Hi all, just wanted to say I am selling my Sonos devices.
After the death of my 2nd CR200 I found neither the iOS nor the Android app are appropriate replacements.
For me it's (most of) all about convenience.
And after a few weeks with another (officially long dead) music system I now decided I found a good replacement (but only because there is this Android app which is, in its simplicity, similar to the CR200!)
Leaving Sonos behind
A
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A
Don't get me wrong, I really liked my Sonos!
The only tasks I used it for were:
-playing from my local library
-playing the Sonos favourites, which consisted only of my favourite radio stations.
Whatever was added to the software over the years did not have any impact on me.
Having said this, my new system consist of a Logitech Squeezeserver running on my NAS, a used Squeezebox Touch, a DIY Squeezeplayer (Raspberry PI based) and the Orange Squeeze app running on a cheap Android phone.
Fits my humble needs perfectly, was cheap and is very reliable so far.
The only tasks I used it for were:
-playing from my local library
-playing the Sonos favourites, which consisted only of my favourite radio stations.
Whatever was added to the software over the years did not have any impact on me.
Having said this, my new system consist of a Logitech Squeezeserver running on my NAS, a used Squeezebox Touch, a DIY Squeezeplayer (Raspberry PI based) and the Orange Squeeze app running on a cheap Android phone.
Fits my humble needs perfectly, was cheap and is very reliable so far.
I'm too far in ££ wise now so have to just suck it and see, hopefully Sonos can redeem themselves to some extent with the next update ..
What's your issue(s) with the new app?
All of it, poor use of screen space, none intuitive (for me compared to 7.4), more swipes/ presses/ scrolling to get to the same point, sometimes I find myself looking at it trying to work out the sequence where as before it would have already been done.
Trying to work out what I was doing wrong with quick grouping today, I realised it was unpredictable/ broken.
Trying to look like a faux iPhone app has done it no favours at all.
Sonos have basically rolled out an unfinished app with no nod to any feedback from beta testing (if there was any which is doubtful).
I'm not stupid, use multi make vehicle diagnostic tools daily etc but Sonos 8.0 is not a joy to use, which it should be.
It should showcase my £2000 investment not make it a fight to use, which it feels like at a moment..
Apologies if I’m talking out of turn or for Thomas but if I’ve understood him correctly I think he’s is saying not that the system as a whole is better, but that the interface he has now found for Squuezebox is better than Sonos’s current offering — now that his CR200 has died.
I must confress I miss my old CR200, it was — in my opinion — a triumph of design and usability.
Andrew
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Hi Burt,
Andrews has got it right.
No sarcasm at all!
The controller was the reason why I bought Sonos in the first place.
Now that it's gone I looked around again and found that replacement.
The system as a whole is not as easy to set up as Sonos, not as good looking as Sonos, agreed.
But I only had to set it up once and that ugly Raspberry is hidden behind the speakers anyway.
And this Android app is just great, at least for me.
Userlevel 7
+20
Yes, e.g.:
- You can run Samba on it and host music libraries
- You can populate those music libraries with automatically downloaded podcasts and other content, e.g.: https://squarepenguin.co.uk
- You can use it as a poor-man's line in: http://www.instructables.com/id/Add-Aux-to-Sonos-Using-Raspberry-Pi/
- You can write Sonos control programs using SoCo: https://soco.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
- ...
Only the last of these interacts at the API/UPNP level with Sonos, and I think it's unlikely to break anything.
Just needed a Pi, 4 GB SD card, 2A USB wall wart, USB to SATA connector and a spare SSD. Any SATA drive will do if you provide it enough power.
Followed the Pi's instructions on setting up Samba (SMB) sharing, copied my music and added it to my Sonos.
Needed something to replace the no longer safe to use WD Live drive I have sitting here with no more security updates available for it. Something that won't be happening to the Pi for many years.
Wife has a hoard of CR-100s and rotates them through her two cradles and updates them as needed. She won't touch the app, regardless of version and the CR-200 was too small for her to use comfortably.
