Is there an easy way to click a checkbox and “Play Local” on the PC via the Windows Sonos App, so that I can play through the PC speakers with synchronized playback on my Sonos devices? The only way I have seen to do something similar is via either: Purchasing Sonos “Port” product - hardware rube goldberg contraption, costs money, introduces lag. Or, With a software workaround like “Stream What You Hear”” - software rube goldberg, free, loss of sound quality, introduces lag, can’t use Sonos app for source selection There are a bunch of benefits of being able to do this directly within the Sonos app rather than via workarounds, and it feels like a really simple thing. Possible?

Answered

Sonos "Play Local" through PC app option?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 14, 2020
33 replies
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Is there an easy way to click a checkbox and “Play Local” on the PC via the Windows Sonos App, so that I can play through the PC speakers with synchronized playback on my Sonos devices?

The only way I have seen to do something similar is via either:

Purchasing Sonos “Port” product - hardware rube goldberg contraption, costs money, introduces lag. Or,
With a software workaround like “Stream What You Hear”” - software rube goldberg, free, loss of sound quality, introduces lag, can’t use Sonos app for source selection

There are a bunch of benefits of being able to do this directly within the Sonos app rather than via workarounds, and it feels like a really simple thing.

Possible?

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Best answer by Ryan S

Hi everyone, I think we maybe can take a step back and keep it friendly in here.

@SunOS, it’s a good question, there are two big ones that come up a lot “can I use Sonos to play on my computer” and “can I play what’s on my computer to Sonos”. They come up so much that I think the most regular people on the board may be a little over answering the question.

Here’s a good thread from 2005 talking about using a computer as a zone (old name for rooms).

Ultimately, if your question is “is there an easy way to do this” than the answer is either “not at this time” or “only if you purchase as Sonos player for your computer”. There are some good software solutions out there, as you mentioned that are a bit hacked together, and there are a lot of options and workarounds, but it’s not built into the Sonos app for the computer.

If you’re asking, “why isn’t this in the app and can it be done”, the best answer I can give is that the controller is designed as a remote more than anything, all of the smarts are in the players themselves, and we haven’t taken the time to work on developing the software beyond that purpose. There are plenty of reasons, but I don’t think there’s going to be any good to come from going into any of them.

This is a very popular request, so it’s regularly in my report to the teams for what people are asking for, but that doesn’t mean it will or won’t happen sometime in the future.

This was a request of mine for a while, but I wound up picking up a Beam for myself as a computer speaker and it works great. But that might not work in your situation.

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jgatie

Yes, I get it. Yes, I am asking to add the ability to play or stream locally because it is really not difficult. Of course they have “access” to everything.

You have no idea how difficult it is. Sonos sync requires strict timing, and a PC clock is notoriously bad at timing. That’s the first hurdle they need to get over. Never mind configuring for all the different sound card and CPU combinations. All to give away a Sonos device for free?

Not.Going.To.Happen

And once again, this has been requested for 15 years. This isn’t something you are coming here and requesting for the first time. If it were as easy and as beneficial as you claim, don’t you think it would have been done by now?

Oh and by the way, the Squeezesoft application was notorious for playing out of sync due to the above PC clock issue. Didn’t stop users from putting it on a Pi for a cheap Squeezebox substitute, but the synching was still terrible.

J

John B

How anybody could think Sonos would do this is completely beyond me. The words 'snowball' and 'hell' spring to mind.

S

SunOSAuthor

What do you think is harder: programming a small, efficient, custom embedded processor for playback, or playback using standard drivers on an off-the-shelf PC cpu? Programming different CPU combinations, what year is this? I’d say just backport it from the speaker, but even that is probably overkill. You missed my point on just giving everyone a simple “delay” knob - voila, now they don’t need to care about timing, let the user care about it.

Are you an employee? If you’re not, I’m not sure how you can speak so emphatically that they will not do it.

I’d love to hear from the source why they have not done it already when their customers have been asking for 15 years.

U

User933635

Prominent Collaborator I

Hello.

