For those of you who have evaluated various music services with Sonos, what are your recommendations? I’m currently considering Apple Music, Qobuz, Deezer and Amazon. My priorities are music quality (High Resolution), integration with Sonos as I plan on streaming via the Sonos app and lastly cost. FWIW, I’ll be using a pair of One SLs configured as a stereo pair on my office desk. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts after evaluating some of these services with Sonos. Thanks.
Answered
music streaming service
+1Best answer by ratty
Thanks everyone. I got everything hooked up including a Gen3 sub and it sounds great! When streaming from Qobuz, Deezer or Apple Music, now playing shows no indication of the audio format. Am I missing something? How am I to confirm the quality of my stream? Thanks!
For Deezer you need to touch the track info (below the album artwork), scroll the menu and pick Track format.
Apple currently doesn’t stream lossless to Sonos. Qobuz does of course, but I don’t think it yet displays the quality.
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All three services are good services, but out of the three, only Qobuz offers Hi-Res music streaming on Sonos.
+1All three services are good services, but out of the three, only Qobuz offers Hi-Res music streaming on Sonos.
What are the others limited to? (Not even lossless CD quality, 16-bit 44khz?) Thanks.
I use Apple Music, SiriusXM and Sonos Radio. No problem with any of those. Spotify seems to be a popular service in this community. All services with the exception of SiriusXM offer step-ups for higher quality audio. It just depends on your budget.
As with any streaming service your band width is important. Although most ISP’s; even at the lowest tier, offer enough for music streaming.
Your speakers will perform just fine. All other factors considered as previously mentioned… your only concern would be your home network hardware specifically your router if using Wi-Fi. WiFi issues can usually be resolved by wiring a speaker to your router or using a Sonos Boost module to create the SonosNet.
(Sonos also does “hi res” on Amazon which OP mentions :)
All three services are good services, but out of the three, only Qobuz offers Hi-Res music streaming on Sonos.
4 services were listed and Amazon has hi res music streaming. 
+1I use Apple Music, SiriusXM and Sonos Radio. No problem with any of those. Spotify seems to be a popular service in this community. All services with the exception of SiriusXM offer step-ups for higher quality audio. It just depends on your budget.
As with any streaming service your band width is important. Although most ISP’s; even at the lowest tier, offer enough for music streaming.
Your speakers will perform just fine. All other factors considered as previously mentioned… your only concern would be your home network hardware specifically your router if using Wi-Fi. WiFi issues can usually be resolved by wiring a speaker to your router or using a Sonos Boost module to create the SonosNet.
Thank you. I plan on sticking with WiFi as we get very reliable fast service. If I need to, I could pick up a switch and hardwire in as my desk is right next to my Comcast router. (No available ports on router) I currently use Apple Music as I have a free trial but I just started experimenting with Qobuz and Deezer. The speakers will be arriving today so I’ll begin my evaluation soon.
All three services are good services, but out of the three, only Qobuz offers Hi-Res music streaming on Sonos.
4 services were listed and Amazon has hi res music streaming.
I think the Amazon Music Service was added by OP (as an edit) after
All three services are good services, but out of the three, only Qobuz offers Hi-Res music streaming on Sonos.
What are the others limited to? (Not even lossless CD quality, 16-bit 44khz?) Thanks.
According to Sonos, Apple Music currently streams at 64kbps HE-AAC, 128kbps AAC, and 256kbps AAC to Sonos.
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3282?language=en_US
Upon further research, it looks like Deezer can play 16-bit, 44.1kHz FLAC on Sonos with a Deezer HiFi account.
I use Apple Music, SiriusXM and Sonos Radio. No problem with any of those. Spotify seems to be a popular service in this community. All services with the exception of SiriusXM offer step-ups for higher quality audio. It just depends on your budget.
As with any streaming service your band width is important. Although most ISP’s; even at the lowest tier, offer enough for music streaming.
Your speakers will perform just fine. All other factors considered as previously mentioned… your only concern would be your home network hardware specifically your router if using Wi-Fi. WiFi issues can usually be resolved by wiring a speaker to your router or using a Sonos Boost module to create the SonosNet.
Thank you. I plan on sticking with WiFi as we get very reliable fast service. If I need to, I could pick up a switch and hardwire in as my desk is right next to my Comcast router. (No available ports on router) I currently use Apple Music as I have a free trial but I just started experimenting with Qobuz and Deezer. The speakers will be arriving today so I’ll begin my evaluation soon.
Just an FYI…
1GB speed provided by your ISP is fast coming into your home. However, it’s your Router that determines how that 1GB is distributed throughout your home over WiFi. At that point the WiFi signal can be influenced by interference from other wireless sources inside your home and outside of it degrading the signal. If so that is when we recommend using the SonosNet.
Upon further research, it looks like Deezer can play 16-bit, 44.1kHz FLAC on Sonos with a Deezer HiFi account.
Deezer has played FLAC for at least 6 years. FLAC is now included at no extra cost in the Deezer Premium tier.
