Looking for recommendations to replace Sonos with a system that actually works

Loudspeakers (even “wireless”/ multiroom) should provide us joy by playing music. Not making customers headaches and costing lifetime.

As experienced Program Manager & Software Engineer myself, I had to experience a lot of truly horrifying software releases during the last decades. I mean, really, really bad implementations like Windows Vista, Volkswagen Golf 8 Infotainment, introduction of 1&1 5G Mobile network in Germany etc., to name just a few …

But what you did, Sonos, is unequaled indeed. Making otherwise neat hardware - in our case assets under management in value of thousands and thousands of EUR - worthless with a single release of your not even proof of concept and far away from pre-alpha state pile of crap app, respectively forcing us to deal with it.

What I have to reproach myself for is having recommended you to family & friends back in the days we trusted you.

You leave us no other choice but to dump - I have to repeat - otherwise neat hardware in value of thousands and thousands of EUR in front of our HiFi dealer and ask for disposal.

Will replace with sth like Bluesound, Heos, B&W …

I am doing some research into the Nakamichi Dragon system and the brand new Sony Bravia theater quad ht-a9m2 system. Both are not total app dependent. I have been happy with the Sonos hardware but the controller app has left me less than enthusiastic. From last year’s subwoofer snafu update to this latest abomination update that is destroying any good customer relationships they have built. Hearing stories of customers with new speakers that are unable to even be recognized on the new app which makes them useless. Also the updates generally don’t go smoothly anyway. Yes it may be time to move on. What’s ironic is I was giving my son an older Sonos set up since I updated my system and was explaining to him what a great system it was and how easy it was to control it with the app. Talk about a punch to the gut. If Sonos ever gets this new app working right again I plan to give my son my newest system (arc,subs x 2, era100’s x 2) and start over with a new speaker system Nakamichi vs Sony.

Perhaps start with Roon software and then slowly adjust to the Roon Ready ecosystem. The sound quality will go up as well as you can actually stream in Hi-Res as opposed to the very limited and lame Hi-Res support from Sonos.

it’s very disappointing to see such a failure… as an early adopter and former beta tester I was a big fan of Sonos in the past, but they have really dropped the ball

Another pure-play worth investigating is Audirvana. It’s main use case is simple PC/Mac > DAC > Speakers and it delivers high quality with a great user experience. Audirvana casts to wireless speakers via Chromecast / UPnP / DLNA and has a beautiful (and free) remote app for iOS and Android.

Has anyone out there actually bit the bullet and migrated to a different system?  We have been Sonos users for many many years but now every morning my wife is frustrated and unable to get it to work smoothly and she wants me to ‘just get something that works!’  Any suggestions?  Many thanks!

@PLF 

currently using a WiiM mini plugged into my 5s and using the WiiM app to play 24/192 music myself 

also grouped my moves to play music in my garden all working well I am still on 16.1 but not used the Sonos ap to play music since getting the WiiM it’s an impressive gadget and get’s updates a lot ones that work!

oh and it’s got a 10 band graphic equaliser and since this morning a 10 band PEQ 😊

BLUE sound but need to figure out few things before going for it

With any app-controlled system you will be at risk of issues. If you truly want a minimal-risk system, revert to a “traditional” tuner, amplifier and speakers solution with cd player etc as needed. 

The tough part for me is getting the rear surround speakers wired. Maybe I just don’t need the rear surrounds and just a great set of front left and right and center with a subwoofer.

Why buy new hardware? Just use the desktop app with the hardware you already have, until Sonos get their act together.