Got a Sonos Play? Here’s how to get the best out of it.
If you’ve just picked up a Sonos Play, there’s a good chance there are a few features and settings you haven’t fully explored yet.
Out of the box, it already sounds great. But after testing it properly, living with it day to day, and comparing it against the rest of the Sonos lineup, one thing became pretty clear:
The Sonos Play gets even better once you’ve got the right settings dialled in.
Some of these are quick wins that take seconds. Others are small tweaks in the Sonos app that make the speaker even better to live with. So, if you want better sound, smarter battery use, easier Bluetooth listening and a smoother overall experience, you’re in the right place.
What's Covered:
- Turn On Battery Saver Mode
- Pair Two Sonos Play Speakers Over Bluetooth
- Make Sure Auto Trueplay Is Switched On
- The Best Sonos Play EQ Settings
- Use the Voice Control Settings Properly
- Get the Charging Setup Right
- Don’t Ignore the USB-C Port
Read More: Sonos Play User Guide: Setup, Controls, Battery & Features
Turn On Battery Saver Mode
One of the most useful Sonos Play settings to get your head around is Battery Saver Mode, especially if you plan on using it the way most people probably will: off the dock, in different rooms and not always putting it straight back on charge.
For us, battery life is one of its biggest strengths. It’s rated at up to 24 hours, which matches the much bigger Move 2 and more than doubles the 10 hours you get from the Roam 2.
Battery Saver Mode vs Wi-Fi Power Save: What’s the Difference?
Although they sound similar, Battery Saver Mode and Wi-Fi Power Save are two separate features.
Battery Saver is the more aggressive of the two. When it’s enabled, the Sonos Play will fully power down after 30 minutes of inactivity. That helps preserve as much charge as possible, which is ideal if the speaker is going to be sitting idle for a while. The trade-off is that once it has fully powered off, it won’t show up in the Sonos app again until you manually wake it up by pressing the power button.
Wi-Fi Power Save, on the other hand, only manages the Wi-Fi radio when the speaker is idle. So instead of shutting the whole speaker down, it just reduces power use in the background while keeping the Play in a lower-power ready state. That means it can still wake more quickly when you want to use it again.
So really, they do slightly different jobs:
- Battery Saver = best for preserving maximum battery
- Wi-Fi Power Save = best for everyday convenience while still saving some power
| SHS Testing Note: You could just leave the Sonos Play on its charging base all the time, but realistically, that’s not how a lot of people will use it. We wanted to test it in a more real-world scenario, so we left it off the dock for 24 hours in our full review, just as you might at home and found it lost just 1% of battery. |
Which Should You Use?
In most cases, we’d recommend leaving both enabled.
Battery Saver makes loads of sense here because the Play is designed to be picked up and used all over the house. Realistically, you might take it off the charging base, use it in the kitchen or bathroom, leave it there for a while, then come back and grab it later. Battery Saver helps make sure it isn’t quietly draining itself in the background while that’s happening.
Wi-Fi Power Save is also worth leaving on for most people, especially if you use the Play regularly around the house and want to balance battery life with convenience.
| Feature | What it does | Wake time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Saver | Fully powers off after 30 minutes of inactivity | Slower and needs manual wake/power button | Longer gaps between use, maximum battery preservation |
| Wi-Fi Power Save | Reduces power use by managing the Wi-Fi radio when idle | Faster and better for regular home use | Everyday use on your home network |
How to enable or disable Battery Saver Mode & Wi-Fi Power Save
- Open the Sonos app
- Go to Settings
- Select your Sonos Play
- Under Battery, toggle Either Setting on or off
Pair Two Sonos Play Speakers Over Bluetooth
One of the smartest things Sonos has added here is the ability to get a bigger sound without needing to be on your home Wi-Fi.
Normally, you’d associate pairing two Sonos speakers with the more traditional app-based setup at home. And that still applies if you want a proper stereo pair using two matching speakers over Wi-Fi.
But there’s a more portable-friendly trick here too.
If you’ve got two compatible Sonos portable speakers, you can group them together over Bluetooth when you’re away from home. So if you want bigger sound in the garden, on holiday or anywhere else you’re away from your usual network, it’s really easy to do.
| SHS Top Tip: Want even bigger sound? You can group up to four compatible Sonos portable speakers together over Bluetooth, though for most people, two will be the sweet spot. |
How to group Sonos Play speakers over Bluetooth
- Put both speakers into Bluetooth mode
- Connect one Sonos Play to your phone or tablet
- Start playing music
- Press and hold the play/pause button on the second supported speaker
- Wait for it to join the group
There are a couple of things worth knowing.