Good for you. But you have to ask yourself for the price that Sonos charges, should you have to write your own software interface? It would have been one thing if we have all purchased their hardware knowing we had to do that. It is a completely different thing having a great GUI and then taking it away without asking existing customers if it was OK.
SONOS = 😠
With a new note 8 and ANOTHER sonos update..... my marrage to sonos my be headed for devorce court.
Dont know who to blame BUT..... their NOT speaking to each other.
AND....of couse they decided to fight just befor my dinner party. Over this relationship. By the way....that new update suckzzzzz....
Dont know who to blame BUT..... their NOT speaking to each other.
AND....of couse they decided to fight just befor my dinner party. Over this relationship. By the way....that new update suckzzzzz....
So easy!
That's indeed what sonos used to stand for, straightforward, simple and easy.
I still remember my delight when setting up,my first Sonos speaker. Prepared for an hour long ordeal, I was happily surprised to be up and running within 5 minutes.
This is also why people are so upset with the new app imho. Instead of simple and easy, it's inefficient and cumbersome.
Userlevel 7
+20
Where in this new Android app is the option for me to tap on and listen the sound that goes in the P90 line in on my living room so I can listen to the music on my bedroom?
1. Bottom Tab Bar | Rooms | Choose 'Bedroom'
2. Bottom Tab Bar | Browse | Line In | Choose 'ZP-90'
You're done.
Where in this new Android app is the option for me to tap on and listen the sound that goes in the P90 line in on my living room so I can listen to the music on my bedroom?
Most of the functionality that was on the sources page is now on the Browse page. In what I think is one of the better moves of the new interface, other functions like settings, alarms, voice control, etc, are not stuffed in with the sources and are instead on their own page under the "More . . ." tab.
A
I was referring to the Orange Squeeze app, which enables me to control the Squeezeboxes just as easy as the CR200 allowed me to control my Zoneplayers.
Without this app I wouldn't have jumped ship!
Without this app I wouldn't have jumped ship!
Much obliged @pwt. Time to learn a new skill; I have heard a lot about how interesting and varied the uses of a Raspberry can be.
I have never done any programming in my life other than setting rules for handling incoming emails; never too late to start trying at least.
I have never done any programming in my life other than setting rules for handling incoming emails; never too late to start trying at least.
Userlevel 7
+22
My Pi is happily serving up my music library to my Sonos via SMB v1 letting me secure my real NAS.
Just needed a Pi, 4 GB SD card, 2A USB wall wart, USB to SATA connector and a spare SSD. Any SATA drive will do if you provide it enough power.
Followed the Pi's instructions on setting up Samba (SMB) sharing, copied my music and added it to my Sonos.
Needed something to replace the no longer safe to use WD Live drive I have sitting here with no more security updates available for it. Something that won't be happening to the Pi for many years.
Wife has a hoard of CR-100s and rotates them through her two cradles and updates them as needed. She won't touch the app, regardless of version and the CR-200 was too small for her to use comfortably.
Just needed a Pi, 4 GB SD card, 2A USB wall wart, USB to SATA connector and a spare SSD. Any SATA drive will do if you provide it enough power.
Followed the Pi's instructions on setting up Samba (SMB) sharing, copied my music and added it to my Sonos.
Needed something to replace the no longer safe to use WD Live drive I have sitting here with no more security updates available for it. Something that won't be happening to the Pi for many years.
Wife has a hoard of CR-100s and rotates them through her two cradles and updates them as needed. She won't touch the app, regardless of version and the CR-200 was too small for her to use comfortably.
After the death of my 2nd CR200 I found neither the iOS nor the Android app are appropriate replacements.
For me it's (most of) all about convenience.
And after a few weeks with another (officially long dead) music system I now decided I found a good replacement (but only because there is this Android app which is, in its simplicity, similar to the CR200!)
I feel the same exact way. Over the past ten plus years of buying Sonos equipment and being very happy with it, I am on the verge of selling everything myself. I still have two of the original CR100 controller that work; these are the only control my wife will use. I also use the Windows app, which is good, but running to your computer to change the music is worse than walking over to your old stereo receive (pre-remotes).
