Had my new Sonos for 2 days . . . exceeds expectations! But how do I turn off? It seems just pausing music or muting is not the same.
Am I being too old fashion/analog?
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This took me a little while to get used to also. Since the Sonos ZP is really a network appliance (much like a router or switch) it stays on all the time. Since the controller puts itself to sleep automatically, you do not have to worry about turning it off.
Perhaps in a future upgrade, timer functionality could be implemented to start and stop playback according to a user defined schedule.
millermt
Perhaps in a future upgrade, timer functionality could be implemented to start and stop playback according to a user defined schedule.
millermt
The ZonePlayer has two power-on states.
"Not playing music" : The CPU/Wireless is active
"Playing music" : The CPU/Wireless and Amplifier are active. The amp is automatically switched on when there is music to play, and off the moment the music stops.
Thanks, Chris.
"Not playing music" : The CPU/Wireless is active
"Playing music" : The CPU/Wireless and Amplifier are active. The amp is automatically switched on when there is music to play, and off the moment the music stops.
Thanks, Chris.
Chris -
Great system. I'm using an NAS and it set up in 2 minutes. One idiosyncrasy though. If I'm listening to music and I decide I want to go out for the day, I can't just turn the music off. I have to either pause or clear the queue to stop the music. I know in the digital domain a pause is like turning off the music, but decades of human erogonomics make it seem odd to use pause to stop the music permanently from the controller. What say you? 😮
Great system. I'm using an NAS and it set up in 2 minutes. One idiosyncrasy though. If I'm listening to music and I decide I want to go out for the day, I can't just turn the music off. I have to either pause or clear the queue to stop the music. I know in the digital domain a pause is like turning off the music, but decades of human erogonomics make it seem odd to use pause to stop the music permanently from the controller. What say you? 😮
Great system. I'm using an NAS and it set up in 2 minutes. One idiosyncrasy though. If I'm listening to music and I decide I want to go out for the day, I can't just turn the music off. I have to either pause or clear the queue to stop the music. I know in the digital domain a pause is like turning off the music, but decades of human erogonomics make it seem odd to use pause to stop the music permanently from the controller. What say you? :o
I think this is the price Sonos pays for being a leader in Digital Music Systems.
As you point out pause is equivalent to stop - we could have added a button for stop; but it would have just done the same as pause.
If it is any consolation we heavily debated this during the design phase :)
Chris.
This discussion of "physical off" and our long term human interaction with electricity is curious. Should we care that pause is the same as off? (Can we evolve :rolleyes: ?)
What about an Internet Radio stream . . .if I pause it on the way out the door, have I disconnected from the Internet streaming server? or am I wasting bandwidth as they drop in my home's bit bucket?
-Les
What about an Internet Radio stream . . .if I pause it on the way out the door, have I disconnected from the Internet streaming server? or am I wasting bandwidth as they drop in my home's bit bucket?
-Les
When you hit pause, we stop streaming the music from the Internet.
Thanks, Chris.
If it is any consolation we heavily debated this during the design phase :)
Chris.
While I consider myself to be a technophile, I struggled for about 4 hours with this -- poring through the user manual trying to figure out how to turn the system off.
I now know mute = off, but for those of us who don't run networks / write code / etc. for a living, it's not clear at all that this is the case. If the eventual hope is to sell this system into the mass market (a la ipod), then an off button -- or at least some mention or discussion of "how to turn off" in the manual -- would be helpful.
Actually, that's my suggestion for a future update -- program one of the soft keys to read "Turn Off." Even if it just does whole house mute, it would be more intuitive (IMHO) than the current setup.
Cheers,
Hoya
BTW - I'm streaming KCSB at the moment (wife and I did our undergrad there). You guys are lucky to be HQ'd in SB.
Likewise, a Tivo has no stop. It has a Pause and a back, but no stop.
True, but I look at Tivo differently. I expect my Tivo to be on -- always -- otherwise it wouldn't record all those reruns of "Quantum Leap" that come on at 1:00am.
