So it's Boxing day, and I've just received a lovely big SONOS Play:1 speaker for Christmas. I set the speakers up and try to find them on my system. Nothing.
I do some research, trying to figure out why I can only play through SONOS app and verified programmes approved through the SONOS app.
Why something which clearly cost more than a few pretty pennies is essentially useless for anything other than playing music.
No live sound, no video sync, nothing but music through SONOS.
So the decrepit old speakers I have had since 2000 are essentially doing a better job than the basic model of SONOS. Not only this but my cheap shower bluetooth speaker I bought for my boyfriend (£5.99) can do what this supposedly amazing modern and high quality technology cannot. Which is play ANY sound off of my computer or phone that I want it to.
How is this a complicated concept and why, after literally years and years of community comments and wailings and clearly strong customer dissatisfaction haven't you developed a simple software fix for this? What, you can play my music at the highest sound level ever but can't handle a simple YouTube video? What kind of operation are you running? Please for the love of all things good and pure and sound related, just fix this issue. I don't think I've ever had more issue with such a supposedly 'amazing' product before. If Bluetooth is such a low quality sound how come they can do what you can't?
Why can't I just use you like any other speakers?
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@jdag Really? Vs Really. specifically the Winamp 1999 comparison and the comments around workarounds to do basic things.
Sure, goes back to the statement that I, and many others have made, that Sonos is by no means perfect. Anyhow, this thread has gone in so many directions. I'll stop contributing to it by simply saying that I find my Sonos setup to be my most enjoyable tech purchase in many many years.
@jdag wish I could say the same. My family struggles with the many limitations.
The saving grace is that I am able to use them as Squeezebox zones because LMS has the ability to take control of Sonos.
Currently using Roon to play to my Sonos amps via Roon's Squeezebox implementation and a SB Touch.
The saving grace is that I am able to use them as Squeezebox zones because LMS has the ability to take control of Sonos.
Currently using Roon to play to my Sonos amps via Roon's Squeezebox implementation and a SB Touch.
I just got on board Sonos and I can say it's simple to setup and audio is great. My kids are all connected and they each have a SONOS Play :1 and enjoying every moment of it. Further invested in a Playbar and a SUB to replace my aging AVR, a Marantz with B&W speakers. It has rich sound but as mentioned in this thread numerous times it's not perfect but I can say one thing SONOS is not static as my old 5.1 system and I notice it constantly improves the software which is a plus point. Only setback is that if the Playbar can decode DTS will be huge step forward. Anyway as a new user I'm happy with the $$$ spent.
The saving grace is that I am able to use them as Squeezebox zones because LMS has the ability to take control of Sonos.
Currently using Roon to play to my Sonos amps via Roon's Squeezebox implementation and a SB Touch.
Sounds like quite a limitation of Roon that it doesn't natively support the (by far) leading multiroom wireless system. But then I'm sure you are over on their forum, complaining loudly every day about this senseless limitation, right?
BTW, I give Roon about as much chance of success as the Squeezeboxes. They'll be a niche player, at best, as the rest of the world moves to the online services, which Sonos handles better than anyone, and already has all the services that will survive the shakeout. They'll have to cater to the audiophools, a tiny and very fickle market.
I love Sonos hardware. My recent acquisition was 2 of their Play 1's. I love the sound that comes out of these speakers, for the size that they are. I also love their design. However, Sonos needs to wake up and smell the competition. I don't know how else to say this but: Sonos, your software absolutely sucks. It really does. Every single step of the way, you have decided to take more and more control away from the user. Equalizer control? Almost non-existent. Tone settings? Nope. Third party support or open source support? Nadda.
What makes me mad about the Play 1 in particular is not that you decided to not include 3.5mm Audio-In, but that you decided not to include it despite not offering any kind of official screen-cast capability. Why does this matter? Well if I wanted to play audio from an application or device that isn't supported by your streaming firmware, I could at least physically connect it to a 3.5mm and continue my listening but you decided not to. So I can't listen to apps you don't care enough to support. On speakers that I paid over $400. The cost of adding a line-in is trivial. What the hell?
Fine whatever, you don't want to add line in. At least add support for screen-casting like Google Chromecast Audio does. Open up your software. Or take the trouble to make it better.
With Google Chromecast Audio, I can cast whatever audio is streaming on my screen to whatever speaker I like in whatever room I would like to send it to. My favorite podcast application on Android is Pocketcasts. It's a great app, been using it for years. And yet Sonos can't play nice with it. Why? Because Pocketcasts stores its files in a certain sub-folder and the developers at Sonos can't be bothered to have the Sonos app set up to generate lists that include all sub-folders within a folder. You know what's even worse? I searched through and people have been complaining about this same exact problem for over a year! And your only response is to say Pocketcasts isn't compatible. Like, what? You're not capable of building something that can read sub-folders and your response is to just say, "Meh. It's somebody else's problem"? It's 2015 Sonos. Sub-folders are a thing. Surely you have the technology to populate lists from within sub-folders? And why do you not care about people asking you for this?
