Sometime ago, I asked for people to recommend a music player for my Sonos speakers. I was looking for something to rip my CD collection to that was easy to use and navigate. That thread got closed, but I thought I would provide an update.
My initial attempt was a Brennen Helix, but I just never got on with it. The 2nd suggestion was to build your own NAS with a Raspberry Pi. I was not keen, because I wanted something a little more presentable than a collection of devices. Also, I wanted my wife to have full access, so easy to use was a high priority
However, with no obvious commercial device out there (or at least one which I could guarantee SONOS connectivity, I bowed to the inevitable and bought another Pi. However, in this case it was in the form of a Waveshare CM4 box, which I could fit tow 512 GB SSD’s. These I have in a RSYNC so have a backup (RAID would be overkill, since it rarely changes), and use SMB to connect with. The device came pre-assembled with PiOS and OMV pre-installed so all i needed to do was add the disks and setup OMV for SMS share.
The latter was the hardest bit, but once working it has been perfect. I can rip the CD’s via laptop and the SONOS app allows me to navigate bu album, genre etc.
The final touch was getting a cheap android tablet, installing the SONOS app, and using that as an alternative UI.
So far I am pretty happy. My wife likes thats she can play BBC sounds etc through it too.
Downsides? Well someone said that SONOS maxes out at 65K tracks, however in may case I don’t think that will be an issue :)
More info here https://hammarbytp.blogspot.com/2025/11/lost-in-music.html