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Hi,

 

I would like to stream music from my Mac computer directly to one of several sonos speakers that I would like to purchase.  I’m thinking about purchasing a port-Network Audio Streamer that will connected directly to my computer and play what I want without relying on some paid streaming service.  

More importantly, I don’t want to a phone or phone app to control anything.  I wish to have my computer directly control my sonos speakers.  I understand to control the equalization of sound (bass/treble) you have to use a phone app which is fine and hopefully that’s a one time setup, however if I want to play music, I don’t want my phone to control anything. I do not want to walk over to the other room where my phone is to play music, stop the music etc…  or, If my 4G network is down, broken, or if I lost, or temporarily misplaced my phone somewhere, it would render my system useless for days.

Would I be able to stream and control my music directly from my computer?

I still use the Mac desktop software to control my Sonos system, although I do store my music on a NAS, and not on the Mac. I’m frequently not at my Mac these days, however, so I also use the iOS controller.

Note that in general, Sonos are not computer speakers per se, they will play music wonderfully via your LAN, but require much more to play desktop sounds, or game sounds. You can read up on that at this link, there is a lot of good information:

https://en.community.sonos.com/groups/sonos-products-as-pc-speakers-229137

 

Oh, one important note to add. You are required to use the mobile software to set up your system. Once it is set up, you can use the desktop (or web) versions to control it. 

Although the modern world seems to be centered around phone/pad, I prefer not having my music centered around them. That’s why I started using SONOS in 2005. I store my music on NAS drives. If I’m  developing something and the computer/phone/pad crashes, the music continues. Also, the phone/pad often feels that some other audio is more important than the music or the phone/pad is walked out of range.

Yes, I am a little bummed that I must use a phone/pad for configuration. In 2005 the (Windows) computer could do everything. Originally there was a handheld SONOS controller. Along the way Mac computers, then phone/pad were added — to cries of joy after loud grumbles of needing to purchase a separate SONOS controller for handheld control when a phone/pad ‘should’ be able to do everything. Eventually, further development of the computer based controllers was stopped. We’re stuck with what we have. … Grump!

Thank you all for your input.  That will help me in my purchase.

Remember there’s a 65k limit for the Sonos library, that makes services like Plex a must for larger collections.

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