It’s CD quality 16/44 (which is all anyone can hear anyway, despite all the ‘hi res’ marketing hullaballoo).
I’m subscribed to Apple Music but if I wasn’t getting as part of the Apple One package I would be paying Deezer. CD Quality and love the Deezer flow.
My Sonos has been happy streaming FLAC quality music for many years, it is choking on the Amazon Ultra-HD streams that sound no different to me than CD quality streams. Both on wired gigabit connections and SonosNet wireless, using a high end router and a lightly loaded 175/10 mbps cable connection.
You may get lucky or see issues too when trying to stream the high-bitrate stuff.
The key is to remember that the “choking” aspect is likely between your router and the speakers, i.e. local network, rather than the speed of your router to the outside world. Not always, but likely more often in most user’s world than not.
+1Thanks everyone. I got everything hooked up including a Gen3 sub and it sounds great! When streaming from Qobuz, Deezer or Apple Music, now playing shows no indication of the audio format. Am I missing something? How am I to confirm the quality of my stream? Thanks!
Thanks everyone. I got everything hooked up including a Gen3 sub and it sounds great! When streaming from Qobuz, Deezer or Apple Music, now playing shows no indication of the audio format. Am I missing something? How am I to confirm the quality of my stream? Thanks!
For Deezer you need to touch the track info (below the album artwork), scroll the menu and pick Track format.
Apple currently doesn’t stream lossless to Sonos. Qobuz does of course, but I don’t think it yet displays the quality.
How am I to confirm the quality of my stream? Thanks!
If you can’t hear the difference - does it really matter?
The key is to remember that the “choking” aspect is likely between your router and the speakers, i.e. local network, rather than the speed of your router to the outside world. Not always, but likely more often in most user’s world than not.
Considering my local setup I’m pretty sure it is not an issue with my connection to the ISP or an internal issue.
The router (info below) will happily saturate the ISP link up and down while maintaining low usage levels.
The router is connected via GB Ethernet to a GB switch that is directly wired to the Arc and one Beam, a second Beam is connected to a downstream GB switch. Cables test good and clients tested on the far ends max out the ISP link on speed tests.
I have seen this glitch on my direct wired Beam Gen 1, don’t listen to much music on the other two wired Sonos.
The SonosNet speakers I have seen this issue on are a Play 5 Gen 2 that is about 10 feet across an open room from the wired Arc and a Beam Gen 1 that is about 15 feet and one sheet-rock wall away from a wired Beam Gen 1, 2o feet and two walls from the Arc. The WiFi channel shows around 20% usage (below) using an RF (not WiFi) monitor. The Matrix is all green too.
I don’t have any fancy testing gear since I retired but a few days ago, just for fun, I fired up my collection of Amazon FireSticks, 2 running different HD streams and one a 4K stream, far more load than I usually see to my ISP or internally. I saw no sound issues streaming CD quality FLAC from my local NAS. Didn’t want to let it run long term and wait for the occasional glitch so I don’t know how it would have impacted the Amazon high rez stream.
If this ever acts up at a convenient time to play phone tag I’ll send a diagnostic and call Sonos Support. Until them just switching stations and back fixes it and I am lazy.
Listened for several hours and this is taken right after several short dropouts of Amazon listening.
There were only dropouts, it was not the stop playing sound but keep showing the stream as playing I have had before. I’ll keep waiting for that and post another diag.
Diag # 1734007325
+4Frankly, I think hi res streaming is a distinction without a difference. I streamed Ultra HD tracks from Amazon and the same tracks from Apple in lossy AAC and I could hear zero difference. This is both on a pair of Sonos Ones paired with a Sonos 3 sub and a Sonos Port feeding a Denon receiver and 3K worth of Aperion Audio speakers. I used a variety of sources, jazz, classical, folk, electronic, etc. Granted Im 52 and maybe don’t have perfect hearing but nobody else I auditioned the streams for could hear a difference either and they ranged in age from 18 to 35.
Both the hi res and lossy AAC streams sounded great in all honesty so worrying about bitrates and sample frequencies feels sort of academic. I’d say it more important to find a music service that works both in your home and when you are out and about as well.
Working on another issue, playing with adding a Boost and got another diagnostic showing possible noise impacting the Play 5 G2 called End Table.
Diag # 1611629961
Finally caught the glitch I was talking about on my Play 5 Gen 2.
Listening to Amazon, music stopped, time bar still running, cover art updating but no sound. Pause / Play button still works according to the time bar.
Changing streams and then back resumes normal operation and sound.
Diag # 2033225703
+15I have Apple (part of One Premier), SiriusXM, Amazon (free/no HD), and am subscribed to Sonos Radio HD. Tried Tidal’s highest tier and have not tried Deezer or Qobuz. Airplaying Tidal to my Arc/Sub I could really hear a difference as well as when I play Apple Music with it through my Apple TV. Sonos HD sounds fabulous through anything, 52 and I can really tell the difference. Drawback is can’t listen outside of home and only limite stations, no individual songs/artists. Just waiting for Apple to offer HD through Sonos speakers natively through Sonos app.
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