Avid Contributor I

Answered

Pretty please - Build a Play:Win device

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
December 19, 2015
46 replies
2343 views

I absolutely love the Sonos Windows and Android apps and my new 5.1 and other Play speakers. You did an excellent job on this system!

I also want to listen to all the great music sources while working at my PC and don't always want to bother everyone else turning on the real speakers (I develop Windows software at home).

Please create a new "Play:Win" device that can be a Sonos "Room" which can send audio to any of the Windows Playback devices. E.G. headset, speakers, digital audio S/PDIF 5.1 etc. same as how a user can select audio playback output on a PC. You can build a Windows device driver to do this.

This way I can use my local USB headset and you don't need to come out with those wireless headsets quite so soon.

I don't want to have to also run WinAmp or Kodi or something to play my local FLAC files that I can already play via Sonos reading my NAS drive.

And I want to use the great features in the Sonos app for internet radio, playlists, favorites etc. which would be yet additional apps if I can use Sonos.

Please add a Play:Win device as part of the Sonos PC app.

You of course could also build Play:Android etc. but I sit at my PC all day and that one is top priority :D

Please consider this especially for the Windows PC.

Thanks for your consideration. This would set Sonos way above the emerging IP speaker crowd!

Dave

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Best answer by Chris

I currently have a connect hooked between my PC output and my PC speakers. That makes my PC a Sonos Zone where I can play anything from my PC to any Sonos speaker in the house and I can play Sonos music to my PC speakers (making them a zone and I could just as easily have a splitter to use my wired headphones as well.

If speakers are built into the PC you could hook the connect to the MIC/Audio input of your PC to play Sonos sound - and from the audio out to play PC sound to other Sonos units.

How does the Connect not work for you?

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C

CodeSlingerAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Well, no, to be honest you are about the only person that's ever said you'd be happy to pay for it...

Some reluctantly stated they would pay for it when backed into a corner by the cannibalizing sales argument. However, none were willing to pay over a token amount of $50, and they certainly balked when I and others proposed it cost the same as a Connect, since they only wished to "eliminate another box with wires on my desk sucking up watts". Long story short, people want a Sonos zone without paying the price of Sonos hardware, which if taken to the obvious conclusion, would mean a decrease in sales of Sonos hardware.

C

CodeSlingerAuthor

Avid Contributor I

Well, no, to be honest you are about the only person that's ever said you'd be happy to pay for it...

Some reluctantly stated they would pay for it when backed into a corner by the cannibalizing sales argument. However, none were willing to pay over a token amount of $50, and they certainly balked when I and others proposed it cost the same as a Connect, since they only wished to "eliminate another box with wires on my desk sucking up watts". Long story short, people want a Sonos zone without paying the price of Sonos hardware, which if taken to the obvious conclusion, would mean a decrease in sales of Sonos hardware.

Well it should be some less than a Connect if no hardware. What would be quite reasonable would be to pay Sonos their same profit on selling a device minus the manufacturing cost, overhead, packaging, shipping etc. I fully support their right to make a profit on their IP. The system overall is fantastic and they deserve the rewards from their efforts. I certainly want Sonos to stay in business and was trying to think of additional product they could offer that would also fill need and desire. Especially mine => to have headphones and a single sound app.

jgatie

You can meet your needs and desires with a Connect.

C

CodeSlingerAuthor

Avid Contributor I

How does the Connect not work for you?

The Connect is overpriced to be used like this, takes up extra space in my desk area, I would have to get stereo headphones when I already use USB at my desk so again a space and wire problem, and would be converting from digital to back to analog RCA out then to 3.5mm. I'll just hope Sonos comes out with some decent wireless headphones or some other more reasonable headphones solution instead of using a Connect. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Chris

Lead Maestro

It wasn't overpriced for me as it replaced a play:3 in my office. Sits below my desk. Minimal cost over play:3 and gives me Sonos speakers off my desktop. Everyone's needs are different

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

Meccanica

Lyricist III

[I guess the great USB and HDMI sound I hear from other apps on my PC is my imagination and 30 years in computer software and hardware doesn't count. I'm quite aware of how interrupt logic works having written device drivers for Intel. Yet I don't care to keep arguing. I'll hope for them coming out with a wireless headset and/or look into a Connect.

