This Is the Best Wireless Speaker I’ve Ever Heard

For years, home audio companies have been trying to design speakers that are physically smaller, while somehow making their sound almost magically bigger. Can it be done? Sure. Can it be done well? Probably not to the liking of a finely-tuned ear.

But wireless audio company Sonos is trying to reverse the trend of ever-shrinking speakers with its Play:5, a new, bigger piece of equipment. And the difference it makes isn’t just big — it’s huge.

First off, let’s not pretend the Play:5 is built to compete with the pocket-sized Bluetooth speakers you can strap to your bike’s handlebars or backpack. These devices have flooded the market — and our poor eardrums — for years. By contrast, Sonos’ new 14-pound bass-bumping behemoth has no battery, it won’t double as a device charger, and it can’t even AirPlay out from your iPhone.

However, with a price point of $499, the Play:5 is gunning for a very different market. With this cinderblock of sound, Sonos is trying to reach high-end audiophiles who have been shoehorned into a world full of lo-fi streaming services. We’re talking about the kind of people who would love to play vinyl quality music, if only it came in a catalog as deep as Spotify or with a user interface convenient as Pandora. As such, Sonos’ promise is a simple one: Its speakers can make your streaming audio sound better than it really does. And with the Play:5, they do.

Designed to take the place of stationary hi-fi systems, the Play:5 pulls down audio streams via Wi-Fi, pours sound into any space, and looks very good while doing it. While it’s technically wireless, it’s not entirely cordless — the speaker’s six digital amplifiers, three tweeters, and two mid-woofers would chew through any battery on the market. And once you see it in person, you would realize it’s far too large to be portable. At 8-by-14-by-6-inches, it’s about the size of a small microwave, so you better have a sturdy shelf to accommodate it.

Alternatively, if you’ve got two sturdy shelves, Play:5 has a setup that will blow you out of your couch. Pairing two Play:5 speakers together on one network will turn the devices into left/right stereo speakers with enough audio oomph to rock you like a hurricane, wagon wheel, or a baby, depending on your musical preference. Setup is seamless, the sound is immersive and warm, and the high- and low-ends are as crisp as the mid-range.

10. Microsoft HoloLens

While much of the technology world is gaga over virtual reality, Microsoft is making a big bet in a similar-sounding but very different direction: Mixed reality. Wear the HoloLens, and holographic images will suddenly appear around your physical environment. The headset is potentially useful for professionals from surgeons to space astronauts.

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9. Self-balancing scooters

After stars like Justin Bieber and Wiz Khalifa were spotted zipping around on these things, they were suddenly everywhere. They’re bound to be a big hit this holiday season, but a copyright dispute may make them hard to find on store shelves.

8. Google self-driving car

What happens to car design when humans don’t need to drive them anymore? Google’s self-driving car gives us a clue. It has a bubbly, Beetle-like exterior, while the interior ditches the suddenly unnecessary steering wheel. Google has no plans to bring this particular model to market; it’s merely a testbed for the company’s autonomous driving technology.

7. New Horizons Probe

NASA’s New Horizons probe was launched way back in 2006. But its time to shine was July 14, 2015, when the craft came within 7,750 miles of Pluto, snapping photos as it passed. Shortly thereafter, New Horizons started beaming back valuable data about our far-off celestial neighbor, including the most high-resolution and, frankly, stunning imagery we’ve ever seen.

6. OnePlus 2

Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus is a small fish in a very big pond, but it stands to grow very quickly. Its latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 2, offers top-notch specs at an entry-level price: $329 with no contract. The catch? Shoppers need an invite to buy one, a stipulation that’s only added to the hype around this Android handset.

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5. The DJI Inspire

Close your eyes and imagine a drone — not the military kind, but the type you might see zipping around above your local park. Odds are, the design you’re imagining looks like DJI’s Phantom series, one of the most popular models out there. The Inspire is the Phantom’s bolder, more expensive cousin, looking like something that beamed down from an alien planet to record aerial footage of Earth.

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4. Garmin Varia

741 people were killed in bicycle-related roadway deaths in 2013, according to government data. One solution could be the Garmin Varia, which takes your boring old bike and adds a high-tech radar display, alerting you when cars are approaching from behind. That situational awareness should make cycling on busy roads much safer.

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3. LittleBits Gizmos & Gadgets kit

Parents are hearing all the time about how important it is for their children to learn STEM skills — that is, science, technology, engineering and math. One way to help young ones get some hands-on tech time is with LittleBits’ Gizmos & Gadgets kit, a pack of color-coded circuits, control boards and wiring that helps kids learn how their video game consoles and smartphones actually work under the hood.

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2. Samsung 16TB SSD

It might sound silly to get excited over something as simple as a hard drive, but Samsung gives us good reason here. This new drive is among the biggest SSD hard drives ever made — in terms of storage space, not physical dimensions. The drive can hold up to 16 terabytes of data; an entry-level iPhone stores less than 2% of that.

1. Light L16

Even as smartphones largely replace point-and-shoot cameras, there’s plenty of interesting experimentation happening in photography. One example is the Light L16 camera, a futuristic-looking shooter that’s really 16 separate cameras in one. For each image, the L16 uses up to 10 of its lenses at once, then blends those shots into a high-quality amalgamation. Shooters can also adjust the depth of field of their image after it was taken, impossible with most cameras.

Able to connect to a wide range of online music services through the Sonos app (available for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows) — including Amazon Music, Google Play, iHeartRadio, MLB Gameday, Spotify, Stitcher, and a vast menu of other options — the Play:5 has the potential to be the one-stop for all your music listening needs. And you don’t even need the app to play your favorite jams; just press the play button on the top of the device, and audio pours out, without the assistance of the smartphone. That’s because the speaker plugs directly into your Wi-Fi network. The smartphone app just functions as a remote control and content guide.

If you’re an Apple user, the Play:5 has an extra ace up its sleeve called Trueplay. Tapping into your iPhone or iPad’s microphone to take audio measurements of the room — much like many home theater receivers do with small, wired microphones — Trueplay fine-tunes the Play:5 to perform perfectly in whatever room you place it in. Thinking of slow-jamming in your study? Trueplay can make it velvety smooth. Do you have a country music kitchen? Trueplay will fine-tune your twang. Bollywood in the bathroom? Okay, you get the picture.

The feature works without a hitch, with a little video showing users exactly what to do during the process that takes less than two minutes. It’s an idiot’s take on equalizers, and I loved how it made my music sound.

If I had one complaint about the Play:5 and Sonos in general, it’s that Apple Music, the company’s new streaming music service, is not supported. Sonos says it’s working through the process with Apple, and it should be rolled out by the end of the year.

When or if that happens, there’s little doubt in my mind that the Play:5 is the best wireless speaker on the market. At $499, it might not be the best speaker for you, but everything has its price.