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Airplay 2 support for PLAY:1, PLAY:3, PLAYBAR - BEWARE

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Be warned about all this talk of old speaker compatibility. It is very misleading. I was advised prior to Airplay 2 release about the functionality we were likely to get. It is very limited. Based on that advise I now have mixture of compatible (SONOS ONEs) and in compatible SONOS speakers (PLAY 3, PLAY:1s, PLAYBAR). Firstly if you have ONEs set as surrounds to a PLAYBAR they will not be compatible with Airplay2 as it is a closed group and the ONEs cannot be seen, this is because the PLAYBAR is the lead speaker in that set (not compatible). This negates Airplay 2 completely. (this is what I did in an attempt to provide access to my older speakers throughout the house). The only way I can bring that theatre set into play is by having an additional play ONE (thats 3 now) to drive the airplay2 commands. Also, 'accessing' older speakers by simply having a single SONOS ONE limits your entire network of speakers as it must be part of the group. For instance if room A has a compatible SONOS ONE and room B has an in compatible PLAY:1 you cannot play music in room B without playing in room A too (as it needs to be one group/room not two), which kind of ruins the notion of multi room. Essentially you have to set up your entire multi room house as one single room/group and toggle the mute/volume on each room depending on which you want to 'hear'. This will then further restrict the beauty of airplay 2 and Siri as you will not be able to send room commands to seperate spaces. You will not be able to say 'play music in the kitchen' as the kitchen will be grouped with the rest of the house. Its a complete hack.

The ONLY way around this is to have at least one compatible speaker in each room/group. ie, ditch everything you have and start again.

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BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

Ok, having just had a play around I can see the limitations of ATV being using as an access to the playbar as per points above. Parking that idea, I have set up a ONE (disconnected surrounds) and I am having trouble seeing the playbar (still set up as 'lounge'). Sonos described this as the solution. The playbar is not recognised as an available speaker (this goes for 2 x PLAY:1s in the house too). I'm unable to group the ONE with the playbar or any other speaker apart from another ONE.

All in all so far its not working as described. I have not deleted the room configurations on the SONOS app and re set up speakers from scratch. Perhaps that is what it needs?

Regarding your comment "Just use the sonos app" I agree, but the major plus with airplay 2 was the opportunity to finally use the Apple Music app for multi-room. If you cant use the Apple Music app its actually redundant beyond streaming sound from video on an iPhone ipad.

Has anyone actually got old speakers working on airplay2 when grouping with a ONE?

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billiejoe87

Chromatic Producer I

Ok, having just had a play around I can see the limitations of ATV being using as an access to the playbar as per points above. Parking that idea, I have set up a ONE (disconnected surrounds) and I am having trouble seeing the playbar (still set up as 'lounge'). Sonos described this as the solution. The playbar is not recognised as an available speaker (this goes for 2 x PLAY:1s in the house too). I'm unable to group the ONE with the playbar or any other speaker apart from another ONE.

All in all so far its not working as described. I have not deleted the room configurations on the SONOS app and re set up speakers from scratch. Perhaps that is what it needs?

Regarding your comment "Just use the sonos app" I agree, but the major plus with airplay 2 was the opportunity to finally use the Apple Music app for multi-room. If you cant use the Apple Music app its actually redundant beyond streaming sound from video on an iPhone ipad.

Has anyone actually got old speakers working on airplay2 when grouping with a ONE?

If you are using one of the ones which was bonded as a surround you might need to reset it so it can be used as a standalone Sonos One first.

I completely agree Airplay is superior to the Sonos App for Apple Music, unfortunately the Apple TV workaround for the Playbar is very flawed as I wrote above and if you were going to go through all the effort to turn your TV on and disable night mode and dialog enhancer (if you use them) in the Sonos app anyway, then in that case Airplay wouldn’t be worth the hassle.

As for Sonos Ones grouped with non airplay Sonos players, I can confirm this does work. Outside on my patio I have 3 Play:1’s grouped with a stereo Sonos One pair and when I Airplay to the Sonos One’s the music goes to all the grouped Play:1’s outside.

1 x Arc, 1 x Beam Gen 2, 1 x Amp, 2 x Sonos In Ceiling Speakers, 2 x Sub, 4 x Sonos Ones, 2 x Sonos Era 100, 5 x Symfonisk Lamp (Gen 2)

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BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

I do have the ex-surround set up as an individual ONE and can access this via airplay2.

Unlike you I cannot see my Play:1s in order to group via airplay. They simply do not show in the list to group to. They are set up as different rooms of course but I was under the impression that you simply group the room with the ONE to the room with the Play:1s?

