Contributor I

Alternative to Sonos? Is it really no longer possible to simultaneously play different music in different zones (rooms)?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
August 31, 2024
4 replies
285 views

As I am sure everyone agrees the new Sonos app is absolutely terrible. I have owned and used the Sonos system for over 20 years. I even kept my giant wheel controller that came with the original system when it launched for nostalgic reason. I was a super fan. Today I have over 25K invested in my system but find myself now searched for “alternative systems to Sonos” as it is virtually unbearable to use. The latency in volume control is ridiculous. The lack of responsiveness to add or remove zones is beyond frustrating. Worst of all, almost all the functionality has been stripped out and there appears to be no way to play different music in any other zones without cancelling the current music as there is only one menu?? Sadly, I feel like I have reached the point where I will just sell the system for cents on the dollar and move to a new audio set up altogether. Thoughts? Has anyone else figured out the app and/or considered alternative systems?

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Rhonny

Prodigy III

It sounds like you’re not using the right method to play music…

- Drag up the Now Playing area from the bottom of the screen to show your list of speakers. (Or tap the name of your system top left of the Home Screen.)
- Tap the speaker you wish to play music on. That becomes the active speaker.

- Search for music and press play. It will play on the selected speaker.

I think you’ve been using the grouping screen up until now. That screen is for adding speakers to the current speaker you are playing music on, to create a group of speakers playing in sync.

D

David_208

Lyricist I

I found myself in the same position after 20 years and ££££ invested.

I have switched to using ROON to play and control all my SONOS kit. It works brilliantly for my use case (Tidal + some local music) well worth the £12 per month just for the lack of frustration alone, but you will need a local ‘server’ to make it work (I had a 7-year-old MacBook which wasn't being used). Added bonus is it also works with my non SONOS gear too.

David

G

Gordie26Author

Contributor I

I found myself in the same position after 20 years and ££££ invested.

I have switched to using ROON to play and control all my SONOS kit. It works brilliantly for my use case (Tidal + some local music) well worth the £12 per month just for the lack of frustration alone, but you will need a local ‘server’ to make it work (I had a 7-year-old MacBook which wasn't being used). Added bonus is it also works with my non SONOS gear too.

David

Fantastic. Thank you David. I am going to give ROON a spin. I did a bit of research and I do like that it can work cross-platform with some of my other gear too. Cheers!

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Gordie26Author

Contributor I

It sounds like you’re not using the right method to play music…

- Drag up the Now Playing area from the bottom of the screen to show your list of speakers. (Or tap the name of your system top left of the Home Screen.)
- Tap the speaker you wish to play music on. That becomes the active speaker.

- Search for music and press play. It will play on the selected speaker.

I think you’ve been using the grouping screen up until now. That screen is for adding speakers to the current speaker you are playing music on, to create a group of speakers playing in sync.

Thanks Rhonny. This was helpful. I think I missed this simple drag feature as the load time is painfully slow and often clicking any of the controls appears to time out. I use an iPhone 15 Pro Max and apple devices had always worked great on the old app so assumed that was not the issue. Thanks again for the info!

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