Of course to be fair the Play:5 isn't actually a smart speaker, as it can't bring Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri to life. But the Sonos speaker is still design to fit perfectly into a smart home, unless you're totally wedded to Google's ecosystem.

The $299 Sonos One smart speaker — which sounds as good as Apple's HomePod, while taking a much smaller bite out of your bench space and your wallet — does work with Alexa, with Google Assistant coming by the end of the year. This means you can use Alexa on the Sonos One to boss around other Sonos speakers in your home, or you can use a cheaper Amazon speaker; letting it do the talking but handing over the music to Sonos.

Meanwhile Sonos has also added support for Apple's AirPlay 2 streaming music format, meaning the Play:5 can talk to Siri on your iGadgets or HomePod.

Google is the missing piece of the puzzle, as Sonos speakers don't appear as Chromecast audio points on your home network and Google Assistant running on a Google Home can't send music to Sonos speakers. At least not yet.

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This schism is likely due to the fact that Google sees the Home Max as a possible Sonos killer, and vice versa, whereas Amazon knows that it's outclassed and realises its best hope is not make enemies in the audiophile space.

It will be interesting to see how all this changes once the Sonos One supports Google Assistant later this year, as it seems unlikely that it would be unable to talk to other Sonos speakers around your home.

Perhaps the biggest thing holding Google back is the lack of options between the underwhelming Google Home and the overwhelming Google Home Max. The standard Home barely cuts it as a kitchen or bedroom speaker, while the bulky and expensive Home Max is overkill in such as space.

If you're looking to fill you smart home with music then Sonos offers a choice of three great speakers, three sound bars and a subwoofer. You'll find other third-party speakers that support smart assistants, some that can connect with other Google Assistant or Alexa gear — from the likes of JBL, Sony, Panasonic and LG — but you'll struggle to find one which can hold its head high alongside Sonos' phenomenal sound quality.

Alternatively you could use a $59 Chromecast Audio adaptor to give a high-end dumb speaker a wireless overhaul.

Sonos has a few tricks up its sleeve to justify its place in a tech-savvy home. Firstly, it's always aimed to be agnostic and handles most streaming music services; including Google, Amazon and Apple. Secondly, the Sonos speakers create their own private 5GHz mesh Wi-Fi network around your home, making them more reliable than smart speakers which connect to your home Wi-Fi network with all your other wireless devices.

In the end the choice comes down to where your priorities lie; are you looking for a great music speaker with smart features, or a great smart assistant that can play music? Right now the Google Home Max offers the best of both worlds, but to round things out we really need a more affordable Google Home Max Mini.