Sonos Amp Alternative

Yeah WiiM is more of the budget solution. Think of them as cheap Port and Amp alternatives. Wiim is supported by LMS - which means you can use WiiM with other speakers you already own such as Sonos. 

It’s a great question from OP - funnily enough I’ve been looking around recently 😀

The nice thing about Sonos has been the ease of set up/use - don’t have to be a tech wizard. From my recent googling Blusound is similar - don’t need to be techie - and there’s a wide range of products. But I have concerns about moving from one walled garden to another.

There are several high end systems - Kef, Cambridge Audio - which all get great reviews for the way they sound but less positive comments about their various apps!

wiim is much more affordable but again app doesn’t always get the best feedback. To play from a NAS I think you need a media server running on the NAS - just a bit more work than Sonos.

LMS gets mentioned quite a bit but it is way more techie - to be honest I don’t really understand it - but put the work in and it can replace the Sonos app and play stuff to Sonos amp/speakers apparently but you will need hardware to run it on - Pc/mac/linux/raspberrypi.

Plex is another software solution that can play to existing Sonos speakers but needs a subscription to play from their app - the plex server is available on my Synology NAS.

Roon is the daddy software solution - great reviews, plays to Sonos out of the box, indexes your NAS out of the box and a whole lot more but costs $15 a month, a bit less if you pay annually.

All the above is based only on reading around - I’ve been happy in the Sonos walled garden for the last 14 years so have not used any of the above.

love to hear more on the subject

From what I am reading about this brave new app, it seems that NAS play even once it is restored to S1 level functionality, will not work if there isn't an internet connection? If so, one more reason to stay on S1 or equivalent.

Speaking of Sonos alternatives, there are plenty for streaming services, that may even work better than Sonos at lower prices.

But getting one for NAS play is not easy. It is no surprise that S1 excels at NAS control and play because when Sonos was invented, it was to do NAS play. Which it did so well, that there is still none better or slicker at the task. 

Back in 2020 when I was detaching myself from being subject to Sonos control software, I had set up NAS play via voice commands to an Echo wired to a Sonos line in jack. Music files were on a USB stick plugged into a Raspberry because I did not want my Mac to be in the music play loop. Other than the cost of a stick and the Raspberry, the other cost was a USD 5 annual charge to the service provider, My Media for Alexa. This one did need the internet to be there to work. But it worked fine, once playlists were set up, a clunky process.

Once I realised that S1 will continue indefinitely, I reverted to using S1 for NAS play that was becoming a rarity because I had started using the Spotify native app and casting music from it to the wired to Sonos Echos, or direct to Sonos. And for the last three years, it has all been smooth sailing using a combination of S1/Spotify app/Echo Show devices/Sonos electronics used as dumb hardware except when S1 is invoked. Though now I do miss album art that I get when I cast Spotify to Echo Show+Sonos.

But yes, for NAS play to be as slick as via local control from S1, alternatives remain a challenge for most users. Unfortunately, this local functionality in Sonos, that was the Sonos launch pad, is now being discontinued by Sonos.

Just a bit more.

I made the effort and tried LMS - definitely tough to get going but it could reliably play music to all my Sonos speakers and reliably play BBC radio to my Beam and One but not to my Play:1s. With the LMS material plug-in the interface is nice and it lets me search and a-z browse my NAS library - works across PC, iphone and ipad (and I’m sure android but not tried). Nice to be able to play music from same app to PC and/or sonos. Still need to use the sonos app to set up groups but TBH I rarely do that. I’d use it if I could solve the radio on the play:1s issue and am seriously considering just working around the issue.

Also had a quick look at Music Assistant running on my Home Assistant/Rpi set up. Super easy install, everything worked - NAS music and radio to sonos out of the box but no a-z browsing of library and interface is a bit clunky. It can also play to PC. I’d consider using it if the library browsing issue could be fixed and the interface improves - think it needs a bit more time to develop. Obviously need to have Home Assistant.

My wife is happy using Sonopad to control Sonos - it does what we need it to do. I’m surprised how much I like the idea of including non-sonos stuff in the ecosystem which LMS makes possible. Using LMS is a decent experience (setting it up requires persistence!)

Your mileage may vary!