I currently have one Sonos Connect piped into the main stereo in the living room and have contemplated adding nodes into the kitchen and the bedroom. I note that Yamaha now have some products in the same space and the pricing looks to be quite a bit keener. I suspect that I could probably add 3 Yamaha devices for the same price as buying 2 new Sonos so, if I factored in a sale of the Sonos Connect, it might even be cheaper to start from scratch.
I'm aware that the benefit of Sonos is that it just works so I'm interested to understand if the Yamaha eco-system has similar usability. Most of the niggles I have had using Sonos have been related to the woeful cataloging provided by Itunes/Gracenote and I don't imagine that Yamaha are likely to be in a position to make that any better. Support for internet radio is also an area of interest.
Has anybody had experience of both systems or made the change?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
C-B, perhaps you have access to better pricing but I see the Yamaha equivalents to play:1’s @ £120-150 vs £150 for the sonos so doesn’t seem to be a ‘huge cost difference to me, the Yamaha version of the connect is also £150 so not a massive saving once your connect is sold, though for transparency I do already have Sonos in two homes so could be biased.
Interested to hear which way you go.
The Sonos Connect is €349 whereas the Yamaha equivalent can be had for €133 - that's where the saving is. The key thing is to have multiroom between the kitchen and living room so I could probably cope with both eco systems running in parallel if I really needed to.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
The Connect is already purchased and you've taken a depreciation hit - sell g it secondhand is going to cover the Yamaha purchase but not much more In this case don't see the sense in changing ecosystems for the sake of it.
Personally I would buy the Sonos over the Yamaha. I have more confidence in Sonos staying in the smart speaker market than I do Sonos. As an example, look at Denon. They have been sued multiple times by Sonos for patent infringement and have lost. This puts their system in doubt to me.
This article is well worth a read when you are considering purchasing a smart speaker system:
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbrea...solete-problem
Take a look at the NAIM streaming and multi room solution too
Apple Airplay 2 coming to Sonos - long overdue
https://blog.sonos.com/en-gb/airplay...l12_newsletter
We have a fair few Sono's 1 and 3 dotted around our house, great sound and value for money.
Quality product.
Yes the sound is so much better but the cost is huge!Originally Posted by Vanguard
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Thanks and that highlights a really serious point; I still have a Denon amp of many years vintage and I can expect it to work for as long as it is mechanically serviceable (and can probably get it repaired, in any case). I'm not a hostage to the version of mobile phone app required to run it. In many ways it mirrors my professional experience - one used to be able to purchase a business telephone system that would last for 20 years and could last for 30. The brave new world of VoiP gives the manufacturers the opportunity to reduce the product lifecycle to something akin to a Windows server i.e. 5-8 years if you're lucky.
In a sense it reinforces my point that if this is disposable technology then I want to be paying disposable prices - something that Sonos is not - but I also get the point about Sonos having long term commitment so, even if you are forced to upgrade your mobile phone periodically, at least you have an expectation that security patches etc will come down the line. I have already moved the existing internet radio to our guest WiFi as I didn't trust that it couldn't be hacked and become a backdoor (or join a bank of IoT botnets) - mercifully it has buttons on the front which means that I don't need another device on the same WiFi segment to drive it.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Personally I am using the Denon HEOS system but for cinema surround sound rather than just music play back. This set up uses the Soundbar, Subwoofer and 2 HEOS 1s A’s surround speakers. This is because the Denon system has much more flexibility regarding inputs and with both UHD and HD sound through HDMIs
For music streaming I use Spotify Premium and their Connect service which will connect to numerous different speakers such as NAIM MuSo and a Nakamichi stereo in the bedroom!
If I ignored the above situation and I was just looking for a convenient decent sounding music streaming system then I would look at:
Sonos
HEOS (Denon)
Bose
And to honest with The Sonos ease of use, smart speaker functionality and decent enough sound then that is what I would most likely use if I was going to continue using iTunes as my music source.
I can’t comment on the Yahama as I haven’t heard them.
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We have the yamaha (6) in our office - not great would be my review. Software is bobbins and they sometimes have a mind of their own. SONOS all the way i would say......
I ditched my Denon setup and connect, and now just use a Sonos Sound Bar and speakers in the lounge, works really well. I use apple music for streaming. Sonos announced today they are implementing Apple Air Play, so if you have Apple devices (as I do) that will be a bonus.
The thing about the Sonos setup, is, it just works :)
Not sure why Airplay 2 is long overdue. No-one, including Apple, supports it yet. Airplay 2 is significantly different to Airplay. It is supposed to eliminate the 3 second lag that Airplay suffers from by buffering to the speaker from the source. It requires support in the hardware as well as in each app wanting to use it. It was supposed to come out with the HomePod but has been delayed.
From Sonos’ point of view, supporting Airplay was a non-starter. It has the delay plus it required a specific chip from Apple. AirPlay 2 removes this requirement, making it more cost effective for a third party like Sonos to support.
Last edited by Phil Lee; 26th April 2018 at 19:06.
I meant a decent way of integrating with Apple
But, you are exactly right with what you’ve said... Apple have completely gone back on having chips build into HomeKit compatible devices as all other companies integrate via software... really lost ground to Amazon and Google with that move...
That is the biggest difference, the Sonos gear just works. I still have a 1st gen Sonos ZP100 (circa 2005) and it works fine. A 1st gen Yamaha MusicCast would get thrown in the bin around here.
However, I wouldn't count on Airplay 2 support from all of the existing models in the Sonos lineup.
It won’t. They state that in the blog entry. You need the newer units with touch rather than button controls. It think the Playbase, New Play 5 and Sonos One are the only ones. The others will but only when in a group with some of these others. It is due to the processing power apparently. A Play One has a 1/16 the processor of a Sonos One.
Fortunately for me I have a Play one and I got it for free as part of the bootleg trial
Have some of the really ancient other Sonos bits which still work really well
Thanks for the lively debate - I certainly won't be taking any leaps in the dark towards Yamaha but I'll keep a lookout in case it's being demoed somewhere.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Buy the one that sounds the best to you, then use Google cast to control it.
I know it's nigh on impossible to avoid Google in the modern world but I won't be importing any of their hardware into my home.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Since we are talking Sonos - recommendations for floor stands for Sonos one - The official ones or something else?
I was in your position. I sold all my Sonos kit (Connects, Amps, and some of their speakers) and started the streaming bit again from scratch.
I use AirPlay (Airport Express is lossless) and ChromeCast (~256?); they each have merit for different users and applications.
The beauty of going into hifi control amplification is that you can run them in tandem and switch between the sources as you require.
Airport Express is for my money a quality and colourless DAC (see Ken Rockwell review), and I’m very comfortable connecting it directly to fairly substantial power amplification.
Sell the Sonos, you won’t regret it for a moment!
Sonos all the way. Solid bit of kit.
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