Can't answer your questions but I know a few guys that work for Sonos. Just call them. They'll help you. They are good people and they sell good stuff.

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I've a sub, soundbar and two play 1's

I'm surprised at the play 1's. I've one downstairs in my living room which I'm guessing is 1m by 4-5m and it produces a good sound

For a living space the sound bar is sufficient the subs a nice have but I've not tried the 3 and 5's

I have 3 Play 1s in my place. 1500 sq foot townhouse, with the speakers in the kitchen, office, and living room. Works great. The living room is the biggest at ~12x20 with 9' ceilings, and a single Play 1 is way more than loud enough. If I cranked it to 100% I'd have neighbors or cops knocking on my door. I can't imagine how big your room needs to be before a Play 3 or 5 won't fill it up. My office is tiny ~8x12 and I'll put it to 40% if I'm looking to listen to it loud.

I'm contemplating getting a soundbar at some point to hook up to the TV and cover the living room. The nice thing about the Play 1s is that you can re-purpose them. If a single Play 1 doesn't work in your living room, you can buy a 2nd and pair them to run in stereo on that room. Or if a pair is too much, you can move them to separate rooms. And you can run them in stereo if they are next to each other, or paired in mono if they are on opposite sides of the room.

Gen 1 vs 2 probably won't make much difference for you. The biggest negative about the setup is the Sonos app. It does a passable job for everything, but I'd much prefer to just use the native application (e.g. Spotify) and have it go to the speakers. The Sonos app doesn't always have all the features of the native application that it is replacing.

I have two play1s. They are awesome. I would opt for more, smaller speakers then fewer large ones. This will allow you to keep the volume down but still get a good full sound. The two play1's are great for my living/dining room.

For outdoors, if possible, I would get in soffit speakers hardwired to a Sonos connect amp. I don't believe Sonos has an outdoor unit yet?

---

Long Chile was a silly place.

Quel, thanks that was similar to my thinking re versatility of play1 and can always add if I need. My living room is larger..26x20, but my kitchen unit might provide enough to fake the stereo sound as they are joined.

BCT, the patio is covered and screened which I was thinking a sonos might be ok out there, but it would still be subject to some humidity and dust. I'll look into what you mentioned.

I have a LG Music Play 1..the sonos 1 eqivilant, but their wifi app sucks ass. It's unusable. I can only really use it by Bluetooth connect. Can't use the wifi...which was the reason I wanted to go w sonos for the setup. Going to retire the LG speaker to the garage.

I've never looked into or use the native Spotify or pandora app for wifi? I'll look into what you are talking about. I prefer and use Pandora almost always.

We've got a play 3 in our living room and two Play 1's (master bath and dining room) and love them. The Play 3 doubles as our patio speaker. It sits on a window ledge near the patio. When we want tunes outside we just flip it around and open the window. Gets loud enough to be heard with 15-20 kids splashing around at a pool party.

Can anybody comment on the sound bar? Seems like it would be a good fit for us as we mostly listen to music in the family room and if I'm going to pony up for a Sonos it might as well work for TV.