First, this isn’t quite the same as a traditional stereo pair. That still works through the Sonos app over Wi-Fi using two matching speakers. What Sonos has added here is more like portable Bluetooth grouping, which is ideal when you’re away from home and just want two speakers playing together quickly. It’s just not the route we’d choose if you’re after the best possible stereo separation and most precise listening experience at home.
Second, while the Sonos Play can still group with smaller speakers like the Roam or Roam 2 when everything is connected to the same Sonos system over Wi-Fi, this away-from-home Bluetooth grouping is currently limited to Sonos Play and Move 2.
Make Sure Auto TruePlay Is Switched On
One of the easiest ways to get the best out of the Sonos Play is to make sure Auto Trueplay is always turned on.
Because the Play is designed to be used in lots of different places, Sonos has built in a version of Trueplay that can automatically adjust the sound depending on where it’s placed.
A kitchen counter, bathroom shelf, bedside table and garden table are all very different environments and the Sonos Play is likely to end up in all of them. Auto Trueplay helps it adapt as it goes, so you’re less likely to get sound that feels too boomy, too thin or a bit off just because you’ve moved it somewhere new.
This is one of those features that’s easy to overlook because it works quietly in the background, but if the Play ever sounds a bit off in a new room, Auto Trueplay is one of the first things worth checking.
How to check Auto TruePlay on Sonos Play
- Open the Sonos app
- Go to Settings
- Select your Sonos Play
- Go to Sound
- Check that Auto Trueplay is enabled
There is one thing to keep in mind, though. If you’ve used the physical microphone switch on the back of the speaker to cut power to the mics completely, Auto Trueplay won’t work. So if you want the Play to keep adapting itself automatically, the microphones need to stay available.
That doesn’t mean you have to use voice control, though. You can still disable voice assistants without fully switching off the mics, which is usually the better option if you want the best balance between privacy and performance.
The Best Sonos Play EQ Settings (Our Recommended Setup)
There’s no single “perfect” EQ setting for the Sonos Play, because your room, where you place it, and the kind of sound you personally like will always make a difference. But if you want a really solid starting point, this is where we’d begin.
Inside the Sonos app, go to:
Settings → System → [Your Sonos Play] → Sound → EQ
From there, we’d recommend starting with:
| • Bass: +1 • Treble: +1 • Loudness: ON |
For us, that gives the Sonos Play a little extra warmth without pushing it too far away from its natural tuning. It still sounds balanced and open, but just with a touch more energy.
That’s the key thing here. The Sonos Play already sounds very nicely judged out of the box, so this isn’t a speaker that needs loads of help. In fact, going too far with the EQ can start to take away from what makes it so enjoyable in the first place, especially the clean vocals and spacious overall presentation.
If you want something a touch cleaner or more neutral, we’d try this instead:
| • Bass: 0 • Treble: +1 • Loudness: ON |
That keeps things a little more restrained in the low end while still giving the Play a bit of lift up top.
After testing, Loudness is the setting most people should leave on. Especially if you tend to listen at lower or mid-volume levels, it helps the Sonos Play keep a fuller sound without needing to turn it up loads. If you mostly listen louder and want the flattest possible presentation, you can always experiment with turning it off, but for everyday listening we think it works really well.
| SHS Top Tip: Start small. The Sonos Play is already nicely balanced, so a light touch usually works best here. |
Use the Voice Control Settings Properly
Like most of Sonos’ wireless speakers, the Play supports voice control and it’s actually more useful than you might think.
Being able to skip tracks or turn the volume up while you’re cooking, in the garden, or pottering about the house is a genuinely handy extra. You’ve got support for Alexa, Siri and Sonos Voice Control, so there’s a decent amount of flexibility depending on how you like to use it. The only thing worth bearing in mind is that there’s no Google Assistant support here.
Now, if you’re not sold on the idea of mics always listening in the background, Sonos gives you two different ways to manage them, and they’re not quite the same.