In any event, I'm afraid my original point wasn't clear. I look at the sonos the same way I look at my stereo system or my television. I couldn't figure out how to turn the sonos system off, and the manual doesn't contain anything about "turning the system off." Yes, page 5-10 in the manual tells you how to pause the whole system, but I personally don't equate "pause" with "off." As you can see from the OP, I'm not the only one. Pehaps a passage in the manual that pause = off would be helpful for those of us who think that way.
The ipod manual is pretty clear in this regard -- it tells you how to turn the unit off (hold pause for 2 seconds). And yes, they use the term "off" (http://search.info.apple.com/?btnG=Search&lr=lang_en&type=kmanual&kword=&as_q=ipod%20off)
Regardless of my initial frustrations, it is a great system and I do enjoy using it. I'm already thinking about adding a few more ZPs to the system.
Cheers,
Hoya Saxa
I would like to see the white light turn off after no use. The light can be distracting in a dark bedroom.
[font=Verdana][size=2]My son puts a book in front of the light before going to sleep . . it bothers him. I tell him get used to it.[/size][/font]
Chris mentioned:
The ZonePlayer has two power-on states.
"Not playing music" : The CPU/Wireless is active
"Playing music" : The CPU/Wireless and Amplifier are active. The amp is automatically switched on when there is music to play, and off the moment the music stops.
I know we have the ability to turn off the white light altogether.
I would prefer that it would turn off in the "not playing music" state, and turn on when in the "playing music" state.
This would reflect the amplifier status rather than the cpu/network status. This would further address my concern over possible heat build up and fire from the amplifier being on constantly because I would have an indication on the player.
Regards,
John
The ZonePlayer has two power-on states.
"Not playing music" : The CPU/Wireless is active
"Playing music" : The CPU/Wireless and Amplifier are active. The amp is automatically switched on when there is music to play, and off the moment the music stops.
I know we have the ability to turn off the white light altogether.
I would prefer that it would turn off in the "not playing music" state, and turn on when in the "playing music" state.
This would reflect the amplifier status rather than the cpu/network status. This would further address my concern over possible heat build up and fire from the amplifier being on constantly because I would have an indication on the player.
Regards,
John
Any unit that has an IR or RF wireless remote never can be completely OFF. (Otherwise it could not receive and process the command to turn ON.)
Over the years I've discussed OFF (or not) with countless users. The common thread is that users expect an unambiguous indication of the "OFF" state. This should be turning out all of the lights, but most users will be satisfied if there is an indicator lamp that glows ONLY when the unit is "OFF". LCD's that indicate the time or display something that equates to OFF are also acceptable, but they should not be illuminated.
Some cannot be satisfied unless they think that there is no possibility of any current flowing inside the unit. I've encountered a few that will unplug a unit if they think that it will not turn OFF completely.
---
As a practical matter a well designed unit's usefull life does not strongly depend on the number of hours of use. You can think of a number of "failure clocks" ticking inside the unit. Eventualy one of them will reach the end and a component will fail. Some clocks run faster at elevated temperatures, some are mostly time since manufacture, others actually run faster if the unit is not used. In addition there are some "counters", such as the press of a button or number of power cycles. Finally, there are the obvious running time clocks associated with motors and similar mechanical components.
One of the most dangerous events in a unit's life is turn-on. Minimizing the number of turn-on's is helpful for increasing the useful life of a unit.
Over the years I've discussed OFF (or not) with countless users. The common thread is that users expect an unambiguous indication of the "OFF" state. This should be turning out all of the lights, but most users will be satisfied if there is an indicator lamp that glows ONLY when the unit is "OFF". LCD's that indicate the time or display something that equates to OFF are also acceptable, but they should not be illuminated.
Some cannot be satisfied unless they think that there is no possibility of any current flowing inside the unit. I've encountered a few that will unplug a unit if they think that it will not turn OFF completely.
---
As a practical matter a well designed unit's usefull life does not strongly depend on the number of hours of use. You can think of a number of "failure clocks" ticking inside the unit. Eventualy one of them will reach the end and a component will fail. Some clocks run faster at elevated temperatures, some are mostly time since manufacture, others actually run faster if the unit is not used. In addition there are some "counters", such as the press of a button or number of power cycles. Finally, there are the obvious running time clocks associated with motors and similar mechanical components.
