Pair of speakers for the kitchen, Sonos one sl

We just use a HomePod Mini. Sounds good for the size.

Sonos ones will be fine for everything you want

sonon 1s are brilliant little speakers, punch well above their weight.
you'd easily get away with one, personally wont bother with the pain unless the kitchen was massive.
airplay is hassle free for me, you can get bbc sounds directly from sonos but that can be a bit hit and miss (sometimes wont start, sometimes just stop, sometimes restart, sometimes works)

Presumably with airplay I can get anything I can play on my phone onto the speakers, reliably? I have heard that people have had problems with bbc sounds.

Yes. Not 100% sure about BBC Sounds via AirPlay but Sonos now supports it directly in any case.

Will they remember they are a stereo pair if i turn them off when not in use? Will they stay as a stereo pair when used via airplay?

Yes

Are they tolerant of placement. So ok on a book shelf no deeper than the speaker?

Yes. With an iPhone you can configure them using TruePlay for best audio in their particular surroundings.

Can I mount one a shelf too high to reach them turn it on at the wall when I want to use it. Or do I need to be able to reach the physical controls?

Yes, but they do take 30 seconds or so to boot up and reconnect.

Finally are their other options I’ve missed. Sonos one sl is currently £135 and the Sonos one £155

Ikea Symfonisk have Sonos internals.

We have a Sonos One in the kitchen. Works great. Usually used by commanding Alexa to play (Apple) music. Pairs nicely with another speaker if needed (I have a Roam I can pair with it) but is often enough on its own

You can airplay music to it through wifi (not bluetooth). We use the Alexa bit of it a lot for things like kitchen timers. We have echo dots in most other rooms apart from a Sonos Beam in the lounge

sonon 1s are brilliant little speakers, punch well above their weight.

+1

i have ikea symfonisk's, its a sonos one sl in a neater package and £35 cheaper.

I have two Sonos One SLs in my kitchen for exactly this reason. Two because it's a reasonably large open plan space so far as these things go (6m by 6m) and because I did a degree in this sort of thing I just can't handle not having stereo speakers.

They're great.

I was going to suggest the ikea symfonisk wall mount speakers.

Can't help with the One sl but I have a pair of Sonos 1 separated by about 13m and they're plenty powerful enough.

Presumably with airplay I can get anything I can play on my phone onto the speakers, reliably? I have heard that people have had problems with bbc sounds.

We just use the Sonos app and don't have any issues playing anything and they remember how they're set up - again, can't help with airplay and can't see why you'd need to use it unless your wifi coverage is crap.

Can I mount one a shelf too high to reach them turn it on at the wall when I want to use it. Or do I need to be able to reach the physical controls?

When you turn it on it will take 20 seconds or so to connect to the network. We leave all ours on all the time as the standby usage is minimal.

You don't need to reach the controls - everything can be done via your phone.
When we opened up the kitchen I had a high level power supply put in prior to plastering and one of the speakers is mounted on a wall mount. The beauty of this is that you can mount the speaker upside down so the controls are accessible underneath - kinda slick.

Airplay works reliably for me, although BBC Sounds has its own sonos service these days and I find that quicker and easier for show catchup and the like.

I'm pretty sure stereo pairs and surround setups stay if switched off - they appear as one entity so you only need to airplay to one thing.

The trueplay tuning thing (it makes noises and you wander around moving your phone up and down) works well so you can place them where you like within reason. No need to touch the thing unless you want to play/pause or change volume without using the app.

I didn't think we'd use the voice control / smart speaker thing much but it's handy to get it to play a radio station or pause if the phone rings by voice instead of app or button. You can stereo pair a One with a One SL so I'd get one of each.

I’m pretty sure stereo pairs and surround setups stay if switched off – they appear as one entity so you only need to airplay to one thing.

Yep, if you pair them then it remembers the setting and that pairing appears in other apps eg Spotify.

We only use the native app to set up pairing - the Spotify interface is much better than Sonos's actual app.

Yes they work

I replaced a 5 with 2x1 and they are better imo

They do remember their setup but as mentioned they take a while to boot so rarely turn them off.

I'm not sure they do the true play thing any more, at least I did notice it when I last set some up.