If you use the control on the top of the speaker, you can turn voice assistants off while still keeping the microphones active for features like Auto Trueplay. That’s the option we’d usually recommend if privacy matters to you, but you still want the speaker to keep optimising itself in the background.
There’s also a physical mic switch on the back of the speaker, which cuts power to the microphones completely. That’s great if you want total peace of mind, but just remember it will also stop Auto Trueplay from working.
So unless you specifically want the microphones fully disabled, we’d stick with that first option.
Get the Charging Setup Right
One of the best things about the Sonos Play is that, once the charging base is set up somewhere sensible, it starts to feel less like a speaker you only grab on the go and more like a wireless speaker that just happens to be portable.
Our advice is to keep the base somewhere you naturally pass, like a kitchen counter, shelf or sideboard. That way, you can grab the Play when you want it, drop it back when you’re done, and it’s always ready to go again.
The more important thing to know, though, is that there’s no power brick supplied in the box. Sonos says the charging base needs a USB-C/PD compatible power adapter, sold separately, and the Play’s product page says 18W or greater is required for the charging base.
To save you the hassle of hunting around for the right charger, we also sell a compatible USB-C/PD power adapter that’ll get your Sonos Play charging base up and running straight away.
It’s also good to know that Sonos has designed the Play to sit on its charging base for extended periods without damaging the battery, so you don’t need to worry about taking it off just to “save” it.
Don't Ignore the USB-C Port
The USB-C port on the back of the Sonos Play is one of those features that’s easy to look past at first, but there’s actually quite a lot you can do with it.
Yes, it’s there for charging, but it also gives the Play more versatility than your average portable speaker.
For starters, it can work as a power bank, which is just plain handy. It’s probably not the reason you’d buy a Sonos Play, but if your phone is running low while you’re out and about, you’ll be glad it’s there.
The more interesting bit, though, is line-in.
With the Sonos line-in adapter, you can use the Sonos Play with a turntable, which is not something you’d normally expect from a speaker like this. But if you’ve got the charging base set up somewhere sensible, it can actually be a really neat way to bring vinyl into your Sonos system.
So if you’ve already got a deck, or you’re thinking about adding one, this is a feature well worth knowing about. You can explore our full range of turntables, check out our Sonos turntable bundles, or read our guide on how to play vinyl on Sonos if you want to understand exactly how it all works.
That’s one of the things that helps the Sonos Play stand out from a lot of other portable speakers in this category. It’s not just built for casual Bluetooth listening in the garden. It can also slot into a wider setup at home in ways you might not expect.
| SHS Top Tip: Got other Sonos speakers around the house? Connect a turntable to the Sonos Play and you can send your vinyl right across the rest of your Sonos system too. |
Sonos Play Best Settings: Our Recommended Setup
If you want the quick version, these are the Sonos Play settings and top tips we’d recommend starting with:
For Better Battery Life:
- Battery Saver Mode: On
- Wi-Fi Power Save: On
For the Best Sound:
- Auto Trueplay: On
- Bass: +1
- Treble: +1
- Loudness: On
For the Smoothest Day-to-Day Use:
- Voice Control: Personal preference, but don’t fully disable the mics if you want Auto Trueplay to keep working
- Charging Base Location: Somewhere practical and easy to drop the Play back onto
- Bluetooth Grouping: Definitely worth trying if you’ve got a second compatible speaker
- USB-C Port: Don’t forget it can handle both charging and line-in with the right adapter
None of this is complicated, and that’s kind of the point. The Sonos Play is already a very good portable speaker straight out of the box, but these small tweaks help it slot more naturally into everyday use and perform at its best.
Our Final Thoughts
The key takeaway here is that you don’t need to spend ages buried in the Sonos app or endlessly tweaking settings to get the best out of the Play. A couple of smart adjustments and a better understanding of what it can do, and you’re pretty much there.
That’s part of the appeal. It’s simple, flexible, and easy to live with — and the tips above just help you get even more out of it from day one.
If you’re still getting to know yours, hopefully this has helped shortcut some of the trial and error.
And if you’re thinking about adding a second Sonos Play, building out a wider Sonos setup, or just want some advice on what to pair it with, our team is always happy to help.
Planning a Sonos-based multi-room system and want guidance on the right approach? We can help.
"*" indicates required fields
Other Useful Sonos Content:
Blog: Complete Beginner's Guide To Sonos
