Why a Discontinued Sonos Speaker Is Still in Absurdly High Demand

The Play:5 (Gen 2) and the Five next to each other.

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

After all, until their resale price exceeds $1,100 — the price of two Five speakers — it’s still cheaper to buy one marked-up Play:5 and then stereo pair it with the Play:5 you already have than buy two new Fives. No matter what, you’re getting the same stereo sound.

There is one silver lining: The difficulty of buying a new Play:5 (Gen 2) prevents you from doubling down your investment on aging hardware. Eventually, the Play:5 speakers will not support the newest software — but that time is still far off.

Meanwhile, if you have a Play:5 (Gen 2) speaker and you really want a true stereo sound, you have a few options — but none of them are super ideal.

How to Buy a Sonos Play:5 (Gen 2)

turntable setups gear patrol sonos — When you place a Sonos Five or Play:5 (shown) on its side so that it’s vertically oriented, the speaker outputs mono audio — which you want from each speaker when stereo paired.

Look out for a refurbished Play:5 (Gen 2) from Sonos

Sonos doesn’t sell new Play:5 speakers anymore, but it occasionally sells refurbished models from the “Certified Refurbished” section of its website, which normally cost $399. The problem is that they’re very rare.

At the time of writing, Sonos isn’t selling any refurbished Play:5 (Gen 2) speakers. Sonos does make refurbished models of the Play:5 (Gen 2) available, which is almost exclusively during the holidays, they sell out fast. Like, almost instantly.

Best Buy also occasionally sells refurbished Play:5 speakers but I can’t remember when they were last available. (I’ve been looking for many months.)

Source: www.gearpatrol.com