Reply With QuoteSonos seemed overly complicated and expensive and required multiple components when I investigated it?
Instead I set up an Apple powered hard drive, through a DAC to an Arcam amp, all controlled by the household WiFi and a free iphone app.
Any owners/verdicts? Considering Play5 at one end of large room and 1 or 2 Play3s at the other.
Sonos seemed overly complicated and expensive and required multiple components when I investigated it?
Instead I set up an Apple powered hard drive, through a DAC to an Arcam amp, all controlled by the household WiFi and a free iphone app.
Very pleased with it, great stuff.
Do a search on here, I'm sure there is a previous thread on the subject.
Yes, I have this all over my house. It's a house I spent time doing up so pre wired all the rooms we wanted Sonos in. As such am not sure what the stand alone products function like. Ours though is very good but sometimes music drops out through interference. We have Napster and that probably drops 5 times per day but we have music on all day and so it's not such a problem.
matt - do you have Play5s and Play3s working together in a single room anywhere, any issues with that?
I've got two play 5 at home with a bridge and the system works flawlessly.
I think i pressed 2 buttons and it was all setup.
I might sell one of mine as it doesn't get used at all, pm me if you're interested.
We have it all round the house as well .
I have to say it is just awesome .
Easy to control on your I Phone or Computer , and the sound is just amazing .
Go for it , you will not be disappointed and it is so easy to set up .
Lee
Fantastic system especially if you subscribe to Napster too.
No I don't, we have one unit per room/ zone.Originally Posted by Viking72
I have a Sonos Play 5 and a bridge for the dining room, and a Linn DS in the lounge, Linn is hard wired into the network and plays from Flac rips while the Sonos is wireless via the bridge and plays MP3s. Everything powered up fine initially and runs like a dream. We have an old house with thick stone walls therefore Wi Fi is not brilliant however I managed to site the wireless modem and the bridge in the room adjacent to the Sonos system therefore it has a pretty strong signal.
Ocasionally the WiFi network has hung on me but its probably due to the kinds streaming all sorts of gaming stuff rather than the Sonos system. Worst case you could hard wire it to the modem in which case I suspect it would be bullet proof.
Sound quality is fine and certainly a lot better than the Bose CD/radio Wave unit it replaced, not sure how good it would be as a primary system in a big room but I've been surprised at how nice it sounds playing MP3s.
regards
grant
thanks lads, very helpful - I'm going to start with two Play3s as a stereo pair (with the option of adding two more later on and probably the sub)
sold!
Sonos is great!! Without doubt the best bit of kit I have ever bought. Used every day and that in itself has made it worth it. Loads of free apps/controllers available and the quality (sound and build) is very good. Its the main sound system for us now and the convenience outweighs any loss of quality - depends on how 'pure' you are about your music really.
Customer service (on the one occasion i've had to call) was very good too.
Be warned though - it can get addictive and you'll want to add more zones!
Enjoy
I just bought a Play3 (with free bridge) and Play5. Also comes with 6 months free Napster.
Looking forward to setting it up tomorrow. Did a fair bit of research and it gets so much positive feedback from users.
Will be even better when I get a HP microserver (basically to act as a NAS) in the new year.
I use squeezebox and it's soooo much cheaper and does the same thing.
My understanding is that Squeezebox is discontinued and doesn't do multi room. Also I believe Sonos uses its own mesh network which is better than home WiFi.
Don't fully understand all this, but I was led to believe Sonos is much more straightforward to use (though more expensive)
Yes Sonos has its own algorithm where by you can have multiple speakers in the same room and they all can play the same music in sync.
Squeezebox has indeed been discontinued (thanks Logitech), although you may still be able to find players for sale - I recently grabbed 2 more to add to the 6 I already have. If by multiroom you mean playing different music in different rooms, Squeezebox does this by default. You can also sync players together to play the same thing, so we can have the same music being played and controlled by the players in the kitchen and lounge for example whilst the bedrooms can each be playing something else.
Strangely what always put me off Sonus was the idea that it created it's own network rather than using the one I already had in the house, although I assume you can get them to use your existing wired or wireless network. I never got round to finding out since I'd already bought into Squeezebox long before Sonus appeared or Logitech took over and it's all academic now anyway.
