who are sonos competitors i can change to

 If you own WiiM & Echodevices and want to do whole house audio a plus is the fact that WiiM devices can become part of an Amazon Echo group.  Sonos can be seen in the Alexa app, but cannot become part of a group.

I own MusicCast and it suits my needs. Personally I prefer the MusicCast 50s sound profile to the Sonos profile and don’t have a need for a sub using them. Availability can be hit and miss on the new products as Yamaha changed production plants during the covid pandemic.

The main thing the current line up lacks in terms of hardware vs Sonos, in the uk, is a MusicCast soundbar for people who want them. The MusicCast soundbar has been replaced by a TrueX soundbar, which as far as I can tell, isn’t compatible.

The AVRs support the MusicCast sub and speakers as wireless or ethernet connected. They have a mix of AVRs, network receivers, speakers and 1u rack mount 4 zone units with a power amp expansion unit. Size vs the Sonos Amp is significantly different due to the Yamaha AVRs and receivers being HiFi sized.

The AVRs can provide up to 4 zone multi zone, with video and audio, depending on the model.

Integrated streaming sources, like most alternatives, is far more limited than the wide range that Sonos support, but for my usage the Dlna/upnp server, qobuz and radio streaming, which supports international streams in the uk, it covers my required usage. AirPlay gets used occasionally for anything not native.

I should probably stay out of this thread but I can’t help but make a comment on what’s been stated. Full disclosure I’m a die-hard Sonos fan and have no intentions of moving to another product. That is unless Sonos goes under and all functionality ceases. Even if that happens, I don’t believe my system would be bricked.

However, before moving on let me compliment  @AlexPermit  on the well thought-out analysis of potential Sonos replacements. Well Done!!

That said...what I hear is…one can move to Brand X but here are the short comings vs Sonos. So I suppose if you’re willing to accept what may be lost or not possible with Brand X vs Sonos then it may be the right decision to move on and close the door on Sonos.

Granted Sonos has disappointed many dedicated customers with the recent app update that basically; for some, destroyed a previously great in-home/whole house listening system/experience. As a result many are having delayed buyers remorse as Sonos was not able to right-the-ship in an acceptable time frame.

Sonos IMO will make things right in terms of its software (the app) and restoring 99% of what went missing. Some things will never comeback as the newer technology will not allow it.

However, as far as jumping ship for another brand before doing so ask yourself….was my decision to purchase Sonos in the beginning based upon fact that Sonos was the better choice vs the competition; or did I just flip-a -coin and Sonos won the toss? I don’t think it was a flip-of-a coin as the Sonos investment is too pricy to allow luck as the deciding factor.

My point being that if Sonos was the right decision then (whenever then was) it’s most likely going to be the right decision again once the dust settles. I get it…frustrations are high but improvements are being made. Granted the pace to correct things is not moving at Warp Speed but nevertheless they are being made.

I’d venture to say that if everything wrong with Sonos since the app refresh were corrected tomorrow there would still be complaints and/or assistance needed. If not, this Community would be useless. BTW…this community existed before the app refresh.

I’ve said enough but before I go I’ll leave you with this thought….sometimes we may find ourselves jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.🤔

 WiiM is HOT for sure!!

 I am patient.  So I’ll hang on to my Sonos stuff.  App is slow and unfinished, but it works here.

No need to get rid of your Sonos, plug WiiM into Sonos line in. 

Question about the WiiM. I have a multiple room setup with Arc / Sub / 300s in the big room and ones, a move and fives in three other rooms. If, hypothetically, Sonos was to go out of business tomorrow, would the WiiM Ultra allow me to use my system on a par with Sonos? 

99% seems optimistic. We’ll see.  There’s the obvious app problems and the not so obvious but just as nefarious firmware issues causing playback instability and other problems.