Personally, I am giving Sonos another month or two to realize that this new phone App is going to bring down their company. If they haven't rolled back or at least announced a roll-back by then, I will be competing against your to sell my 15 Sonos components, hopefully, that is still before everyone else comes in and they are all completely worthless.
Userlevel 7
+22
SONOS = :@
I didn't write anything, I'm still using the awful glare white 8.1.1 controller software on Android. One bright spot though, the v8 glare is bad enough that I can use it to replace my flashlight app saving a bit of internal storage. :-)
What I did do was replace a outdated WD Live drive with a Pi since Sonos doesn't support the more secure versions of SMB that I want to run on my big NAS.
I opened up the Pi's Samba web page and copied/pasted a couple lines from that to my Pi. Went to my Sonos, squinted into the glare, and deleted the WD music library and added the Pi's version. I do look at the Pi every month now and run two lines that I copied from their guide to pick up all the latest updates, takes a couple minutes, about the saqme as the WD took for the same tasks.
A
As I said, I wasn't using much of Sonos' abilities anyway.
But, depending on your type of use, it may prove difficult to find anything better than Sonos.
Just saying.
Thank you for sharing.
Yes, thanks for sharing, ‘cos these are open forums for everyone to share their views and opinions.
Thomas can you tell which system you finally chose ? I don’t think I’m quite ready to rip out my system just yet, but it always pays to have an open mind. Sonos where the only game in town when I bought into it, but nobody would deny that this is no longer the case
Andrew
Thomas can you tell which system you finally chose ? I don’t think I’m quite ready to rip out my system just yet, but it always pays to have an open mind. Sonos where the only game in town when I bought into it, but nobody would deny that this is no longer the case
Andrew
Such a shame the amazing hardware has been badly let down with the latest app.
I'm too far in ££ wise now so have to just suck it and see, hopefully Sonos can redeem themselves to some extent with the next update ..
I'm too far in ££ wise now so have to just suck it and see, hopefully Sonos can redeem themselves to some extent with the next update ..
+3
I'm too far in ££ wise now so have to just suck it and see, hopefully Sonos can redeem themselves to some extent with the next update ..
What's your issue(s) with the new app?
Just Deleated sosos app and reinstalled. It connected....set music... THEN no more control, Can't even change the volumn.
hear we go again. And I invested in 6 play 3 and 5.Plus a bridge to a nicer sound system. I believe in serious music. Sonos.....what have you done. Now considering bailing out BUT MY INVESTMENT?
hear we go again. And I invested in 6 play 3 and 5.Plus a bridge to a nicer sound system. I believe in serious music. Sonos.....what have you done. Now considering bailing out BUT MY INVESTMENT?
A
... and I never had any serious issues at all!
Only once there was an update which degraded the sound quality of mp3 radio streams.
But this was fixed within some days.
Only once there was an update which degraded the sound quality of mp3 radio streams.
But this was fixed within some days.
Trying to work out what I was doing wrong with quick grouping today, I realised it was unpredictable/ broken.
Trying to look like a faux iPhone app has done it no favours at all.
Many of the reported symptoms surface for updates even where there is no UI change. They relate to IP address conflicts exposed by the update. Research fixing these issues and fix them. They will arise in future also, if left unfixed.
The problem is that a UI refresh has to necessarily involve an update and the system can then appear to be broken for two reasons, compounding the problem. A large part of which is fixable by users by doing some research.
Also, anyone doing what Thomas has done needs to be lot more savvy about these devices in general than they need to be to use Sonos. He is savvy enough to do what he has done, as evidenced by his earlier conversations here.
A
That's right.
Or, like me, desperate enough and prepared to learn.
Back then when I bought my Sonos, I also had a look at the Logitech solution.
But I didn't want something that needed a server running all the time.
Sonos just worked with a harddisk attached to my router, and it came with a wonderful controller.
So easy!
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