As stated above the answer is no, and Sonos is the very epitome of wysiwyg.

But there is a simple way to do the opposite that I suspect isn’t well known.

With the desktop program (on PC anyway) you get an addition to the ‘right click’ options to stream supported content from a local PC to Sonos devices; your Sonos devices are added to the ‘Cast to devices’ menu. Yes, I know there’s the ‘Music Library’ but this feature can be useful outside of this, but your content must be on the PC and casting can mess up grouped rooms.

A small consolation, perhaps but I’ve found this useful at times.

In its decapitation of the desktop controller I’m amazed Sonos retained this feature, but its retention could be due to SMB or other networking features.

melvimbe

For me, I wouldn’t pay extra to just “pass-through” output to the local device…

It does feel like it’s in Sonos’s benefit to offer this. They maintain “big brother” control knowing every artist, every song, every podcast, every whatever that is played through their app. When using “Stream What You Hear,” then the Sonos itself becomes just the dumb passthrough and they lose all that valuable data on what their customers are playing through their Sonos setups.

Sonos does not limit playback to content they could track. As you’ve mentioned a couple times now, the Port can give you what you’re looking for with it’s aux input, it’s just not at a price you’re willing to pay. The same goes for TV sources for their home theatre products either. Honestly, if Sonos did have a PC player, they could probably get more information about the source of the content based on originating application or something of that nature, where as they could not do that through an analog connection on the Port or other device.

Also, I don’t think it’s accurate to call it a dumb passthrough either. With the Port, this signal comes in s analog, coverted to digital so it can be shared wirelessly, then either converted back to analog or sent digitally to an attached amp. I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, but there are various opinions on the quality of the Port’s DAC.

Danny

jgatie

Hello.

As stated above the answer is no, and Sonos is the very epitome of wysiwyg.

But there is a simple way to do the opposite that I suspect isn’t well known.

With the desktop program (on PC anyway) you get an addition to the ‘right click’ options to stream supported content from a local PC to Sonos devices; your Sonos devices are added to the ‘Cast to devices’ menu. Yes, I know there’s the ‘Music Library’ but this feature can be useful outside of this, but your content must be on the PC and casting can mess up grouped rooms.

A small consolation, perhaps but I’ve found this useful at times.

In its decapitation of the desktop controller I’m amazed Sonos retained this feature, but its retention could be due to SMB or other networking features.

That’s not what the OP wants to do. The OP wants to use his PC as a free Sonos device, not to stream PC content on Sonos.

J

John B

What do you think is harder: programming a small, efficient, custom embedded processor for playback, or playback using standard drivers on an off-the-shelf PC cpu? Programming different CPU combinations, what year is this? I’d say just backport it from the speaker, but even that is probably overkill. You missed my point on just giving everyone a simple “delay” knob - voila, now they don’t need to care about timing, let the user care about it.

Are you an employee? If you’re not, I’m not sure how you can speak so emphatically that they will not do it.

I’d love to hear from the source why they have not done it already when their customers have been asking for 15 years.

So if customers asked for prices to be cut by 90%, should Sonos do it? Sonos make money by selling speakers. Not by devoting resource to projects aimed at reducing sales. A bit of common sense is all tbat is needed here to see that the reason Sonos have not done this after 15 years of requests is that it would be completely stupid.

J

John B

And what is more..…

What makes Sonos what it is? Arguably the two most important characteristics are the sound quality of its speakers and the perfect multiroom sync that the patented software achieves. So let's think of a development that undermines both those key features and reduces sales in one fell swoop, shall we?

S

SunOSAuthor

User933635 - that is a very interesting tidbit. Thank you, I am going to look into that.

You reminded me, I found a bug or something when trying to play content from a QNAP’s media server from the Sonos (at least the mobile) app… the exact same file plays back through Sonos fine when selected from the local device. I haven’t looked into the issue enough to post with confidence yet...

S

SunOSAuthor

Just curious, do any of you think that there is value in a single application that consolidates all streaming sources, from TuneIn to Amazon to a local collection, all in one spot? You realize Sonos is already that application.

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