Contributor I

Alternatives to the Sonos System

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So I've finally had enough of the Sonos eco system. It's just not reliable enough and more often frustrating trying to get it to work than I actually spend listening to music on them.

What have other people looked at?

I've got 2 x Sonos one speakers in the bedroom,

1 x Sonos one speaker in the kitchen,

1 x Sonos connect in my living room connected to an amp and some floor standing speakers.

1 x Sonos portable in my ensuite

I'm thinking of forgoing the kitchen speaker as it doesn't get used often, buying a Cambridge audio network streamer for my living room and getting KEF LS speakers for my bedroom

alternative

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T

The Bounty Bar KidAuthor

Contributor I

Anyone?

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N

nik9669a

Senior Virtuoso

I’m quite happy with my stable, reliable Sonos system so the “alternatives” I’m considering are an upgrade to my Playbar and Ones. There’s certainly no need to change maker though.

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T

The Bounty Bar KidAuthor

Contributor I

I’m quite happy with my stable, reliable Sonos system so the “alternatives” I’m considering are an upgrade to my Playbar and Ones. There’s certainly no need to change maker though.

You're very lucky then. It was great at first but since the summer update that broke it all, it's never got back to what it was like before.

Connection issues, alarms not working. Not being able to find the system etc.

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Schlumpf

Virtuoso

@The Bounty Bar Kid

You‘re welcome to get help here with your Sonos system. But as this is the official Sonos community, i‘m sure the terms of use don’t allow discussion or advice on using other manufacturers devices instead of similar Sonos hardware.
If you want to buy a similar car like a Ferrari but NOT a Ferrari, I suppose you won’t ask a Ferrari dealer for advice. 😉

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Ralf

M

MyChrmicalRomance

Enthusiast II

Anyone?

There are dozens of threads about alternatives since the disaster app release. Check the search. WiiM, bluesound, HEOS are hardware alternatives mentioned. Roon and Lyrion are software that can use your Sonos hardware.

Reddit is a good place to find discussion about the alternatives.

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M

MyChrmicalRomance

Enthusiast II

@The Bounty Bar Kid

If you want to buy a similar car like a Ferrari but NOT a Ferrari, I suppose you won’t ask a Ferrari dealer for advice. 😉

He isn’t asking Sonos dealers for advice, just other owners. Unless you are saying you work for Sonos?

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Schlumpf

Virtuoso

@The Bounty Bar Kid

If you want to buy a similar car like a Ferrari but NOT a Ferrari, I suppose you won’t ask a Ferrari dealer for advice. 😉

He isn’t asking Sonos dealers for advice, just other owners. Unless you are saying you work for Sonos?

Yes, of course… but this forum is owned and managed by Sonos and under their rules. And advice on other competitive products is against the terms of use.

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Ralf

pwt

Virtuoso

The best alternative is Sonos, but running the legacy S1 variant of the software not the current S2 version, if your speakers support it.

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4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

Ken_Griffiths

Hi

I gave up on the Sonos controller last year. It simply no longer lets me play any of my own music that I have stored on my Mac and it's obvious by now that Sonos will never fix it. So I’m now using Roon and could not be happier. It does everything that the Sonos app used to do before they broke it, but better. It also has useful features such as automatically updating my library and creating themed playlists all by itself. It’s a bit pricey at $14 a month ($12 when you pay for a year) but it’s worth it. I no longer bang my head against the wall just to play music on my Sonos speakers. If you use this link to sign up, you get 30 days free (and, full disclosure, so do I) https://roonlabs.com/r/Sr6P9g==

I don’t use a MAC, but use both a Windows 10 PC and NAS to serve up local library music - i just switched the library shares here to use SMB v2 & v3 (instead of SMBv1/HHTP sharing) and so both are working fine with the Sonos App. The App itself is working good too, so no monthly subscription was needed here for Roon and/or NUC. The two local libraries each play okay, but some things still need resolving, like being able to playback an artists entire collection - although I’ve got around that with .m3u playlists for the time being. Each new App update has certainly improved things and no doubt they will continue to improve the local library feature too.

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J

JohnKeating

Lyricist II

Ken_Griffiths, I’m surprised when I read that the Sonos app is working for some people. I my case, it won’t even show me my own library. All I can do is play their pre-loaded music stations and stations I add myself. There is nothing in settings to let me link to my library and all the step-by-step instructions I’ve found online mirror what the app actually looks like. I’ve reinstalled the app several times too. I’m glad you were able to make it work though!

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