Summary
Using two Sonos Play 1 (see image) is more preferred than a single Sonos Five in terms of soundstage reproduction. Also, you can get the two Sonos Play 1 at a lower cost.
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. These are Sonos speakers; no matter the model, you're assured of immersive, dynamic sound with bright highs and punchy basses.
The main differences between the Sonos Play:1 versus Five are the updated S2 app (required for Five and optional for Play:1), power and price.
For a more varied soundstage reproduction at a lower cost, we prefer a two Sonos Play:1 speaker configuration over a single Five.
While Sonos no longer manufactures Play:1, the product is still supported.
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.