DS
As above the players are no longer being made but that's not necessarily the end for squeezebox, as it can integrate with other systems.
I use a headless Linux pc and run a version of Ubuntu called vortexbox. It does music and movies and will play to other devices as well as squeezebox. So you could have softsqueeze (like media player) syncing with your other players, and then a media player for films etc. so unless I buy a house with more rooms, or do an extension, I'll nev need anything more...
I have a Squeezebox player and remote I'm not using in case you'd be interested in buying it? Especially worth it if they have been discontinued!
Sonos uses its own network to talk amongst the players. Your network is only used as the link out to the internet for the streaming music services (and for that its a wired connection from one of the devices to your broadband router/hub). You cant get them to connect to your network (why would you want to?) This is one of the benefits of the system especially if your router is over on one side of the house and you want a device in the opposite corner - With the mesh network Sonos (automatically) sets up it creates a bunch of "hotspots" where each device or its own controllers can connect to meaning you are never out of range of the router. It also means that you can actually plug a wired device into one of the playing devices and it will send your data over the sonos network back to the router (used for instance if you want to connect an xbox in the bedroom to your router but you don't want to run a cable) or your laptop wont work in the garage because you are too far away from the router but you have a sonos device in there, you can just connect it to the sonos device and hey presto back on the web. Clever stuff.
I have an MPD server on my router/server, which holds the music files. I have MPD clients on old Nokia N800s (Maemo OS), various computers (my linux computers and my wife's MS Windows computers running XP and 7 ), and various Android devices (tablets and phone). The server can be controlled from any of the devices and the music streamed to any of the devices.
Actually, I have three streams coming from the MPD server. One serves mp3 over the MPD's built in http server, one servers high quality ogg via a shoutcast/icecast stream, and one servers mp3 via a shoutcast/icecast stream. Take your pick. ( I use the ogg stream on my computer. Most of the other devices use the built in http/mp3 stream, but the N800s use the icecast mp3 stream. It is trivial to add streams, so the more the merrier. :) ) Of course, one of the downsides to this device and stream promiscuity is that not everything is exactly in time. For example, the N800 in the shed has a distinct lag.
Best wishes,
Bob
Another sonos user here. Have two zone players, amazing bits of kit. Super easy to set up too.
Ended up ordering a Play5 for starters. Comes w a free bridge. Should be here on Tuesday. :)
Another happy squeezebox customer here! The 'touch' is a lovely piece of kit.
Didn't know Logitech had killed it and am genuinely sad to hear that...
Sonos user here, two play fives in kitchen and bedroom and the zp90 connected to main stereo in lounge. All music is on a readynas duo
Just works, allows music and radio to follow me round the house or the mrs can play her noise while I have something else on in another room
That weirdly was a reason why I didnt want one lol because I wanted to share content with friends.
The squeezebox allows the use to set up an online ID so taking the scenario further afield, with my squeezebox account I can log in and access all of my music and radio on my phone, laptop etc anywhere in the world connected to the Internet.
It even worked using my mobile connected to the car's input jack though the signal was a little patchy...
I had lots of fun when I first got it turning it on while in work and blasting ACDC in all the zones when my gf was at home alone haha.
Shame its dead.
I had a Sonos system, but I had to ditch it when I started to download hi res music at 24/96 and 24/192. Sonos only supports 16/44.1.
Interesting, I have very little high res music. Where can you download it from except for Linn? I have some SACDs and FLACs that I can play through my SACD player and computer but otherwise Sonos is good for everything else.
Naim do hi res too.
I have the hi res stuff on a NAS, which I stream to a Naim HDX in the Lounge, and a Naim ND5 XS in the Living Room. The results are good I think: on balance better than red book CD. Although whether it's down to the resolution, or the music being mastered better, I don't know.
Just to add to my last post, I've just had a mail from Linn saying that I can benefit from a free download of hi res every day from now till xmas. I don't know whether this just applies to existing customers or whether anyone can download it/them, but if you can, it's a way of trying hi res for nowt.
Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.
Funnily enough I have the SACD of the first track on offer!
Posting Permissions