Click on image to enlarge. 2 pieces of One's and 1 piece of Five.
#Note: Find full Sonos review list at the bottom.
There's no doubt that when comparing a single piece of Sonos One vs Five; the Five comes forward as it's louder, sounds better and provides better lower frequency response (higher bass) than the One.
So the Five outperforms the One in each and every department - as you can also see in Sonos speaker recommender tool at sonos.com.
But by how much?
A tiny bit? A huge amount? How would two pieces of Sonos One would compare to a single piece of Five?
Even in that case, Five is still nearly 100 USD more expensive. Would it still pay off?
Quick links:
By the way, One Gen 1 is also still being offered in sonos.com/en/shop/certified-refurbished. Just leaving this here in case you want to check that out, too:
Maybe also check out my write up on Sonos One Gen 1 vs One Gen 2.
- As long as you'll be using them in your average-sized bedroom and/or living room...
- Get two One's if you'll mostly be listening to acoustic, jazz, country, alternative rock, etc because stereo pairing becomes a higher priority in that case.
- Get the Five if you'll mostly be listening to rap, electronic (mainly techno), metal etc because lower frequency response and higher bass becomes a higher priority in this case.
- For smaller living spaces with less ideal acoustics, such as kitchens and bathrooms; DO NOT GET TWO ONE'S. Five is mostly a better option although can be overkill other times, so the alternative is a single piece of One.
- For larger living spaces, I'd recommend the Five again.
BTW, as you probably already know, Sonos discontinued Play:5 and replaced it with Five.
Well I researched the hell out of this condition as well as consulted some experts and laid out all my findings here in this post.
PS: Five is formerly known as Play:5. Keep that in mind as you surf through the internet. I've laid out their differences here in this post - which aren't all that much at all.
- Also see: My Best Sonos Speakers post
Sonos One Exploded View. Click on image to enlarge.
Sound quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com/documentation/.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.