Sonos who came into the Australian market via specialist dealers and ended up selling their wireless sound systems via JB Hi Fi has now moved into the budget end of the sound market with a $299 Sonos Play 1 which also comes with a Sonos Bridge.
The device will go on sale in JB Hi Fi stores on the 29th of October.
Sonos’ new speaker joins the current Play:3 and Play:5 tabletop speakers, Sonos Sub, and Connect Amp, which connects any pair of passive speakers to a Sonos’ proprietary wireless network. The company also sells the PlayBar, an active soundbar that streams music wirelessly from PCs, Macs and mobile devices. Their Connect is a dedicated Sonos streamer/receiver that connects to any sound system.
Sonos has also announced a promotion in which consumers get a free $69 Sonos Bridge with the purchase of any Play: 1, Play: 3, or Play: 5. The Bridge connects to a home’s router to stream music wirelessly from the Cloud and from networked PCs to Sonos’ devices. The promotion lasts till December 31st 2013.
Several brands are now pushing into the wireless audio market Bose’s entry last week into wireless multi-room-audio speakers and Samsung’s first dedicated wireless multi-room audio system are set to take on traditional audio Company products.
The Play: 1 is a compact two-way mono speaker that can be paired with a second Play: 1 to create a left-right speaker pair.
The company’s Play: 3 and Play: 5 speakers, though single-chassis stereo models, can also be converted into separate left-right speakers.
The Play: 1, will be available in black or white and is designed for placement in space-challenged areas such as kitchen countertops. It is also wall-mountable like the Play: 3. the speaker measures 11.9 centimetres by 12.44 centimetres by 16.1 centimetres, but despite its small size, the company promised room-filling sound.
The speaker, like the Play: 3, also doubles as a wireless surround speaker for the company’s PlayBar soundbar.
In other developments, the company issued software updates today to add new features to its products, including the ability to use third-party speakers as PlayBar surround speakers when the speakers are driven by Sonos’s 2×55-watt wireless Connect: Amp.
Other software upgrades include the ability to tap a Sonos speaker’s skip button twice to pause a song.
In addition, the software adds multi-household support to the company’s Android and iOS controller apps, PC and Mac software, and dedicated hand-held controller. For people with Sonos speakers at home and in the office, or in their main home and vacation home, the update means users won’t have to change controller-software settings to use their speakers in different venues.
