The company promises that the new Trueplay feature will make any compatible Sonos speaker (including PLAY:1, PLAY:3, and PLAY:5) sound great whether they’re “on the most flawless pedestal” or even behind a muffled door.
Advertisement
An exploded view of the new Sonos Play 5 wireless speaker with side-firing tweeters. With reliable wireless strength and elegant aesthetics, Sonos speakers can now be placed anywhere in a house – from under a kitchen cabinet to the corner of a bathroom – and still sound great. Now you can violate one of those audiophile rules and put your speakers where you actually want them: behind, above, under or inside and still get awesome sound.
Sonos announced today that it has plans to end this frustration through Trueplay. This app basically helps to tune the speakers to better suit the room it is placed in.
Trueplay uses your smartphone’s microphone to map the acoustics of the room your speaker is located in. Using the Sonos app, the microphone on an iPhone or iPad and a special tone emitted by the Sonos speaker, the system analyses the acoustic profile of any room to determine how sound reflects off walls, furnishings, glass and other surfaces that impact how sound is heard.
The only catch is that you need an iGadget to run the calibration process, waving it around the room like Mr Spock with a tricorder while the speaker plays weird sounds to test the room. The sound profile of each speaker is changed only as much or as little as needed to sound right for the room.
The Sonos Controller app is available to download for free from the App Store [Direct Link]. So what if you’re just a regular Joe with a normal home?
Once you’ve updated your software, you can access Trueplay by selecting “Room Settings” in the Sonos iOS app. According to Fink, support for Sonos’ home theatre speakers is in development, but they’re going to “take a few time to overcome the specific spectral and spatial challenges” presented by a 2.1 or 5.1 configuration.
Advertisement
In an age where hardware makers are constantly encouraging you to throw away last year’s model and upgrade, it’s great to see Sonos working to ensure you get the most from your multiroom audio investment.