Some fans declare that Sonos is not meant for all-purpose usage. Instead that it's mostly for music-heavy use only. Well I'm one of those people that bought the Sonos for music only and I'm still disappointed. If sound is the most important thing that why is their so little control over sound settings or playlist management? I have 1 bar for base and 1 bar for treble and a button that says "Loud Mode"? Why?
And why is your library management so piss poor? I have a huge collection of music, a lot of which comes from CDs that I bought and ripped and there's no way to arrange the library by folder and sub-folder? I have music apps on my smartphone that I've bought for $5 that give me more control over sound and better library support. Please take a look at PowerAmp on Android ($3.99) as an example of what a beautiful, powerful music application should be (I am not affiliated in any way) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxmpz.audioplayer&hl=en
It really is a shame that you don't listen to your power-users and your customers with more common needs. I'll probably be leaving the Sonos bandwagon and switching to buying powered speakers and connecting to them through Chromecast Audio or similar streaming devices. There's lots of great speakers out there. I bought Sonos because I thought that you guys did the best job of integrating the whole experience. It's sad to see that you have stopped innovating and are falling behind.
I'm sure you made a killing over Christmas with all the people that bought your devices. But I think you will see a lot of returned merchandise and a lot of one-time customers that won't come back. The competition is growing and the future is coming. I will be making my own video review of the Sonos eco-system as it stands today.
Be sure to include the 463 GitHub projects that enable things like AirPlay to Sonos, Amazon Echo integration, Siri integration, IFTTT integration,... in your video. https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Sonos
And don't forget those third-party controller apps that are as simple as a download for iOS and Android. Oh, and both of the Apple Watch controllers for Sonos. And all those DLNA apps that can use Sonos renderers.
Be sure to point the Roon folks at the GitHub projects that enable complete control of Sonos when you're complaining to them about their lack of Sonos integration. I looked at their forum; their CEO was blaming Sonos' "complexity" for their lack of Sonos integration, LOL. Jishi's project alone ought to be all they need, but there are several others. They might want to contact Sonos directly; Google did, and now the Google Music app can directly control Sonos. Would be a huge win for Roon, might even save them from the fate of the vast majority of Sonos "killers" over the years.
I could say the same about you. I couldn't give a rats ass either. But I did initially come here under the illusion that Sonos as a company owes it's customers what they promise on the box.
The fact that you think it's everything you've ever dreamed of, I don't really give a shit. But as an owner I complained. The inane excuses in this thread were just added entertainment that show that the world of fanboy love is still alive and well. Continue forth, minions!
The fact that you think it's everything you've ever dreamed of, I don't really give a shit. But as an owner I complained. The inane excuses in this thread were just added entertainment that show that the world of fanboy love is still alive and well. Continue forth, minions!
Congratulations! You win. Your Internet Argument Champion trophy is on its way in the mail. Tell me, how does it feel to be a winner? How awesome are you? Is looking into your eyes kind of like staring at the center of the sun? I bet it is. You sexy, sexy thing, you.
''chicks wrote:
Remember Squeezebox, Astral? Did much of what you're asking, but required a user-provided server. Pain in the butt, so it failed miserably, as have the vast majority of Sonos "killers". They simply aren't as easy to use, or as comprehensive a solution as Sonos, so they fail.''- ittrongly 's still going
Squeezebox didn't fail - it's still going strongly in various guises with a very sophisticated interface (either on the devices or as a remote controller). In fact I have a mixed system with original squeezebox devices (radio, Touch) and 'squeezebox players (including Sonos speakers, a Pioneer xw-sma speaker, a Pure internet radio and a Chromecast - all play the same wide selection of services (Deezer, Spotify, BBC iPlayer, Podcasts, Tunein, etc.). All with the same unified gui interface (PC, Android, or IThing).. Also, access to a manageable music collection - not limited to 65K tracks.
If you feel restricted by Sonos - just install LMS on a PC (even a Raspi will do) and use your Sonos devices as squeezebox players - a perfect union of excellent hardware and excellent software.