One of the most dangerous events in a unit's life is turn-on. Minimizing the number of turn-on's is helpful for increasing the useful life of a unit.
You can disable the LED on the ZP via Zones-Setup Zones-Settings-Status Indicator Light on the desktop software (and something similar on the wireless controller).
LMc posted his comment in February of 2005, long before the functionality was available to turn the light off.
"Not playing music" : The CPU/Wireless is active
"Playing music" : The CPU/Wireless and Amplifier are active. The amp is automatically switched on when there is music to play, and off the moment the music stops.
Thanks, Chris.
I too was a bit confused when I first started using my system -- Now, it’s just not an issue.
However, with that said, I think Sonos could have eliminated some of the initial confusion by updating the controller graphically.
For example: When you are streaming internet radio and hit stop (pause) the animated radio graphic continues. It may help new user If this graphic were to be changed to a non-animated image that would clearly signal to the user that the stream had actually stopped. Of course, the music not playing does this as well 😉
I would think that a similar graphic approach to the stopping (pausing) of playing music files from ones system would also signal this event.
Not sure how to insert a quote guys but just like to add for anyone that didn't know. If you hold down the play button on an Ipod you can switch it off. Sorry if it's a bit irrellevant.
In the electrical user appliances world it think there is standby and there is off. When it's standby it consumes (some) power and you can activate it by remote to do something (play music, show a movie, start playing a dvd, make coffee, make light, whatever). When it is off, it won't consume any power and you have to turn it phisically on before you can use a remote to control it.
Now the Sonos is always on stand-by, never off. But when I go on holiday or a prolonged trip i'd like to turn off my equipment totally, to save power and for safety, since something that's powered is always at risk in short-circuiting and catching fire, how remote a change it may be.
Now for my home entertainment system and computers I just turn them on standby first and then I shutdown power completely by using the switch on the outet-contact-box (don't know the english term, sorry, you know the outlet-thingy where you put in all the power cables, which in turn is plugged in in the wall outlet ;)
But not all Sonos zones will be plugged in via such a device, some will be direct in a wall outlet, those I would like to be able to turn completely off using a hard switch. As opposed to just plug the power cable out of the outlet.
(Typing this i might repost in sound-ideas?)
Now the Sonos is always on stand-by, never off. But when I go on holiday or a prolonged trip i'd like to turn off my equipment totally, to save power and for safety, since something that's powered is always at risk in short-circuiting and catching fire, how remote a change it may be.
Now for my home entertainment system and computers I just turn them on standby first and then I shutdown power completely by using the switch on the outet-contact-box (don't know the english term, sorry, you know the outlet-thingy where you put in all the power cables, which in turn is plugged in in the wall outlet ;)
But not all Sonos zones will be plugged in via such a device, some will be direct in a wall outlet, those I would like to be able to turn completely off using a hard switch. As opposed to just plug the power cable out of the outlet.
(Typing this i might repost in sound-ideas?)
Just pull the plug or of the wall outlet, or buy a cheap power strip with a switched outlet. I don't see what the problem with this is.
Cheers,
Keith
Cheers,
Keith
Cheers,
Keith
Yeah that's a possibility, and it's not a big problem, is just aesthetics and convenience. I like to hide the outlets, so plugging and pulling plugs can become cumbersome...
But as I said, it's not a big deal really....
Try X10 sockets. Then you can turn them off from a central controller.
Cheers,
Keith
Cheers,
Keith
Hmm...
interesting, just googled for X10, tx for the tip!
interesting, just googled for X10, tx for the tip!
Thanks for this discussion, helpful indeed to understand why there is no on/off switch on the Connect box.
I would like to look at this design choice from a new angle, i.e. power consumption.
My Connect box is hot, even hours after I have paused the music. To me, it means the electronics inside is on, and draining significant current night and day. :o
Is it normal operation? what is the power (W) dissipated in this mode? will it reduce the life time of the device?
Thanls for your comments.
François-René
I would like to look at this design choice from a new angle, i.e. power consumption.
My Connect box is hot, even hours after I have paused the music. To me, it means the electronics inside is on, and draining significant current night and day. :o
Is it normal operation? what is the power (W) dissipated in this mode? will it reduce the life time of the device?
Thanls for your comments.
François-René
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