Sonos newcomer, second day experience, Chromecast and Di.FM


I am a old style Hi Fi enthusiast, recently looked at Bose outdoor speakers at Costco, was almost ready to buy these when i decided to look into a online benchmark where the Sonos Move was recommended, thats what i ended up buying online. I was willing to spend $$$ exited about what i read about the Sonos performance i bought a bundle Sonos Move + One SL on eBay from a large authorized dealer just to later find out that this pair is unable to deliver Stereo, but that is a different story.

The Sonos Move arrived yesterday afternoon and i quickly wanted to try it out before dinner, had 15minutes for that.
Started unpacking powered it up following the instructions, installed the app on my Android, registration, question after question after update after question, the thing was finally satisfied to play music after around 20 Minutes or so, food on the table getting cold.

Grrrr, Ok playing with the Sonos Android app while eating i tried to listen to my favorite music stream di.fm, but no way to add it to Sonos and no way to Stream to the speaker directly from the di.fm app. I can stream to my TV with no problem via Chromecast, but not to this “high-end speaker” wt*? Come one guys, could you at least mention that on your marketing? You proudly display Android on even the box of the speaker.

Looking through this forum there are a couple of people mentioning this flaw and complaining about the lack of Chromecast, but no official statement from SONOS, no explanation why Sonos ignores that gigantic userbase, no action. VERY DISAPPOINTING.

Ok i thought, lets try Bluetooth. Yep that way i am able to stream to the Sonos Move, but guess what, no option to add another Move to enjoy stereo when outside, on the move so to say.
Heck i have a set of cheapo Chinese speakers with decent sound quality offering Stereo over bluetooth, what is going on here?

 

Anyway the thing that really ticks me off is the lack of Chromecast and Sonos ignorance addressing it or at least providing an official statement. I am not the only one wondering about this: “The lack of Chromecast support on Sonos speakers in 2020 is infuriating”

 https://www.androidcentral.com/lack-chromecast-support-sonos-speakers-2020-infuriating

 

I will start looking around for other options, most likely return the set Monday next week.
 

In a nutshell Sonos had been a great waste of time.

 


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11 replies

Sorry it didn't meet your particular needs. My six room Sonos system has served me well for nine years, playing radio, assorted streaming services, music stored on my Android phone and on a NAS drive. Not to mention two home theatre systems. 

Horses for courses

 

Btw i believe you can add DI.FM to Sonos. It requires a premium subscription (a DI.FM requirement, not Sonos) and possibly a PC/Mac controller.

I have DI.FM premium, and no. No way to play it through the Android phone, even contacted their support. Anyway this is not the point, everything could be so simple by having the ability to stream by Chromecast.

@Dorfbulle, you can stream to your TV via Chromecast HDMI which is not identical to Chromecast Audio. Google has abandoned the Audio Dongle about two years ago in favor of their Google Home devices. So why should they permit Chromecast Audio on a 3rd party platform like Sonos? 

Userlevel 7
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I understand you are disappointed in your Sonos system. I would agree with you that adding Chromecast would be a nice feature for Android users. I use AirPlay 2 sometimes too. But you put a lot of blame on Sonos for things you, in my opinion, should have checked yourself. You didn’t look at anything before you bought the speaker and now you are complaining it doesn’t do what you suppose it should do? And asking Sonos to provide an official statement for something they do not promise? Should they also provide a statement they don’t do your washing up? Come on.

From https://www.di.fm/founder-letter I read that di.fm can still be played on Sonos, but have made a decision to only allow this for premium members.

I have DI.FM premium, and no. No way to play it through the Android phone, even contacted their support. Anyway this is not the point, everything could be so simple by having the ability to stream by Chromecast.

As I said, possibly with the desktop app, although once added you could control with an Android device.

If lack of Chromecast is a deal breaker for you, then you had better return Sonos for a refund.  Presumably if it was a deal breaker for more than a handful of people Sonos would have added support by now.

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

So this doesn’t work for you? 
https://www.di.fm/content/hardware-players

@Smiliya, i can stream music to my chromecast TV just fine. Not sure where you are coming from with your statement that Google discontinued that. https://www.techjunkie.com/stream-music-chromecast/

 

@106rallyeYou are going a bit far with that whole washing up argument, not? Emotional? Well i guess fanboy, whatever. Fact is Sonos is marketing their product as supporting “Android” and “Wifi”, no word about the obvious and significant limitations when actually using this device with Android. So i should have checked each scenario before buying? Lol, if you think so. Not sure how you are purchasing products but i would love to see what you do when purchasing a vehicle. Fact is SONOS sucks in combo with Android, there is no other way to put it. See also link in my original post.

If i am able to control di.fm through my phone once it is installed as a hardware player, well this would be an option.

But here again another limitation. I tried to go that route yesterday, Hardware players need to be installed through either Windows or Mac using Sonos software. But I am running Linux, ironically and not surprising there is no SONOS software available for Linux, even though SONOS runs on exactly that OS ;-)

 

But Honestly, even if i am able to figure all that out, the software and streaming limitation in combo with  not being able to pair 2 Sonos Move when using them outside (they are designed and marketed for outside use) is just to much irony. Half baked, over-hyped, high price device, if you ask me. Gosh i was using portable stereo speaker on camping trips when the Sony Walkmen first came out, how in the world are these Sonos guys trying to convince anybody that cares about decent sound.

 

@Smiliya, i can stream music to my chromecast TV just fine. Not sure where you are coming from with your statement that Google discontinued that. https://www.techjunkie.com/stream-music-chromecast/

 

https://www.androidcentral.com/chromecast-audio-being-discontinued

 

 

But here again another limitation. I tried to go that route yesterday, Hardware players need to be installed through either Windows or Mac using Sonos software. But I am running Linux, ironically and not surprising there is no SONOS software available for Linux, even though SONOS runs on exactly that OS ;-)

 

Uuh? Adding new components is ONLY possible over Android or iOS.

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/updates-to-the-desktop-controller-coming-soon-6813300

@SmiljaYes Google stopped offering the Audio Dongle, that does not mean Chromcast itself stops working for Audio streaming. Here Googles statement: 

 

“ Our product portfolio continues to evolve, and now we have a variety of products for users to enjoy audio. We have therefore stopped manufacturing our Chromecast Audio products. We will continue to offer assistance for Chromecast Audio devices, so users can continue to enjoy their music, podcasts and more.”

I just checked,  Chromecast audio dongles are available everywhere for as low as $25.


And i just tried again to add Di.Fm via Android app, does not work!
To make sure I dug through Di.Fms instructions, here we go:

1) Select the channel you wish to add from this list:

2)Copy the following URL to your clipboard:

3)Open the Sonos Desktop Controller application on your Mac or PC (not the Sonos mobile app).

4)Choose the menu item Manage > Add Radio Station…

5)Paste the URL from Step 2 above into the Streaming URL input box.

6)Enter the channel name in the Station Name input box and click OK.

Anyway, thanks for supporting and challenging, this helps not to give up to quickly. I hope this thread can also help someone in the same situation.

 

 

 

 

Userlevel 2

And i just tried again to add Di.Fm via Android app, does not work!
To make sure I dug through Di.Fms instructions, here we go:


It’s really a shame that there di.fm doesn’t have a native Sonos integration and requires you to manually add stations on the desktop. There are plenty of other services that do, which make the entire experience better.