Remember Squeezebox, Astral? Did much of what you're asking, but required a user-provided server. Pain in the butt, so it failed miserably, as have the vast majority of Sonos "killers". They simply aren't as easy to use, or as comprehensive a solution as Sonos, so they fail.''- ittrongly 's still going
Squeezebox didn't fail - it's still going strongly in various guises with a very sophisticated interface (either on the devices or as a remote controller). In fact I have a mixed system with original squeezebox devices (radio, Touch) and 'squeezebox players (including Sonos speakers, a Pioneer xw-sma speaker, a Pure internet radio and a Chromecast - all play the same wide selection of services (Deezer, Spotify, BBC iPlayer, Podcasts, Tunein, etc.). All with the same unified gui interface (PC, Android, or IThing).. Also, access to a manageable music collection - not limited to 65K tracks.
If you feel restricted by Sonos - just install LMS on a PC (even a Raspi will do) and use your Sonos devices as squeezebox players - a perfect union of excellent hardware and excellent software.
Astral can't even take his own advice and buy something else, never mind taking someone else's advice. 😉
I still use a Squeezebox Radio in the bathroom; I like the clock! 🙂 Did the LMS thing, but Sonos is just so much simpler... I sure wouldn't call the Squeezebox interface sophisticated, it's outdated, ugly and far less useable than the current Sonos UI, IMO. I'll stick with the Sonos software, thanks; definitely don't find it restricting, much better than the SB.
I use Chromecast with a Joydrone DAC into a Connect for playing YooToob videos. Works.
I use Chromecast with a Joydrone DAC into a Connect for playing YooToob videos. Works.
Oh, and easy access to millions and millions of tracks via inexpensive subscriptions. Haven't used the NAS in a long time...
I'm so stupid, Lol. Have you forgotten that millions of satisfied customers are laughing heartily at me and my friends? Millions!
I never said anything of the sort. I called you a contrarian minority and stated the reason the vast majority who post here disagree with you is for reasons other than your juvenile accusation of being "minions" or "fanboys". But keep it up, I always love it when one is so rattled they have resort to a desperate twisting of words.
Don't worry buddy, didn't I mention that you already won? I was just quoting chicks. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. I'm just so stupid y'know. Stupid me.
Millions of satisfied customers are laughing heartily at Astral and his friends. Simple matter of checking the thousands of reviews on Amazon and Best Buy. The very few 1 and 2 star reviews get voted as "unhelpful" big time, as they are usually from clueless idiots who thought they were buying bluetooth speakers, lol.
You can do that wih LMS also .... and moreover you get coherent access to BBC listen again material, if that floats your boat.
Hey Castalla. Thanks for the posts. Is there LMS friendly hardware that you would recommend, and if not what kind of hoops do I have to jump to make Sonos friendly with an LMS set up? Any LMS controller applications for Android, Windows and/or Linux would you recommend? I can run the server on a dedicated box or on a NAS.
Don't worry buddy, didn't I mention that you already won? I was just quoting chicks. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. I'm just so stupid y'know. Stupid me.
Just when I thought you couldn't get any more juvenile than "fanboy" and "minion", you outdo yourself with passive-aggressive. Well done! Next I assume will be " Neener neener, boo boo!"?
Getting to be as much fun as the High Rez thread!
Dude, at least finish the line. Jesus. Do I have to do all the work here?
"Neener neener, boo boo
Stick your head in doo doo"
Good. Glad we got that out of the way.
I mean, if millions of satisfied customers are laughing heartily at me and my friends as was pointed out, I might as well play the role I've been told right?
We now continue with our scheduled Sonos Evangelist programming.
"Neener neener, boo boo
Stick your head in doo doo"
Good. Glad we got that out of the way.
I mean, if millions of satisfied customers are laughing heartily at me and my friends as was pointed out, I might as well play the role I've been told right?
We now continue with our scheduled Sonos Evangelist programming.
With about as much touch with reality.
You can do that wih LMS also .... and moreover you get coherent access to BBC listen again material, if that floats your boat.
Hey Castalla. Thanks for the posts. Is there LMS friendly hardware that you would recommend, and if not what kind of hoops do I have to jump to make Sonos friendly with an LMS set up? Any LMS controller applications for Android, Windows and/or Linux would you recommend? I can run the server on a dedicated box or on a NAS.
You need to install LMS on a PC (Windows, Linux or Mac), or on certain NAS models. This gives you a basic system. It will run on win7 to win10, various linux, MacOS. You can use a Raspi as a cheap server, or upwards.
You extend this by use of plugins (eg. Tunein, Deezer, etc.). Now for the Sonos integration - this is via special UPnP plugin - once it's set up (easy as there's a off-the-shelf config for Sonos), the Sonos device is seen as a squeezebox player by LMS.
Control is via a browser based GUI, or smartphone remotes such as iPeng, Squeeze Control, etc. Logitech Controller is free but only works on android 4 and below.