Oh Jeeez, you actually went there. . .

Alright smart guy, do an experiment: Start a playlist on your PC, and start the same playlist on your Sonos at the same time. Or better yet start a long symphony, so any gap management does not affect the results. See how long it takes the PC to go out of sync with the Sonos device. Surprisingly, it is not too long. Why is this? Because the clock on the PC, being based on interrupts that are in use by many other processes, is as inaccurate as can be designed. It can drift off by tens of seconds a day, which is why we have internet servers that are set up just to resync the clocks on your PC. A drift of tens of seconds a day means over the course of a long piece of music, it doesn't take long to drift the few microseconds it takes for the human brain to detect a difference. Which is fine if you are only listening to music on your PC, but when you try to accurately sync the music to Sonos hardware players, it all falls apart.

This is also why the SqueezeSoft application listed above was incapable of playing synchronized audio, even when compared to the rather poor sync of the Squeeze hardware. Still didn't stop people from using it for a free player, though.

Now I'm sick of arguing with a person bringing up already rebutted points from an almost decade old thread. Read the thread and learn something, and you should change your mind about this request.

Interrupts? PC clock? RTC maybe? What are you stuck in the 80's of PC technology running 8086 games on your super fast 486? Not all of us have crap PC setups... I run a full professional grade DAC in async that has no dependency on the "PC Clock"...

Your test, start two playlists is absurd. Please stop commenting when you have no idea what you are talking about. However, thank you for the laughs. :8

Chris

Lead Maestro

Did you really just chastise someone quoting a year old thread?

Respect the Queue (2)Move (3)Beam (1) Era100 (2)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1) Roam (2) Ace (1)Connect:Amp (4)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings; (2)Play)

Meccanica

Lyricist III

Did you really just chastise someone quoting a year old thread?

Yea, I guess I did. The stupidity of that diatribe of crap needed to be addressed. People who care about audio/sound/quality have not relied on a RTC or PC Clock for audio streams in years... so it was as relevant 11 months ago as it is today. I also just ran across this thread, and wanted to make sure others who run into the thread in the future do not accept what he said as fact.

jgatie

Interrupts? PC clock? RTC maybe? What are you stuck in the 80's of PC technology running 8086 games on your super fast 486? Not all of us have crap PC setups... I run a full professional grade DAC in async that has no dependency on the "PC Clock"...

Your test, start two playlists is absurd. Please stop commenting when you have no idea what you are talking about. However, thank you for the laughs. :8

So you want Sonos to create, maintain, and support an application to serve the minuscule market that has professional grade DACs and other advanced hardware? An application that can be used to duplicate Sonos hardware on a PC, thus making their own hardware redundant? You also needed to resurrect a long dead thread in order to do it?

No, thank you for the laughs! 😃

Meccanica

Lyricist III

Interrupts? PC clock? RTC maybe? What are you stuck in the 80's of PC technology running 8086 games on your super fast 486? Not all of us have crap PC setups... I run a full professional grade DAC in async that has no dependency on the "PC Clock"...

Your test, start two playlists is absurd. Please stop commenting when you have no idea what you are talking about. However, thank you for the laughs. :8

So you want Sonos to create, maintain, and support an application to serve the minuscule market that has professional grade DACs and other advanced hardware? An application that can be used to duplicate Sonos hardware on a PC, thus making their own hardware redundant? You also needed to resurrect a long dead thread in order to do it?

No, thank you for the laughs! :D

Yes. Also, I do not think the market of people with quality DAC's is as small as you think, given how many new models came out in 2016. I think it is actually Sonus's sweet spot tbh.

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