Skip to main content
alecf
Contributor I
April 28, 2012

Why is Connect more expensive than Play?

  • April 28, 2012
  • 179 replies
  • 75917 views
I just got my first pair of Sonos units - two Play:3's for the kitchen and bedroom and I absolutely love them. I'm not a huge audiophile, but the convenience and total plug 'n play nature of Sonos is what attracted me to it.

Of course the next thing that occured to me was how to get this connected up to my stereo.

What I don't understand is why the basic Connect is $349 while the Play:3 units are $299 each. I mean if anything it seems like a Connect is just a Play:3 without the speakers and amp? Why does it cost so much more for fewer features? Seems like the guts of the connect should be a $99 unit - I meant he appleTV is $99, and it does way more (At least in terms of technological capability - video/etc) than the connect.

To be honest I've been drooling over Sonos for years - and I know the quality is very high, but the expense of the units has always put me off. It wasn't until the Play:3 that I felt like there was enough bang-for-the-buck to justify diving in... I'm probably going to get at least 2 or 3 more Play:3's for elsewhere in the house, but it's going to be hard to justify the Connect until the price comes down further. It's still cheaper to just put a Play:3 in the same room as my stereo - it's small and powerful enough to just sit near my existing speakers.
      This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

      179 replies

      Show previous replies
      chicks
      chicks
      February 21, 2015
      Amortized over five years, it's what? 20 cents / day? Those little coffee pods are twice that per day if you only have one cup, and we won't even mention Starbucks. Put it to perspective!
      bluerum
      Lyricist III
      February 21, 2015
      Totally agree.just got the second connect . all hooked up to main HT and buyers remorse gone like that! Enjoying the music whole house. No more sonos gear required .... All in perspective and quality of experience.
      kevina001
      Contributor I
      March 4, 2015
      I think the Connect is a ripoff. I can do the same thing the Connect does with a Roku box or streaming stick. Hook the Roku to a TV and to your stereo, and you have all the capabilities that Sonos has, at a fraction of the cost.
      jgatie
      jgatie
      March 4, 2015
      I think the Connect is a ripoff. I can do the same thing the Connect does with a Roku box or streaming stick. Hook the Roku to a TV and to your stereo, and you have all the capabilities that Sonos has, at a fraction of the cost.

      Can Roku give you music that is perfectly synchronized with 31 other Roku boxes?

      I thought not.
      Naylor07
      Lyricist I
      March 5, 2015
      The point is, whatever you think it cost to make a connect, does not account for any R & D. Not many products in this world are worth their cost in materials.
      BCM
      BCM
      March 5, 2015
      While I agree, all that was done a decade ago or more. A price break of a hundred or more would be nice... The Plays seems to be more of a gadget in terms of cost, yet cost considerably less (and right where I think the price point is warranted).
      Bartender
      Avid Contributor I
      May 3, 2015
      No question the Connect price is a rip off. At least Sonos could make it work exactly as advertised and offer it in black so it doesn't clash with the majoruty of A/V systems it is designed to accompany. Even all white Apple saw that as a no brainer with the much less noticable ATV. It is what it is though, and as frustrating as it is, the option is to say no to the connect or just "frown and bear it". For now I will say no in hopes that with new market entrants Sonos is forced to play nice and price accordingly.
      ratty
      ratty
      May 3, 2015
      At least Sonos could make it work exactly as advertised
      Are you suggesting they're selling it under false pretences? Kindly be more specific.
      Bartender
      Avid Contributor I
      May 3, 2015
      Are you suggesting they're selling it under false pretences? Kindly be more specific.
      The Connect doesn't necessarily sync your AV system with all other Sonos components. This should be made known to potential purchasers as it is a significant flaw when this is one of Sonos biggest selling points. I have a direct pass on my Pioneer Elite so is not an issue for me, but for others to shell out the price of a PS4 for a simple media streaming box and then not work as advertised is misleading.
      ratty
      ratty
      May 3, 2015
      The Connect doesn't necessarily sync your AV system with all other Sonos components. This should be made known to potential purchasers as it is a significant flaw when this is one of Sonos biggest selling points.
      I understand (and this is also the subject of various long threads) but this is hardly a deficiency on Sonos' part. Any downstream delay, in whatever equipment, is obviously going to have the potential to upset sync.

      The engineering challenge in such circumstances boils down to delaying all the other members of the group to compensate for the AV receiver delay. So if there were two AVR's in the group, each with a different processing delay? Not simple.

      It's worth observing that Mother Nature is also unfair in this regard. Sound takes about 1 ms to travel 1 foot in air, so two rooms where perfectly sync'd speakers are 30 feet apart can produce an obvious echo at the listener owing to the 30 ms skew.
      Show more replies
      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement