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Airplay 2 - Only for the new Sonos One

  • 5 October 2017
  • 56 replies
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A
Userlevel 1
Hi
Was glad to hear that you're going to support airplay 2 in 2018. Im just wondering if this will be a software / firmware update that willl work with older speakers, like play; 1, 3 etc. or will airplay 2 only support the new speaker Sonos One?
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Best answer by Ryan S 6 October 2017, 01:17

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56 replies

Chris
Userlevel 7
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Sounds like it will work just like TV sound into playbar where it is an input but other speakers can’t indipendently access the stream. They have to be grouped to then device. I would be curious if it would work if the sonos1 is a surround and not primary speaker. A lot of questions still as to how will work.
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T
Userlevel 2
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Ah yes. I agree. To me it's apparent this is not a cash grab by Sonos, they're really trying to extend the new features as far as possible. I just wish that they had been a bit more specific about the method (have new speaker on every group or just one new speaker in your ecosystem, sounds like the former) so I can figure out my setup. I could put Sonos ONEs as rear surrounds on my playbar but then I'd have two Play:1s potentially without airplay...

As for using 3rd party software, I use and recommend AirConnect over Airsonos. The windows build of Airsonos doesn't even work anymore. It's good for single room listening (I like it because it recognizes the stream as music instead of TV), but if you try to do multiroom with non-Sonos speakers, there's too much of a delay (like 3 seconds) because of the required buffering.
Chris
Userlevel 7
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Impossible to add internally to gen 1 devices (has to be done by server program external - which Apple doesn’t allow but some have hacked for Sonos). And in particular thinking the boost should be able to decode stream isn’t in reality (it’s a router). Not even the gen 2 devices it doesn’t appear can decode separately from its own processing (like a line input does).

All speculation that any of these devices could possibly do airplay2 on there own is based on absolutely no facts.
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T
Userlevel 2
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It’s impossible to add to those. There is ability to offload processing to a computer with airsonos software to play to any legacy speaker

Missing the context here. What would be impossible to add to?
Chris
Userlevel 7
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It’s impossible to add to those. There is ability to offload processing to a computer with airsonos software to play to any legacy speaker
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T
Userlevel 2
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Get a Sonos One and then you have ability to play to all your older equipment.

I was a little confused about the grouping. Can anyone confirm if having one speaker in the system even if it is not playing is enough? Or if it has to be either playing or grouped with the speakers you want to airplay to? I'll probably get a ONE for the kitchen, but I don't want to have it grouped with my Playbar. Just trying to understand how this will work.
A
And reviewing my original posting, I can see that I was writing one thing while thinking another. So I apologize for that. That being said, when airplay 2 finally sees the light of day, we'll know what the processing requirements will be.
A
Perhaps I was unclear. I did not say I wanted it backported to my speakers, although that would be nice. I believe there should be a way to provide airplay 2 support without purchasing another speaker. That could mean porting to the Boost, or upgrading the Connect. I am uninterested in any “smart” speaker, and have no need for a playbase or Play5.
Chris
Userlevel 7
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Get a Sonos One and then you have ability to play to all your older equipment. That is not an unreasonable need to add ability to legacy equipment. I feel lucky we are getting a free upgrade to a completely new standard. Free by Sonos. Thank you Sonos for keeping our investment up to date.
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Chris
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I imagine the limitation is more memory related then processing related.
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Chris
Userlevel 7
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The airport express was built for airplay and sold as an airplay device - no relation to adding to an existing piece of hardware not designed ever to run airplay. Some designed and sold prior to existence of airplay and never even hinted at remotely having airplay ability.
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A
Well, actually the original airplay was implemented on access point technology (airport express). Now I don't pretend to know what processing power will actually be needed for airplay 2 but I'll hold my position that some other entrypoint should be made available for folks who have invested big money in their systems. I have no need for another speaker but would like to have some option that doesn't involve buying another speaker.
Chris
Userlevel 7
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Proof being the playbar play3 and play1 are all currently sold devices. If they could add to those older chipsets they would. Why would they favor a playbase and give it ability and not the playbar if it wasn’t hardware related. They don’t want you to buy playbase over playbar. So anynclaim they want you to have to buy current equipment is invalid. Would you rather they go the route they did for years and say none gets airplay because we want all devices to have same ability. No that held Sonos back for years.
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Chris
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Boost has no processing ability it is an access point. That’s like saying why doesn’t netgear make my router airplay capable. Sonos have ability to all devices capable of doing it. They have no reason to exclude any devices that are capable. They are not capable.
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A
Really disappointed in the announcement. While I understand Play 5 gen 1 being excluded, it seems to me that Any currently sold device should be supported. What about the Boost? There should be a reasonable way for people who have invested significant $ in sonos to be able to get Airplay2 without purchasing a new speaker.
Chris
Userlevel 7
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It’s a processing power or memory issue. Play:5 gen 2 has been out a good while and they made it backward compatible because they could. For those that have older equipment adding a Sonos One to your system to make all your speakers able to play is not unreasonable for a protocol that did not exist when you purchased your speakers.
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C
Userlevel 2
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I’m quite disappointed wth the SONOS policy of the last few months. Firstly I discovered that the new interaction with Audible, long awaited, is not working in my country (and yet my country has both SONOS and Audible services), now I understand AirPlay 2 will only be available for new spekers. I wonder why! AirPlay 2 is only a matter of software updates; no hardware, no chips, no other stuff. Is this the way SONOS treat “old” customers (assuming that someone who bought a new speaker only two years ago may be considered an “old customer”)? Why didn’t SONOS make AirPlay 2 available for everyone? I bought SONOS, paying more than 100 euros more than any competitor, because they promised always updated devices. What has become of that promise? Will SONOS give any reason to their “old” customers?
Chris
Userlevel 7
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My direct experience comparing output of airport express vs output of SONOS Connect found a lot of issues with the airport express sound quality via airplay. Not to mention a lot of dropouts with airplay and none with Sonos. But that was just my limited experience.
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B
Airplay has to play everything via the controlling device. It also re-encodes everything sent through it degrading quality.

Due to airplay having to download everything to phone/controller then compressing and sending back over wifi .... it is very prone to dropouts.

Compared to Sonos (or Chromecast when actually casting) which tells the speaker where to locate the stream and the speaker pulls directly from source.

I believe Airplay2 will still have the downloading to device etc. of airplay ... however apple has said it will buffer so as to not drop out like old airplay would do as you walked around house. Hopefully the codec is better as well so it doesn't degrade the audio quality like old airplay.

The compression used by airplay 1 is lossless as long as the source stream is less than or equal to cd quality. Only pro audio formats would see any degradation.
H
So ... Airplay2... will you provide support for Play:1 ?
bockersjv
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
Thank you for that onepissedcustomer. The forum search is not the best of tools :(

Can i make a suggestion. Start a new thread in troubleshooting section and give us some more detail information about your problem, we are all here willing to help.

As an aside most issues like the one you describe can be resolved with structured re-start of your router and connected devices. Turn of all wi fi connected devices. reboot your router and wait for it to come fully back onlin. Then start your Sonos devices followed by the rest of your equipment. Then report progress, which hopefully will be good news and allow you to calm down a bit.
O
what a joke searched "cannot access speaker since last update" and THIS is the ONLY result; wtf has this to do with failed updates?????????????Hi Andy24, we haven't shared all the details on this one and will be keeping it pretty quiet for a bit as development is early on and things tend to change. For now, it'll be on a selection of Sonos players, the latest ones to have come out. We'll share more in the future as this all develops. Glad you're excited and stay tuned for more.

Wow that's a helpful reply - typical Sonos.... treat the users like crap and then release software that annoys most of their loyal customers.
Chris
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Or you can’t read my post above that

I did a/b comparisons in my neighbors creation with airplay input and Sonos input. Same songs Sonos casting was 100% better quality.
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K
Userlevel 1
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I didn't call you an Ass. I simply called your attention to being careful with making ass-umptions about people. So, should I ass-ume your last response meant you can't explain these so-called horrible issues with AP1? Nope, I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'd like to hear your opinion with what's wrong with Airplay 1.
Chris
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
and I'm don't even know why I even debating this after your calling me an Ass.
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