We have Sonos throughout our home and the Sonos app along with our Alexa powered devices is a family-friendly solution for all things audio in our household. I also have a dedicated 2 channel hifi setup and a Sonos Port connected to that system. The problem is that I have to set it to variable volume which does weird things with the digital output and I have to switch to the right input when playing from the Sonos.
The good news is you’ve solved this problem with “Works with Sonos” by enabling auto power on, source selection, and app-controlled volume so that there is full digital output into the player. The bad news is this seems to be limited to several mid-range home theater receivers.
If I were head of partner programs at Sonos, I would be going around trying to build as many partnerships with all the amazing new DAC/Streamer hardware manufacturers out there who are building awesome DAC/Amps but who don’t have the advanced multi-room capability or software design and development chops that Sonos can provide. Why not make Sonos the heart of those systems??? Or at the very least make it incredibly easy and painless to enable “works with sonos” type functionality.
Examples:
- Naim Uniti series
- Cambridge Audio CXN / Evo series
- Hegel network-connected amps
- Hifi Rose
- Auralic streamers
- Aurender streamers
- iFi Zen series
- and more…