Over the holidays I picked up a Sonos Play: 1 speaker for my bathroom. The speaker replaces an old. ugly 1990s boom box type radio we had sitting on our counter. It was ugly, got bad reception and I really wanted to replace it with something smaller and unobtrusive. The speakers went on sale for the holidays so I pilled the trigger. My only debate was whether to get one of the new Alexa enabled Sonos One speakers or to stick with the Play: 1. I decide that since the speaker would reside in our bathroom I didn't really need the Alexa functionality and the price was still $200 so I figured I would save the money. If the speaker was going in another room I probably would have gone with the Alexa enabled One
When the One came out it was priced the same as the Play:1 which seemed odd to me but now with the $60 difference in the speakers it seems priced right. Sound wise I think the speakers are the same.
So far I am pretty happy with the Play:1. Setup was easy, I was up and running in about 15 minutes. My bathroom is rather large with high ceilings and the speaker does fill the room even with the fan and shower running. Bass output on the speaker is good. The speaker is rated for damp environments so no worries about damage from moisture, but we will see I guess.
I do have one complaint, the app. I loved the app when I had just one set of speakers, but the app seems a little clunky now that I have two rooms to control. I find myself searching around for which room the music is playing in and how to start and stop it. This could be just a training issue and my unfamiliarity with the app but it definitely isn't as intuitive as I would like. Luckily we usually listen to the same station in the morning so we just press the button to start / stop the music.
I still need to get a speaker for my office, I would love a Play:5 but not the price. I may experiment with my Play:1 in the office and compromise with the Play:3 if the Play: 1 does not suffice. Probably will wait for an Alexa enabled Play:3 though as it would be nice to have Alexa functionality in my office.
Great speaker and sound overall. Getting it for under $150 was a good value, not as overpriced as the Playbase and Sub.
