Sonos today updated the Trueplay feature available for the Sonos app, allowing Trueplay to work with iPhone 14 models. Trueplay uses the iPhone to take a scan of the room where a Sonos product is located, measuring how sound reflects off of walls, furnishings, and surfaces in the area.
Trueplay is designed to use that information to fine tune a Sonos speaker or device to optimize the sound output. A three minute process, Trueplay can be done through the Settings tab of the Sonos app on iOS devices.
Since the launch of the iPhone 14 models, Trueplay has not been available, which means iPhone 14 users with Sonos speakers and no other iPhone have not been able to use the tuning feature. Sonos implemented over-the-air support as of today, so Trueplay is able to work with the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
All Sonos products support Trueplay with the exception of the Port, Connect, and Roam SL.
(Thanks, Steve!)
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Sonos has to do a great deal of testing to tune their algorithm to the specific characteristics of the phone's microphones and it just takes time.
//www.youtube.com/c/peterpee
Within a number of his Sonos focused videos he covers Trueplay function and implementation.
Surround channels are there to play the sounds that the producer and director wanted to put behind you or around you. Subtle amounts of sound from the surround channels heighten the immersion (like, say, crickets when the main characters are standing in a field at night) - loud continuous sound from the surround channels pulls you out of that immersion and pulls your focus to that speaker. Some movies handle surround very well, but plenty of others not so much. And if what you're watching is two people on screen, close-up, talking, you want their voices to only be coming from the center channel drivers.
On a Sonos system, when playing (2-channel stereo) music, as opposed to watching movies, you can have the sound more evenly distributed around the room by going into settings and changing the surrounds from "ambient" to "full" (ambient is the default) - this setting affects only 2-channel audio (so, mostly music), not 5.1/Atmos movies/video. This will fill the room with music, rather than keeping the focus at the front. It lessens the stereo imaging a bit, but I like having the music all around me.
Don't turn the surrounds way up "to get your money's worth" from a movie / your system, you're just setting yourself up for a mediocre experience. If you want sound from all the speakers all the time, maybe check out some action movies? But for proper use of surround, google "movies with best surround sound" or similar (though you have to watch out for people simply going on how much low frequency there is - some people's appreciation of home theater begins and ends with the subwoofer). Blade Runner 2049 gets recommended a lot, for good reason. The pod racing scene in Star Wars: Phantom Menace will run all the pods around you, each with different sounding engines.
So whether subtle or a mild placebo. Considering it is free, built in and a breeze to use then can’t complain much about True-play*.
I’ve over 25 sonos speakers inc two 5.1 systems in the house, the difference true play makes is mostly down to the room and positioning. But mostly it improves the overall performance, optimised for placement. When you have a two sub system it also manages that as well as adjusting crossovers with the Arc.
*There will always be a few entitled c***s who have little experience of it and expect it to do the work of a $10k Trinnov system on their tiny $200 speaker, but they are a special breed best kept in their moma’s basement.