My decision to purchase SONOS was in 2009 after seeing the system at a Porsche Panamera Launch party with it hooked up to a Burmester sound system.   We were blown away by how easy it was to use and good it sounded (lot of credit to Burmester as well).  So, no Panamera for us, but we did come home and dig into SONOS.  It was a different company then - vibrant, focused, making high-quality products with great support - worthy of exotic car launches and customer briefing centers at high-tech companies.  Not cheap, but worth it.  When the dust settles, that assessment of the company will no longer be true.  In fact, this is the 2nd time in several years, they’ve told their customers to “stuff it”.

You may be able to swallow that - apparently - but for me, it’s no longer the same math - not the same company and hardly a company I would recommend anyone do business with.  The “no-brainer” stellar product is no longer what defines SONOS.  They are the “fiasco company” now, chasing revenue at the expense of customer satisfaction.  What company would roll out what amounts to alpha-quality software and think that’s OK?  Read their Q3 2024 Sonos Inc Earnings Call - they basically admit chasing revenue is what led to this.  And it will now cost them in damage control - WSJ estimates $137 million, roughly 10% of yearly revenues.

FWIW, I have used the SONOS Community forums only a few times ever before this - customer service slightly more.  I’d venture to say the Community has never seen the traffic this app refresh has created - ever.  When we inadvertently updated and broke everything, I was shocked to log into the community and see what looked the aftermath of a hurricane hitting south FL overnight while I slept.  That was a WTF moment like I have never seen here - even worse than the “S1 S2” debacle.

Had they given us the proper option to simply roll back to the working S2 system - still a great idea, I would have done that and vanished again from here as would have most of us.  It was, in fact, SONOS who forced us INTO THE FIRE!  That’s why people are looking at frying pans!

Hi @Editor John, think of the WiiM Ultra as an alternative to the Sonos Port and the WiiM Amp as an alternative to the Sonos Amp.

WiiM does not make all-in-one speakers/soundbars to compete with Sonos.

First: even if one has Sonos Inc stock, an emotional investment in a “for profit” as some display here. is unhealthy, it also can lead to poor financial decision making.

Second, as someone that has moved from the Sonos frying pan to a happy place since 2020 via opting for Echo front ends for the smart UI, I will address the Amazon option based on my experience with AEX/Sonos/Amazon from 2011 till now, through two Sonos upheavals, 2020 and 2024.

To start, Amazon does not do TV sound well. But neither does Sonos - all sound bars are compromised solutions compared to a fully wired 7.1 or higher HT set up. Which in turn are compromised versions of the latest multiplex. Which is in turn so for the real world experience. So, one has to draw a line somewhere for home video and I have found that to be via adding a pair of high end active speakers that also do bass well, flanking a 4K TV.  It also helps if one has grown out of effect heavy movies and moved to movies with a story.

Second, Amazon does not do NAS music. 

With that said, I have found Echo front ends - the smaller and cheaper the better - to be an excellent replacement for the Sonos app, where the Echo units are wire connected to Sonos line in jacks, if one has at least some Sonos kit with those, and one wishes to get full value for the money paid for expensive hardware to Sonos, which can easier done if on S1. I find that the Echo devices are just as stable - perhaps more so - as Sonos for wireless music play. All my Echo front ends are on 5GHz.

Be it Amazon/Sonos/WiiM/Yamaha or any other, for music at home I now see no sense in having bundled solutions with the necessary high quality kit needed to render good sounding music at home to be held hostage to the frequent shenanigans of the smart front ends. That rules out Echo Studio as well, for the same reason. 

In 2011 I had a high end SACD player from Marantz, wired to my legacy amp/high end speakers. If I were to wire an Echo Dot instead of said Marantz to the same downstream components today, and streamed music from standard Spotify, Miles Davis on Kind of Blue would sound no different, late at night in a quiet room. Because even at that time, the ambient sound levels in the room would defeat any subtle differences that the SACD would deliver. And 95% - perhaps 99% - of sound quality heard in such a space is down to speakers/speaker placement, which would be unchanged in the cited example.

Calling them that is just scare-mongering. There many viable alternatives out there now - which is why in the overall scheme of home audio, Sonos is still small fry.