Contributor I

Question

Why can't I just use you like any other speakers?

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
December 26, 2015
120 replies
14038 views

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?

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K

Kumar

The other thing is that Sonos continues to innovate, but what does it say to you if that isn't in the direction you would like it to?

A

Astra9

Lyricist III

Case in point, I was complaining earlier about how Sonos can't be bothered to let the user pick a folder and/or folders for Sonos to search populate a Podcast list. This has been going on for over a year. And as of 3 days ago, there's people asking how to get individual podcasts to play friendly with the Sonos application.

https://en.community.sonos.com/ask-a-question-228987/how-to-listen-to-this-american-life-6734015

To put this into perspective, this would be like calling your TV manufacturer and asking him how you can get 'Family Guy' to work on your TV.
The correct answer being that you shouldn't have to struggle to make TV shows work one-by-one. If your TV works, you get all the shows. Done. Simple.

So Sonos isn't the master of Audio. With Chromecast Audio, LG's WiFi multiroom system and Bose following up, Sonos isn't the master of multi-room wireless either. And evidently they aren't the master of software integration either. So what is Sonos good at?

I find it appalling that the Sonos support team finds it respectable to actually tell people work-arounds on a per-app basis. It's a bit shameful that it's 2015 and you have to download a podcast through one app, run through the loops and then use the Sonos app to make it all work. For a podcast. A simple audio file.

And I'd like hear something other than, " they're making a ton of revenue, so whatever ".

P

PaperDandelionAuthor

Contributor I

How do they continue to innovate? It's like you guys have exactly one setting: defend SONOS no matter how many complaints appear. Do you work for the company? That would explain a lot. Even if you did though, surely the company should recognise that this is a prevalent problem that is not overtly stated and deliberately omitted from their marketing and website, and as someone who works in sales it is extremely poor customer service for anyone to defend a company's choice again and again to say 'If you don't like it don't get it.' But then how do we know we don't like it until it's too late? I'm not an unreasonable person, but this doesn't seem that complicated to me. Clearly it's possible for other platforms. There's no reason why it shouldn't work on this one.

K

Kumar

So Sonos isn't the master of Audio. With Chromecast Audio, LG's WiFi multiroom system and Bose following up, Sonos isn't the master of multi-room wireless either. And evidently they aren't the master of software integration either. So what is Sonos good at?

Ahh, if you are defining master of audio in just that very limited way, Sonos is clearly the master. No one today does multi room wireless audio as well as Sonos does. I have used CC and Bose enough to say that and I doubt LG is any better than these two.
I would extend this to say that it holds true at any price point in the market today.

A

Astra9

Lyricist III

The other thing is that Sonos continues to innovate, but what does it say to you if that isn't in the direction you would like it to?

At this point I'm not even asking for innovation. Clearly they had the head start with wireless audio and have done nothing much since. But I could care less. All I'm asking for is to be able listen to a lousy podcast without having to wonder if it'll show up or whether I'm allowed to use a certain application to do it because Sonos doesn't understand what a sub-folder is. I'm asking for a lousy line-in because Sonos can't be bothered to fulfill their promise of "stream anywhere". I'm asking for a little control over audio, because y'know a bit of Hi-Fi technology from the 1960's would be kinda cool, right?

That's not innovation, that's not being demanding, that's just called good customer support and providing a product that does what it says on the box. Especially when your customers have invested a reasonable amount of money expecting you to deliver.

Screw innovation. At this point I'm not really hoping for cutting edge anymore.

A

Astra9

Lyricist III

So Sonos isn't the master of Audio. With Chromecast Audio, LG's WiFi multiroom system and Bose following up, Sonos isn't the master of multi-room wireless either. And evidently they aren't the master of software integration either. So what is Sonos good at?

Ahh, if you are defining master of audio in just that very limited way, Sonos is clearly the master. No one today does multi room wireless audio as well as Sonos does. I have used CC and Bose enough to say that and I doubt LG is any better than these two.
I would extend this to say that it holds true at any price point in the market today.

I've been using CC in parallel to my Sonos for the past few weeks and aside from the polish on the app, by which I mean the aesthetics of the application alone the Chromecast has done everything my Sonos set up does. I have not utilized higher sampling and bit rates but apparently the CC can also handle higher quality files than Sonos can (which is a hardware limitation of the Sonos). The CC app, while not aesthetically pleasing is much more functional and I imagine will improve rapidly since this is it's first iteration.

Out of curiosity I've gone back through posts looking for my own problems and found you responding in similar manner to other users with problems or criticism of Sonos. Can Sonos do no wrong? What is this innovation that you speak of? If Sonos cannot handle files, sort libraries or provide customers with the connectivity options that they need - how do you claim that it is the best at multi-room wireless?

Perhaps you're a proud owner, but I'm not. And I'm not quite as naive as to claim that units shipped is an indicator of innovation. Sonos was once an innovator. Now it can't make an app with an equalizer or library management or max out bit rates, or even do what you claim it does best : play anywhere.

K

Kumar

How do they continue to innovate? It's like you guys have exactly one setting: defend SONOS no matter how many complaints appear. Do you work for the company?

Those here that work for Sonos are identified as such.

Two recent examples of innovation are the new 5 units that do something that no other speaker in the market does today - change the stereo image to taste between horizontal and vertical positioning, among other improvements to sound quality to the line up. Trueplay tuning customises the sound to better suit the room the speaker is placed in and this is something that is offered for all speakers made by Sonos in the past as well, going back to 2009. Quite innovative and a rare thing, that. You can say that this innovation is of no use to you, but jumping from there to say that Sonos does no innovation is a big jump.

Most of us that post here do so to help Sonos users make the most of their kit, to do all it can.

K

Kumar

I've been using CC in parallel to my Sonos for the past few weeks and aside from the polish on the app, by which I mean the aesthetics of the application alone the Chromecast has done everything my Sonos set up does. I have not utilized higher sampling and bit rates but apparently the CC can also handle higher quality files than Sonos can (which is a hardware limitation of the Sonos). The CC app, while not aesthetically pleasing is much more functional and I imagine will improve rapidly since this is it's first iteration.

I have said elsewhere here that CC is the first real competition to Sonos, now that multi room is released. It isn't for me, but may well suit many. A lot of my music is heard via large shuffled NAS based playlists that I can stop/start instantly via the buttons on the units, even days after stopping play. With CC, I have to locate my phone, wake it up, invoke the CC app every time - doesn't work for me, all of that. And with Sonosnet, Sonos music play will probably be more stable with more up time compared to the WiFi based CC. I have also found the starting a stream via CC doesn't always happen at the first press of the necessary button, while Sonos always fires up instantly. For me therefore, the CC user interface is still clunky compared to that of Sonos, and I am not talking cosmetics.

With CC, as I have said elsewhere if you have followed all my posts(!), I have said that I don't advocate Sonos as fully as I did till CC was launched, but if I were spending today, I would still choose Sonos. But for some, CC is a much more viable alternative than any in the past till now.

By the way, the 5 units do offer line in. Always have.

D

Dec

Lyricist III

jgatie here is a praise my first comment

"it does work well within a narrow band of requirements"

D

Dec

Lyricist III

kumar

This

"Trueplay tuning customises the sound to better suit the room the speaker is placed in and this is something that is offered for all speakers made by Sonos in the past as well, going back to 2009. Quite innovative and a rare thing, that. "

has been available on AV receivers by a lot of manufacturers for quite some time.

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