Wireless speaker company Sonos made two major announcements, namely an update on its $500 flagship Play:5 speaker and the new Trueplay software that will improve the sound quality of all the speakers in the company's Play line.
The new Play:5 speakers received a major update that was three years in the making, with the 2015 version containing three sub woofers, six drivers, three tweeters and six Wi-Fi antennas.
The new speakers come in either a matte white or a matte black finish. Sonos also made a lot of changes in the details of the design of the device, such as drilling over 800 holes into the Sonos logo in the middle to prevent it from blocking one of the speaker's tweeters and the usage of a plastic grill instead of a metal grill, as the metal one interfered with the Wi-Fi antennas.
According to Sonos senior director of design Mieko Kusano, different disciplines such as acoustic engineers, user interface designers, antenna engineers and industrial engineers all came together from the start of the project to redesign the Play:5, as opposed to what most companies do of passing the project along in stages to the different teams.
The second update, the launch of Trueplay, could be even more important compared to the redesigned Play:5. The software, which is available for all of the company's Play devices, allows users to calibrate their speakers to sound better in accordance to the acoustic environment of the space or room where the Play speaker is located.
In the Sonos app, which is only compatible with iOS devices, users can go through the setup for Trueplay to map out the acoustic environment of a location using the microphone of the iPhone, iPod, or iPad. The Apple device will have to be move up and down as the speaker releases sounds at both low frequency and high frequency.
Upon completion of the mapping, the Sonos Play speaker will make adjustments to provide users with the best audio experience possible.
The release of Trueplay makes Sonos Play speakers located even in rooms with the worst acoustics sound like they were set up by a professional, without the need for the user to purchase special furniture or to remodel the room.
