The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it - ADVANCED APPROACHES

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 1, 2020
119 replies
3295 views

A little over a week ago, I started a thread to engage with like minded people here: those that felt the way I did, as explained in my opening post there. That thread was titled: “The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it” and I intended that to be the last thread I open on this site.

A link to that thread:

https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/the-sonos-brexit-and-pragmatic-ways-past-it-6836056

That thread has grown beyond expectations. While everyone on it has contributed to keep it profanity free and largely rant free, with an occasional nudge by @Edward R in that effort, just by virtue of its length, it has become unwieldy as all long threads become. And it has many days to run, because the Sonos Brexit event, and the release of detailed information about it by Sonos, are both at least three months away.

I therefore thought that it made sense to break my promise to myself - No More Threads - and make just this one exception to it, by opening this thread. It is meant to discuss such approaches and options that may be employed by advanced users that are comfortable going well beyond plug and play options in pursuit of ways past this Sonos Brexit with or without incorporating any Sonos product in it. The original thread linked above may then be used for options that probably a majority of Sonos users will be able to employ - the plug and play kind of options towards the same objective. Which are those that employ off the shelf third party devices that are self contained, such as Echo Dots as an example, where the only wiring, if needed, is external - a stereo wire running between Sonos and non Sonos devices. And which do not involve any coding or any attempt to get under the Sonos hood. Or which involve server like devices that need a complex set up to get it to work with Sonos. In brief, something that non geeks - and I am one of those - will be able to cope with, belong to the original thread, while the complex options belong to this thread, as its title suggests.

There is no set in stone dividing line between the two approaches and none is needed. I am sure that community judgement can be relied on to keep the two threads distinct, linked by a common ethos, in a way that both end up being more useful than one thread will be.

I will visit this thread, but here I do not expect to further any discussion forward significantly - that will be beyond my abilities. So, lurking mode here, most if not all of the time. And if I find anything useful here that makes sense to the original thread, I will steal with no compunctions!

So, well before Sonos forks out legacy and modern systems into two, a fork to serve all that will be effected by the Sonos fork.

I apologies for the clunky title, which is an outcome of the original thread being blessed with a clunky one.

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K

KumarAuthor

@melvimbe : I agree; unless there is a cheap Bluesound device, you are just exchanging one frying pan for another. If not going from the proverbial pan into the fire.

chickentender

Great points for someone else in a similar (not uncommon) scenario. For my part, that receiver is one my favorite pieces and I love the warmth of it in combination with a number of speakers I’ve had over the years; it’s going nowhere. :)

You do realise that this warmth, if not psychological, is distortion?:-).

Not that I am against the sentiment expressed.

By the way, think of a visible Echo Dot or Port, playing music with active well veneered Hi Fi speakers from Dynaudio or ATC or Dali. Then think of the same source, hidden away, streaming to a recently manufactured valve amp that has a bunch of EL34 or KT88 valves glowing on top, driving the passive model of the same speaker - in both cases at night in a quiet room with the lights low.

Which one would sound better?!

PS: also no argument if you need the extra features in a receiver - the tape out/monitor in as a classic example. Or the phone socket with a ground terminal.

Of course I do. :) If, also of course, by “distortion” you mean the literal sense of the word, causing innate colouring and not necessarily degradation. It is certainly not psychological, except for “that sounds better” and “that doesn’t sound as good” is happening in my head. :)

And to that end, for MY part, my old Fender Bassman 135’s tubey goodness (an extreme example) always took the cake compared to other more “accurate” amps, or modeling (read “DSP” in these applications) that entered the output further down the chain (or before with newer amps). As with those music scenarios where one fit the bill to my ear across the most number of sources (e.g. guitars and pedals), I’ve settled on a few receivers over the years to do the same, no DSP (and minimal EQ) required.

