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February 1, 2020

The Sonos Brexit and pragmatic ways past it - ADVANCED APPROACHES

  • February 1, 2020
  • 119 replies
  • 3296 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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    119 replies

    chickentender
    February 7, 2020

    ^^^ “The Primo doesn’t have that last ounce of liquidity”.   LMAO.  Stopped viewing the video at that point.  These audiophile reviewers are quite amusing.

    Hahahaha. They are certainly that.

    As far as incorporation, it was the bit later that relates specifically to squeezebox and LMS that folks have been discussing here that seemed topical.
    As well as the HDMI output specifically for external screen; there’s been a want of visualization in play locations (not by myself really) and could provide some creative options toward that end.

    Local Superstar
    February 7, 2020

    As far as I understand, /Volumes/Public/SharedMusic  should work 

    You could try /Volumes/Public  - see what it picks up if anything

    Diid we try just /SharedMusic  ?

    What is the line in sonos?

     

    And - what format are the music files - mp3?

    And - Check in mymedia Settings - is there a tab for Mapped Drives ?

     

    It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
    KumarAuthor
    February 8, 2020

    Just the General tab in Settings, and files are Apple Lossless for CD rips and Apple AAC for iTunes downloads.

    And see the attached - it shows contents for only the Sample media folder, the 3 songs downloaded. which are the ones that play when the Show is told to Open Media.

    /Shared Music returns a cannot be accessed message.

    KumarAuthor
    February 8, 2020

    In my case, I need voice as part of any advanced solution as well; I suspect that any that have used voice will say the same. I started thinking voice was a gimmick, but now find it very convenient to start/stop music when I am not at my desk or in any place with a phone at hand, easily accessible for controller use. 

    The neat thing that Amazon did for me is that soon after Dots entered my home, they released the bargain priced Echo Show 5 that also brought in album art, that filled in big miss for me from Sonos, after coming from CD players had LED matrix strips that showed track names. And the lack of album art added to the fact that almost all of my NAS content is available via streaming services, meant that the NAS fell into disuse. 

    Using it would need voice commanded start and album art - which would also be something that Sonos  cannot do, even with any modern unit. 

    Hence this exploration of My Media, not just as a Sonos Brexit measure, but to get the NAS back into play.

    KumarAuthor
    February 8, 2020

    And - what format are the music files - mp3?

    And - Check in mymedia Settings - is there a tab for Mapped Drives ?

     

    Detailed reply with screenshot caught in spam filter; we need to wait for it to get released.

    Local Superstar
    February 8, 2020

    This spam filter is a pain!

    Been trying to follow the setup video - seems they drill down from /   to  Users  in order to set the path - look there to see if you can spot the nas folder SharedMusic

    Clutching at straws because I don’t have a mac to try any of this out

    It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
    KumarAuthor
    February 8, 2020

    No, that isn't visible. I am now trying to just use the first one, just the / - it is at 450 and scanning, but the content count is still at 0! Will wait it says scanning over and see what happens.

    File formats are Apple Lossless and Apple AAC, that should not be a problem.

    Local Superstar
    February 8, 2020

    No, that isn't visible. I am now trying to just use the first one, just the / - it is at 450 and scanning, but the content count is still at 0! Will wait it says scanning over and see what happens.

    File formats are Apple Lossless and Apple AAC, that should not be a problem.

    I’m still not sure how the mac sets the path to your  nas …  Did you check Settings to see if there’s a mapped drives tab ?

    It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
    Local Superstar
    February 8, 2020

    I’ve had an email from the developer … hope he can advise on this.

    Is your nas always on and accessible to the mac?

    It's the courageous bee's knees - all 6 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝. - - - - - Make Sonos Great Again - - - - -
    KumarAuthor
    February 8, 2020

    No, there is just one tab in mymedia settings - I have now received a email from support that I need to mount my WD to my Mac and then point mymedia to that mount. Why Sonos does not need this is a mystery, but I will now try to google and find out how to do this mounting!