I am considering a black Friday deal for a pair of Sonos Fives to augment my living room system. I have a pair of Era 100s as front surrounds (Sonosequestered) in my “TV Room.” I have no desire to dismantle that set up to access the 100s as a stereo pair. But I am interested in adding the Fives.
Anyone here have experience with the Fives as a stereo endpoint for Roon?
Thanks!
MIKE
I gave my Fives to an offspring before embracing Roon. However my other Sonos speakers work fine with Roon, including an Era100 pair. I see no reason why a Five pair wouldn’t be the same.
Roon would see the pair as a single endpoint, at the IP address of the left hand (master) speaker. Sonos would deal with forwarding the correct channel over to the right hand unit.
If this would be your first Roon-Sonos marriage then I’d refer you to some comments I made on a recent thread about their interaction.
Note that if you use the lossless ‘Sonos streaming’ protocol Roon will only be able to group with other Sonos rooms, not with RAAT endpoints.
Thanks, Giles. Checked out you comments. I am currently streaming Roon to my arc ultra. The sound quality is OK. quite good for TV), but not wonderful. I am hoping using the Fives will give me a more acceptable outcome.
I did the same. I gave six Play 5s to one son-in-law. I think it is great to have a father-in-law who passes things on. He seems to get quite a kick out of it.
Indeed, Fives would sound much better than any soundbar for traditional stereo music.
There’s also the Era300s which as a pair are suprisingly good. Because of the driver arrangement they’re rather less sensitive to seating position in terms of ‘sweet spot’, but the stereo image can seem a little bit less crisp. Of course if Atmos music is your thing then it would have to be the Eras.
With all such pairs, Sonos does a great job of maintaining L-R sync. However if you concentrate closely enough you might occasionally notice a tiny amount of soundstage drift, which is then automatically corrected. It’s very subtle so it depends on listener sensitivity.
Wish my grands had an interest, but they do not. Happy to play Spotify, etc., through their phones.
Most musicians do not have a hifi system. Spotify is a huge seller, and, obviously, many enjoy Spotify on their Airpods. My son, a senior software engineer and guitarist, helped me set up Roon, and he has always loved music and concerts. He has no interest in my stereo, Roon, etc. my take is that most lead or want to lead very active lifestyles which includes their sports and gym. They do not like music any less than I, but their need for components is close to nil. I assume this is why/how hifi sales are retreating.
You are likely correct.
I follow, but don’t comment, on your Blues/Blues Rock thread. Grew up in the semi-rural south; my grandfather was a drinking man who could play any instrument with strings. My mother played a B3. It is in my blood.
Oh, and I ordered the Fives for delivery next week. I am always going to wonder if I will like them if I don’t try. I have components and Klipsch heritage towers in my music room. The Fives are for. The LR.
The South is a wonderful place to live as are Southern people. The period of Southern Rock was great …in the midst of it, I had to train in Philadelphia where they had not heard of Southern Rock nor the Blues that led to them, but they were very aware of Disco.
I use a pair of gen.1 Play 5s in stereo configuration as a roon endpoint. They always work perfectly and sound surprisingly good.