But also to this end… I’m no extreme audiophile either and I don’t introduce analog or digital enhancing units into my setup for the sake of simplicity. I’m a “good enough” listener comparatively… but a “that’s not good enough” listener in the eyes of plenty of less musically oriented friends and family, e.g. plenty would consider my approach too casual, and plenty more see it as obsessive. Whatever. :) hahahah

chickentender

But moreso I am not in love now with the idea of a Sonos component becoming even more integral to my entire audio setup for for future-proofing reasons. I’m much more comfortable with Sonos remaining in a supporting role rather than a front-and-center one.

Just my opinion, but I’m not that comfortable with bluesound, due to the age and size of the company and the fact that they are currently facing a lawsuit from Sonos. I understand why people have concerns about investing in Sonos, but for those that want to drop reliance on Sonos, I would be pushing more towards an Amazon or Google solution. Besides the size of the companies involved, you’re just not investing that much for it to matter too much.

I understand that sentiment. But they’re owned by Lenbrook andare the sister company of NAD which has been around for decades. I’ve no more worries about Bluesound than I do Sonos at this point to e honest. Perhaps fewer. As to legal issues, they can all work that out as best they see fit and I’ll respond accordingly down the road.
To that end, specifically in the case of Bluesound and to @Kumar ‘s point about frying pans… it’s only a single component I’ve added and I’ve zero plans to jettison Sonos and acquire more Bluesound units into my environment (at this point)… hence the “hybrid”, or diversifications. That and I’m far more comfortable overall making a small investment into a company’s product that has deep audio ties as opposed to deep information-technology ties.

K

KumarAuthor

On the other hand, this may well be an opportunity for some to return to classic HiFi, even to valve amps, tubes rolling and all. With sterile looking smart front ends that are cheap, hidden away like a poor relative that is in residence! The HiFi may be of different types based on the room. The living room one may have lots of eye candy to impress the hell out of every one, the bedroom one a lot more subtle.

All integrated in some way for multi room music play when needed, and with a server based solution for Nas sourced music in all rooms.

C

castalla

Local Superstar

I’ve just finished setting up a O2 Joggler touchscreen device:

(stock image as I can’t access my smartphone!)

This provides a controller for Logitech Media Server (also installed on the Joggler) which displays the various player/speakers (including Sonos, of course) in my system.

O2 Joggler - rare as hens’ teeth. Price varies between 15-75 USD when available on ebay

Usb memory stick - 5 USD

Software - free

I haven’t attached the Flirc IR dongle as yet which adds remote control of the touchscreen.

It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -

chickentender

@melvimbe : I agree; unless there is a cheap Bluesound device, you are just exchanging one frying pan for another. If not going from the proverbial pan into the fire.

More to the point, from my perspective, the cheaper options available that accomplish the same thing come with an exchange of one type of fire for another. There’s no perfect solution.

chickentender

I’ve just finished setting up a O2 Joggler touchscreen device:

(stock image as I can’t access my smartphone!)

This provides a controller for Logitech Media Server (also installed on the Joggler) which displays the various player/speakers (including Sonos, of course) in my system.

O2 Joggler - rare as hens’ teeth. Price varies between 15-75 USD when available on ebay

Usb memory stick - 5 USD

Software - free

I haven’t attached the Flirc IR dongle as yet which adds remote control of the touchscreen.

Interesting. I’ve never even heard of that thing.

chickentender

Going back to Amazon/Google over other streamer solutions, that is likely the cheap stop-gap but it doesn’t sit well with me. There is no DLNA or local library support otherwise. As well, the Echo for instance will always be tied to the Amazon Music platform first and foremost, and though some other streaming platforms are supported that can always change at the whim of Amazon.

I like hardware agnostic alternatives far more, similarly to how I feel about Roku for television streaming - they seek to be as platform-inclusive as they can be without tipping one way or another as opposed to app support within Samsung Tizen or LG WebOS, etc. (or Apple Music on an iOS device for that matter).

K

KumarAuthor

This give you album art for Nas play? My echo show 5 looks very similar, but not for Nas play, it does not do that.

K

KumarAuthor

@chicks has some cool ideas/pictures for this thread! Invited to share, please:-).

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