You can pair Sonos devices as one player - you can't synchronise.
The steepest learning curve is setting up LMS as you want it - you use the browser-based GUI both as the setup screen (on a PC) and as the initial controller.
You can switch back to Sonos control and services simply by changing the controller (Sonos vs. LMS).
A quick trial route is to install LMS on a Windows PC - explore .... The 'Sonos' plugin is called UPNPBridge - it's one of the standard LMS plugins.
Contact me by PM if you want further advice.
Thanks castalla. I'll be in touch!
You can do that wih LMS also .... and moreover you get coherent access to BBC listen again material, if that floats your boat.
Yes, I still have LMS installed on the NAS that hasn't been powered up in months. As I said before, it was a pain in the rear end compared to Sonos. I will never need to rip another CD to the NAS again, ever, thanks to online subscriptions. Yay! I've tried a LOT of appliances; none of them came close to Sonos for ease of use and access to the many services that I use, and with a single UI vs having to deal with dozens of disparate, usually less well-designed, UIs. I'm an IT geek at work, have been for 30 years. I'd prefer not to use a system at home that requires those geek skills, as the Squeezebox/LMS system did.
No one else meets MY NEEDS as well as Sonos.
You can do that wih LMS also .... and moreover you get coherent access to BBC listen again material, if that floats your boat.
Yes, I still have LMS installed on the NAS that hasn't been powered up in months. As I said before, it was a pain in the rear end compared to Sonos. I will never need to rip another CD to the NAS again, ever, thanks to online subscriptions. Yay! I've tried a LOT of appliances; none of them came close to Sonos for ease of use and access to the many services that I use, and with a single UI vs having to deal with dozens of disparate, usually less well-designed, UIs. I'm an IT geek at work, have been for 30 years. I'd prefer not to use a system at home that requires those geek skills, as the Squeezebox/LMS system did.
No one else meets MY NEEDS as well as Sonos.
Good.
It's great hardware but for me the BBC integration is primitive. It tool Sonos almost 9 months to get BBC hls streams working - no listen again until 2016!
LMS had a hls fix in less than 2 weeks - and now handles dash - plus full listen again access.
Different strokes .....
For me, and I expect for a very large number of users, the Apple Music integration is of much more significance. It's a service that, unlike Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal, etc, isn't going away any time soon, and the Sonos implementation is, IMO, better than the native one. Probably quite a few Brits who care about BBC Listen Again, but I doubt that it's 1/100th as many as care about Apple Music, which Squeezebox and Bose will never have.
You can do that wih LMS also .... and moreover you get coherent access to BBC listen again material, if that floats your boat.
Yes, I still have LMS installed on the NAS that hasn't been powered up in months. As I said before, it was a pain in the rear end compared to Sonos. I will never need to rip another CD to the NAS again, ever, thanks to online subscriptions. Yay! I've tried a LOT of appliances; none of them came close to Sonos for ease of use and access to the many services that I use, and with a single UI vs having to deal with dozens of disparate, usually less well-designed, UIs. I'm an IT geek at work, have been for 30 years. I'd prefer not to use a system at home that requires those geek skills, as the Squeezebox/LMS system did.
No one else meets MY NEEDS as well as Sonos.
Good.
It's great hardware but for me the BBC integration is primitive. It tool Sonos almost 9 months to get BBC hls streams working - no listen again until 2016!
LMS had a hls fix in less than 2 weeks - and now handles dash - plus full listen again access.
Different strokes .....
For me, and I expect for a very large number of users, the Apple Music integration is of much more significance. It's a service that, unlike Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal, etc, isn't going away any time soon, and the Sonos implementation is, IMO, better than the native one. Probably quite a few Brits who care about BBC Listen Again, but I doubt that it's 1/100th as many as care about Apple Music, which Squeezebox and Bose will never have.
Fair enough. But so much 'modern' music is just 'pap' = can't see Apple making it any better. Just one more cash machine in my book.
Well, if it just had modern pap, I wouldn't care for it much, but it has 30 million+ tracks, a good portion of which are the Jazz and World music that I enjoy, modern and "vintage". Probably a good bit of Classical, to boot, haven't explored it yet.
Well, if it just had modern pap, I wouldn't care for it much, but it has 30 million+ tracks, a good portion of which are the Jazz and World music that I enjoy, modern and "vintage". Probably a good bit of Classical, to boot, haven't explored it yet.
Spotify, Deezer ?
Spotify, Deezer ?
Both losing money hand over fist. Doubt they'll exist in 5 years, or less. Apple, Google, Microsoft will just wait them out, and buy what they want at fire sale prices.
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