Sonos has opened its flagship retail store at 101 Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood this week.
The entire family of Sonos’ wireless smart speakers and components are available in the store, providing customers with a personalized listening experience and one-on-one customer service.
Sonos says that creating an equally inspiring sound and visual experience – while delivering a strong sense of home – was at the forefront of the store concept. Music producer, composer, and Sonos Sound Experience Leader Giles Martin and Sonos Audio Engineering Leader Dr. Hilmar Lehnert collaborated closely the 4,200-square-foot retail store, which features seven, state-of-the-art Sonos Listening Rooms.
“Each room has been acoustically designed to replicate a great home listening environment,” said Giles Martin. "The intention is to allow the music to do the talking, making it easy for everyone to experience Sonos exactly as they would at home, even though they are in the retail environment.”
Each of the Listening Rooms is custom-built with four layers of acoustic sheet rock and a 2,000-lb, steel- framed glass door to ensure sounds are contained within each small space. Beveled glass and a parallel wall that alternates absorptive and reflective materials also work together to properly create the ultimate sound quality within each room.
Six of the seven house-shaped Sonos Listening Rooms form a row on the ground floor. Upon stepping inside, guests are welcomed with an immersive sonic greeting that introduces how the room works, followed by an invitation to take control and choose music from Spotify, Apple Music, TiDAL, and dozens more Sonos streaming partners.
Each of the 10-by-12-foot Listening Rooms offers three distinct scenarios to demonstrate what it’s like to enjoy great sounding music in multiple rooms. The Kitchen features a single smart speaker like the top-selling SONOS PLAY:1 or the SONOS PLAY:3. The Study presents the wide, room-filling soundscape of a stereo pair, like two SONOS PLAY:5. The Living Room has a home theater setup with the option to listen to 3.0, 3.1, and 5.1 surround sound through the SONOS PLAYBAR, SONOS SUB, and two rear Sonos speakers.
The seventh Listening Room located on the lower level of the store offers a Hi-Fi haven for audiophiles: A turntable and vinyl collection show how the SONOS CONNECT and SONOS CONNECT:AMP can easily integrate existing audio equipment into the Sonos system. A compare-and-contrast listening experience of PLAY:1, PLAY:3 and PLAY:5 speakers in isolation.
The Sonos store will offer "Simple Set Up,” a white-glove, in-home service that includes local delivery, set-up, and product introductions for in-store purchases local delivery and product introduction for all in-store purchases to make the transition to listening at home seamless.
Sonos.com/nyc