If you have power you can put them way up out the way in the corner with a wall mount. Ran spurs from upstairs to do this before we had the room rewired.

mount the speaker upside down so the controls are accessible underneath – kinda slick.

Also if you notice, the Sonos logo is reversible

I know.... clever!!

we have a couple of Sonos and they are great. However we most often go via paid Spotify and Airplay, as the Sonos App and Spotify don't seem to get on well (iphone and ipad controlling) - maybe just me though as others don't seem to have issues ?

Sonos are good, but there's always something going wrong, some update needed, or the particular device shows up on someone else's phone but not mine. Frustrating. In the kitchen I have a sonos connect, er connected to an old amp and speakers. And to cover the 'going wrong' times I also have an old fm/am tuner plugged in. Hopefully in the Jan sales I can pick up a cd player as well, then I am covered.

So yeah, Sonos is good, but it doesn't always work well, or at all.

We have two Nest Audio speakers paired up to work in stereo - they are in our kitchen funnily enough. Works with spotify etc, has voice commands for kitchen timer duties etc, and the audio is really good (imo) for the price.

You can get for £65 each at the moment which is a bit of a bargain.

you can get bbc sounds directly from sonos but that can be a bit hit and miss

I'm getting warnings that some streams are being discontinued by BBC in mid-2023. Double check that Sonos are updating their offering, the Sounds app should Airplay with no problems. (Sometimes the IT Crowd turn it off and back on again has to be deployed if the speaker is not visible).

We have two Sonos ones in the kitchen.

Works well as a stereo pair and remembers the pair setup.

Can't remember the last time I used the touch controls as it's all controlled on the app.

I prefer using the Spotify app as the Sonos app can feel a bit basic company to Spotify.

Currently they are sat on the tiled floor and the bass is impressive but looking to move them to a mount on the wall when I get round to it (find a cheap mounting bracket).

However we most often go via paid Spotify and Airplay, as the Sonos App and Spotify don’t seem to get on well (iphone and ipad controlling) – maybe just me though as others don’t seem to have issues ?

We pretty much only use them with Spotify and as you can use the Spotify app to select them directly, there's no need for the native Sonus app other than for pairing etc. The Spotify app / integration is so slick, we just use that...

you can use the Spotify app to select them directly, there’s no need for the native Sonus app other than for pairing etc

funnily enough, that seems to work, there is a delay on the Spotify app of about 20 - 25 seconds while it finds them - I was being impatient and opening Airplay ! every day is a learning day 🙂 thank you !

Sonos are good, but there’s always something going wrong, some update needed, or the particular device shows up on someone else’s phone but not mine.

That will be your network / wifi being flakey.

Only time I have had issues is with dodgy wifi. Do you have it set up using Sonos Net with one speaker plugged in with a network cable?

Sonos Amp with a pair of in ceiling speakers?

That will be your network / wifi being flakey.

Only time I have had issues is with dodgy wifi. Do you have it set up using Sonos Net with one speaker plugged in with a network cable?

Ummm, all are on the wifi. I also have boosted the wifi with a plug-in thing because some walls were reducing the coverage. Should I have one speaker pulled in then? I thought that was initial set-up only?

I knew the Symfonisk set up was powered by Sonos, but I hadn't realised it was fully compatible with a multiroom set up. That's pretty handy to know!

Cheers guys looks good to go. I had thought the of the Symfonisk but I think I'll go for the Sonos. FYI I think the only difference between a one and one sl is tha the sl has no microphone

I'll problley leave them plugged in but being the kitchen some oe will inplug them to charge their phone, use the blender etc.

The room is about 3 by 6 metres, The pair is not so much to fill it but get some stereo

We have two Sonos 1's in different rooms but I've ended up wiring both into the Google Mesh in those rooms as I was sick to death of them disappearing. Recently the kitchen one kept needing me to turn the router off and on and start again.

I have read that a Boost wired to the router could improve this.

Ummm, all are on the wifi. I also have boosted the wifi with a plug-in thing because some walls were reducing the coverage. Should I have one speaker pulled in then? I thought that was initial set-up only?

I think the best way is to have them all plugged in. The second best way is to plug 1 in (or more if possible) and let Sonos create its own mesh wifi network and not rely on your normal wifi.

