Bring Back the Sonos CR200 Controller!

You'd probably want to tell Sonos that, rather than a bunch of us users, we don't have any say in the matter.

wireman007,

I wish that the CR200 could come back, but I don't think that this can be justified, given the development cost and the likely market penetration. Prior to the release of the pad and phone controllers there was a deluge of angry posts asking why customers were forced to purchase an expensive single purpose controller when they already had a "free" device that could control the system, but the "greedy" SONOS company would not allow this. Actually, SONOS was already working on the iController, but nothing less than "instant" availability can quell keyboard rage.

It is possible to lock the Androids to a single function. At one point I saw some SONOS store demo systems in Target that could do this. Check with your factory rep. Perhaps instructions about how to do this are available.

I would be interested in a kiosk mode for Android. Do you know what software was used?

I agree 100% that a dedicated Sonos controller should be in the hardware line up.

The CR100 was great except the journalists (and some users) wanted a smaller unit with a touch screen. Also the menu setup / when to use the scroll wheel "button" or one of the three hard buttons was not always intuitive.

The CR200 was loved despite it's price (and lack of waterproofing/hard buttons) when it came out until the "screen dead areas" issue started to become widespread.

Given the (apparent) current Sonos strategy it seems very unlikely that we will ever see a CR300 which is a great shame. Whilst clearly in a minority I would paid more for a wall mountable CR300 that had a large screen (with a large font!) and more hard buttons than for a iPhone 5 or whatever.

A proper revamp of the CR100 being a similar size and number of hard buttons with full functionality, larger screen (touch screen or otherwise) would be my idea of the way to go. But would there be enough demand at the price point? Sonos know more than me and they have not produced one!

Personally I agree that a dedicated controller is a very good thing. My 07 CR100 chugs along nicely, dedicated buttons for volume, pause are key.

However selling $3000 worth of Sonos kit without first explaining the controller situation seems a little shady.

What you want is a kiosk app for android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gears42.surelock&hl=en

Locks down what you can run. The big knock is it's wifi not Sonosnet. I haven't personally used but have seen in action. Give it a whirl & tell us what you think!

Personally I agree that a dedicated controller is a very good thing. My 07 CR100 chugs along nicely, dedicated buttons for volume, pause are key.

However selling $3000 worth of Sonos kit without first explaining the controller situation seems a little shady.

What you want is a kiosk app for android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gears42.surelock&hl=en


Locks down what you can run. The big knock is it's wifi not Sonosnet. I haven't personally used but have seen in action. Give it a whirl & tell us what you think!

on the official SONOS app for Android you can set it to use Sonosnet

I have just ditched my CR200 and now use two Nexus 7 tablets. They use both wifi and SONOS Net and are very good

Cool thanks! I stand corrected, good intel. Hmmmm that opens up some possibilities!

on the official SONOS app for Android you can set it to use Sonosnet

What I'm missing most from the CR200 is the cradle; the controller is always nicely stored on the cradle and charged and when I grab it it's instantly available.
On my Android devices, they are either phones ans used for other purposes or unused phones/tablets and often out of battery or also running other apps.
Maybe Sonos should issue a version of the controller that locks itself in Android to make a dedicated controller - but this would not solve my cradle issue...

I also reach for the CR100 and Cr200 as often as possible even though my CR200 has a couple of dodgy areas on the screen.

A few reasons. One, as has already been pointed out, is the charging cradle. Another reason is that it's live as soon as you pick it up so there's no having to keep switching the tablet back on again to view the screen. Thirdly there are the hard buttons, which just make life a lot easier in my opinion.

I agree with Buzz though, I can't see Sonos producing another dedicated controller due to production costs and the fact that it will have to be sold at a higher price which will lead to complaints from people. You'll also probably get people saying 'It's only a controller, why can't it do other things as well' - in which case it will be a tablet!

On the whole, I prefer the old CR100. I'm not really bothered about touch screen.