7 of the best Sonos accessories
UPDATED: Pimp your multiroom with these excellent add-ons for all your Sonos kit
ACCESSORIZE IT
Whether you’ve just bought your first Sonos speaker or are something of a multiroom veteran, you’ll already know why it’s one of our favourite ways to listen to music. Simply put, Sonos is awesome, giving you effortlessly easy access to your tunes wherever you are in your house, with barely a wire in sight. And with the Beam, Playbar or Playbase, you can even pimp your TV sound too. But what if you could make all this even better? We’ve pulled together a stellar range of accessories and add-ons that will make the perfect +1s to your Sonos party. You’re welcome.
FLEXSON CANTILEVER MOUNT FOR TV AND BEAM
£149/€199/$199 The smaller, more slender Sonos Beam lends itself to wall mounting much better than its larger sibling, the Playbar, ever did. But finding a wall mount that makes the most of Beam’s rather lovely design is harder than you might think. Flexson’s Cantilever Mount for TV and Sonos Beam will hold both TV (up to 40in/20kg) and soundbar together, without masking any of its good looks. Its even available in black or white to match your Beam of choice.
SONOS BOOST
£100 / $99 In a list of Bad Things Which Can Happen In The Home, network dropouts and blackspots are behind only ‘I’ve just stood on a plug’ and ‘I’ve just moved in next door to Piers Morgan’. That’s particularly so if you have a Sonos setup, because if your home network is flaky, your Sonos experience will be too. To put a stop to stutters, invest in a Sonos Boost – a Wi-Fi extender that’ll spread your Sonos sound to areas of your home your router has forgotten about.
FLEXSON ILLUMINATED CHARGING STAND
£50 / $59.99 The Play:1 is Sonos’ teensiest speaker, making it the perfect bedroom companion. And it’ll be even better suited to bedside duties if you team it with a Flexson Illuminated Charging Stand. Not only does this neat stand give the Play:1 somewhere to sit, but it also has a touch-sensitive dimmable light and dual USB power outputs for charging your stuff. It looks pretty smart too, and comes in black or white to match your Play:1 colour of choice.
AUDIO TECHNICA AT-LP5
£330 / $450 Sonos may appear to be about as far from the analogue age as it’s possible to get, but actually you can integrate vinyl into your setup, with a little help from the Audio Technica AT-LP5. The AT-LP5 is a great-sounding turntable with a trick up its sleeve – it has a built-in phono stage, so it’s more plug and play than many. Simply hook it up to a Sonos player with an aux input – the Play:5, Connect or Connect:Amp will do the trick – then stick on your favourite record. Hey presto! Your vinyl is now playing through your Sonos speaker. Even better, you can then throw that sound to any other Sonos components in your house just as you would with your digital tunes.
SANUS WSTV1 SWIVELLING TV BASE
£150 / $150 The new Sonos PlayBase is simple and stylish alright, but there’s something a tad awkward about a TV simply being plonked unceremoniously on its flat top panel. Yes, that’s what it’s designed for, but it’s not exactly elegant. To take neatness to new levels, consider this mount from Sanus. It’s essentially a replacement pedestal for your TV that’s designed to integrate with the PlayBase to such an extent that it looks as though the Sonos speaker is the pedestal. There’s built-in cable management too, and the TV portion swivels so you can get the perfect view wherever you are in the room. An excellent upgrade all-round.
PORTTA HDMI SWITCH
Want 5.1 surround sound in your living room? Sonos could be the answer. The (potential) problem is that PlayBars and PlayBases only have an optical input – not HDMI. Some TVs, particularly older ones, only output audio via HDMI, while others do have an optical audio output but only of the 2.0 channel variety. The solution is is an HDMI switch such as this one from Amazon. Plug your various set-top boxes, games consoles and the like into it, then send that audio over to your PlayBar and you’ll get the 5.1 sound you’ve paid the big bucks for.
FLEXSON FLOOR STANDS
£100/pair – $160 Sonos speakers look great on their own, but you can give them a proper hi-fi vibe with the Flexson floor stands for the Play:1. As well as making something of a design statement, they’re also the ideal way to turn your Play:1s into convincing home cinema rear speakers, getting them at just the right height to deliver that surround sound magic dust. There are wall-mount stands, too, if you’re really ambitious, and Flexon also makes similar stands for the Play:3 and Play:5.