I can’t remember if you need to change any settings or if just plugging one in switched it to Sonos Net mode.

I have all of mine apart from 2 wired (including a stereo pair in the kitchen) and it’s rock solid.

My mum has none of hers wired and it’s really flakey, verging on unusable at times.

Ok thanks. Will see what I can do with getting some wired in.

We have an earlier sonos in the kitchen but have trouble playing music stored on our phones so use Spotify through the sonos app. Had planned to link a couple of them up but slightly disappointed with them. The sounds good enough just seem a bit glitchy on the software side

FWIW my Sonos are all on WiFi with no issues. It used to need updating on a regular basis but that seems to have settled down now.
When I bought my play 5 years ago you needed a bridge to create a mesh network but the latest speakers don't need it allegedly.

I think if you're WiFi has weak spots then you might get connection issues so would connect one to a router if possible.

I can’t remember if you need to change any settings or if just plugging one in switched it to Sonos Net mode.

They just seem to do it automatically, only way I can notice it is to see who has associated on the wifi hub and notice there is only one Sonos connected.

I've now run CAT-5 to them all, just because I can.

Keep an eye on the Sonos site for reconditioned units. Got my last one sl for £99.
Unless you'd been told, would be no way of knowing it was reconditioned at all. Comes with same full guarantee.

FWIW my Sonos are all on WiFi with no issues.

Same here - we have a Google WiFi mesh system that seems pretty solid. I've heard that most of the Sonos dropout issues are down to the routers.

It used to need updating on a regular basis but that seems to have settled down now.

I've just set all the speakers to auto-update in the sonos app - job done!

Just be aware that older speakers might not work with newer ones as there are currently 2 Sonos apps. S1 and S2. The older speakers don't have the correct internals to run the latest S2 app.

@sharkbait
Cheers for that I'll set it to auto update 👍

The older speakers don’t have the correct internals to run the latest S2 app.

It's a RAM thing.
The first gen Play 5 and early Amps didn't have enough RAM to run the 'new' firmware so have to run the S1 app and to be on their own network - i.e. you can have a network of S1 speakers but they cannot be mixed with S2.
Everything else (AFAIA but def the Play 1) is unaffected and runs on the usual Sonos app.

Pair of SLs ordered. No refurbished available. Plus today they are only £10 cheaper I think. So 100 days to see if they are stable on our Wi-Fi. Cheers folks

i have ikea symfonisk’s, its a sonos one sl in a neater package and £35 cheaper.

I think they sound noticeably worse though. Still okay. Got a few of both. Network stuff has been a pain. Life with 30 odd connected devices.

Stereo pair of sonos 1's mounted on brackets. I do have a Sonus sub with them 2 as was feeling spendy at the time and it's a big room but they sound really decent even when I tested them without that. Recommended and Alexa integration makes them good to use rather than faffing with spotify or Sonos apps on phone - although it doesn't seem to remember the BBC sounds skill very well and asks me to set it up again all the time.

Personally I cant see the point of going past one of these for £39 for the kitchen. Plenty loud enough, nice sound and strong bass

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Stop right there before you go Sonos.
As far as I know you need the proprietary app, I knew this so investigated further. We have an AudioPro C5 which is unbelievable! Better sound than the Sonos and if you want 2 or more you can link them together I believe. Don’t regret buying it for a second, the bass is for the size of the thing…. Phenomenal!

Worth a listen to what you want in Richer Sounds. We had a demo and the C5 was the winner

Stop right there before you go Sonos.

Why?

It's what the OP wants.
Just because you bought something else doesn't mean everybody else has to also.

As far as I know you need the proprietary app

As does the AudioPro unless you're happy for the music to stop when your phone goes out of range.

From the OP:

Finally are their other options I’ve missed

It's fair enough for chrisyork to suggest a different system he's happy with ... though he might have done so a little less forcefully.

ampthill

You seem as if you already know what you want and you've done your research. I have a pair of Apple HomePod minis I'm very happy with. They work well and sound great, but come with all the usual Apple caveats (Who knows how long they'll be supported? Work much better if you're all in with Apple. Siri not as good as OK Google/Alexa, etc, etc).
Might be worth a listen if you're still looking for options. If there's an Apple store to a John Lewis near you they are usually on display and available to try out.