home furnishing the design is by definition something you would have to want to see in your house regardless of its sonic capabilities.