After a lengthy hardware hiatus, Sonos is back with its portable Play speaker. Between the impressive audio quality and AirPlay streaming, it's a solid choice for any Apple user.

Without getting too into the weeds, the last couple of years have been unusually tough for Sonos. The speaker maker took a lot of well-deserved flak for rolling out an app update that wasn't ready.

This update revamped the UI, but it was also temporarily lacking essential features that many users depended on. Sonos quickly went into damage control mode.

By all accounts, it did everything right following the app issues. It regularly launched new versions of the app to restore features, including with a public-facing roadmap to track changes.

It replaced its CEO with longtime board member Tom Conrad. Conrad has been regularly responding to user concerns on Reddit, Threads, and other social media.

Instead of launching an ambitious Apple TV competitor that wouldn't hit its standards, Sonos shelved it .…