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A honest review/opinion on the Sonos ecosystem

  • June 19, 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 598 views
B

My situation: I have a small home office where I spend 8-10 hours a day and, about two years ago, I purchased a Sonos One to best enjoy my favorite music, podcasts and also use it as general-purpose speaker (for YouTube videos, etc). Please note I don't do any "technical" audio or media work.

What's wrong:

  • The main reason why I bought a Sonos One was AirPlay 2 compatibility, which would allow me to use the Sonos speaker as a remote speaker for my MacBook over wired Ethernet (1Gbps). Wrong: AirPlay 2 works as long as you have something playing without interruption. As soon as you pause your music or any other kind of media, resuming after a few minutes just gets you a very long, or possibly infinite, silence. All I've gotten from Sonos support on this is "Apple's fault". After two years no software update on either side has improved this. Not even they very touted "Sonos S2". Even when it works, sync and delay issues abound.

  • At some point I decided to just assume this speaker is only good for music playback, so I switched to the Sonos Mac App, signing up with my music services of choice (YouTube Music, Pocket Casts). Sonos Radio isn't much of a selling point as all these nice Sonos Stations are not available in my country. Anyway, the Music Service integrations aren't that great, as they only support minimal browsing/playback functionality (no updating playlists, no adding anything to the library, etc). In short, the Mac App is nothing to call home about, and if anything is infuriatingly not Mac-like in terms of user interface.

Am I missing something? doing something wrong? Is Sonos worth the cost if you get out of the "living room speaker" use case?

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7 replies

bockersjv
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  • bockersjv
  • Local Superstar
  • June 19, 2021

Sonos speakers are not PC or Mac speakers. Also Airplay was not intended as a permanent connection to other airplay devices.  So you bought the wrong speakers for your use case. There are plenty of dedicated pc speakers. 
 

Your second point has some merit. The Spotify app is a good example of good integration with Sonos and Amazon app also works. The functionality within the Sonos app is limited but given the 40 plus integrations, way more than any other system,I can’t see how they could offer more. Besides It’s up to the music service to make the most of the Sonos api. 

For radio there is Tunein and Radioplayer, both free, have you tried them? 
 

As for controlling Sonos both the Mac and PC apps are old and unlikely to get any updates as Sonos concentrates on Mobile devices. Try them, they are a better experience in many ways.

 

 

Jeffrey_35
Bumper
  • Bumper
  • June 19, 2021

As @bockersjv says you bought the wrong speaker. HomePod is what you need for a reliable Airplay2 speaker. That’s it. 

 

ratty
  • ratty
  • June 19, 2021

Anyway, the Music Service integrations aren't that great, as they only support minimal browsing/playback functionality (no updating playlists, no adding anything to the library, etc).

It depends on the service. Deezer does all the above from within the Sonos controller app. 

pwt
106rallye
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  • 106rallye
  • June 19, 2021

I’m not a Mac user, but there shouldn’t be a difference between using a Homepod or a Sonos speaker when playing via Airplay 2 from a Mac. If there is, Apple would be at fault……

B
  • BarateGites
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • June 21, 2021

My situation: I have a small home office where I spend 8-10 hours a day and, about two years ago, I purchased a Sonos One to best enjoy my favorite music, podcasts and also use it as general-purpose speaker (for YouTube videos, etc). Please note I don't do any "technical" audio or media work.

What's wrong:

  • The main reason why I bought a Sonos One was AirPlay 2 compatibility, which would allow me to use the Sonos speaker as a remote speaker for my MacBook over wired Ethernet (1Gbps). Wrong: AirPlay 2 works as long as you have something playing without interruption. As soon as you pause your music or any other kind of media, resuming after a few minutes just gets you a very long, or possibly infinite, silence. All I've gotten from Sonos support on this is "Apple's fault". After two years no software update on either side has improved this. Not even they very touted "Sonos S2". Even when it works, sync and delay issues abound.

  • At some point I decided to just assume this speaker is only good fo https://showbox.tools/ r music playback, so I switched to the Sonos Mac App, signing up with my music services of choice (YouTube Music, Pocket Casts). Sonos Radio isn't much of a selling point as all these nice Sonos Stations are not available in my country. Anyway, the Music Service integrations aren't that great, as they only support minimal browsing/playback functionality (no updating playlists, no adding anything to the library, etc). In short, the Mac App is nothing to call home about, and if anything is infuriatingly not Mac-like in terms of user interface.

Am I missing something? doing something wrong? Is Sonos worth the cost if you get out of the "living room speaker" use case?

issue got solved!!

106rallye
Forum|alt.badge.img+18
  • 106rallye
  • June 21, 2021

How, if I may ask?

Bumper
  • Bumper
  • June 21, 2021

Where did OP’s reply go, was it deleted?

James L.
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  • James L.
  • Retired Community Staff
  • June 22, 2021

How, if I may ask?

Where did OP’s reply go, was it deleted?

It was a spam post, unfortunately. The original post was quoted, and spam links injected. :expressionless:

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