Leaving Sonos behind

  • 5 November 2017
  • 36 replies
  • 1428 views

  • Anonymous
  • 0 replies
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!)

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

36 replies

Ahh, ok. Perhaps it is time to get myself a Raspberry and play with it for entertainment and learning. Can it be used in any way with Sonos? What is the risk of breaking Sonos while trying to do so?
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
Ahh, ok. Perhaps it is time to get myself a Raspberry and play with it for entertainment and learning. Can it be used in any way with Sonos? What is the risk of breaking Sonos while trying to do so?

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.
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.
Userlevel 7
Badge +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.
Userlevel 3
Badge
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!)
Thomas,

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 3
Badge
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.


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 = 😠
Gee, where have I heard this tune before . . .
Lol. I can't wait for him to sell and move on. And I am a Sonos developer that won't mind the consequent hit to my salary.

Let's see how my boss in Sonos responds to that. :-)) Capisce?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
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 = :@


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.
[...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.
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.
Oh Thomas...:-))