Unless the terminology is confusing people. I am trying to 'group' room A (ONE) with room B (play:1). If this is not even possible I go back to my first comment that ALL speakers are a single room and the ONE needs to be in the same 'room' to work?

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billiejoe87

Chromatic Producer I

I do have the ex-surround set up as an individual ONE and can access this via airplay2.

Unlike you I cannot see my Play:1s in order to group via airplay. They simply do not show in the list to group to. They are set up as different rooms of course but I was under the impression that you simply group the room with the ONE to the room with the Play:1s?

Unless the terminology is confusing people. I am trying to 'group' room A (ONE) with room B (play:1). If this is not even possible I go back to my first comment that ALL speakers are a single room and the ONE needs to be in the same 'room' to work? You will not see the Play:1 in airplay at all. You need to group the Sonos One with the Play:1 in the Sonos App first and then when you airplay to the Sonos One it will automatically also play on the Play:1 which was grouped. When using Airplay you will not see the Play:1 at all. As far as Airplay is concerned, it is simply playing the audio to the Sonos One.

If you cannot group the Sonos One and Play:1's in the Sonos app then there is a problem you need to work on with Sonos Support.

1 x Arc, 1 x Beam Gen 2, 1 x Amp, 2 x Sonos In Ceiling Speakers, 2 x Sub, 4 x Sonos Ones, 2 x Sonos Era 100, 5 x Symfonisk Lamp (Gen 2)

Smilja

And the limitation is...?

Older products do not have the processing power to support Airplay2.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

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BailsAuthor

Trending Lyricist I

ok this was my worst fear. As I initially thought and mentioned, you have to have a ONE 'roomed/fixed' with an un compatible speaker. So this means you literally cannot have a PLAY:1 in a room on its own. All the talk of grouping (grouping rooms together) an old and new speaker does not work. For instance a single PLAY:1 in the bedroom is now un usable on airplay.

This is what I mean by the terminology. A group is not the same as a room. Groups are collectives of rooms. This means you need a compatible speaker in EVERY 'room'

melvimbe

I do have the ex-surround set up as an individual ONE and can access this via airplay2.

Unlike you I cannot see my Play:1s in order to group via airplay. They simply do not show in the list to group to. They are set up as different rooms of course but I was under the impression that you simply group the room with the ONE to the room with the Play:1s?

Unless the terminology is confusing people. I am trying to 'group' room A (ONE) with room B (play:1). If this is not even possible I go back to my first comment that ALL speakers are a single room and the ONE needs to be in the same 'room' to work?

You are correct that you would not see room B as an airplay speaker in your scenario. Sonos never said that you would. How can Sonos be misleading about something they never said?

As far as the reason for airplay being to bring in Apple music, you can play apple music directly through Sonos. I'd say the benefit is other audio that you can get on your iphone that you can't get through Sonos directly. Podcasts, and such. Siri has some functions, but again, Sonos never said you could do EVERYTHING through Siri and never have to touch the Sonos app every again.

Of course, thats the entire point of this conversation. There is a massive compromise if you wish to do so. it also means toggling between airplay 2 use and regular SONOS app use will be a nightmare as you may have set up 4 groups around the house for regular mutiroom use and when the moment arises you'd like to use airplay 2 instead you will have reconfigure those 4 groups into one and control individual rooms via the mute button.

Massive compromise? I don't see it as such. Switch groups around in Sonos is very easy to do. Again, your idea of setting up your home is one large group all the time, is a rather lousy one, not something Sonos would recommend, or pretty much anyone. Sending audio to whatever compatible speakers you have, then grouping that speaker with the rooom you want to listen to isn't some monumental task. Yes, it means you can't do the whole thing through Siri or Apple's screen.

Personally, I think trying to use airplay 2 full time is a bad idea anyway. When you do that, you stream to your phone, then your speakers...double the streaming. It have some advantageous features clearly, but it was never advertised a full replacement for the Sonos app and all of Sonos other features.

Danny

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nimrodyo

Lyricist II

And the limitation is...?

Older products do not have the processing power to support Airplay2.

I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of Sonos products but that sounds like marketing ******. How much CPU power does the Play:5 has that the Play:3 doesn't? and how much processing power does AirPlay2 requires at the first place?

melvimbe

And the limitation is...?

Older products do not have the processing power to support Airplay2.

I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of Sonos products but that sounds like marketing ******. How much CPU power does the Play:5 has that the Play:3 doesn't? and how much processing power does AirPlay2 requires at the first place?

What marketing goal would that accomplish? If you're think it's to sell more products, why not make it available on the playbar, one of their most expensive products? Doesn't add up.

However, what does add up is that news articles have reported that airplay 2 is hardware heavy, and few speakers out there can match that. From what I've heard it's primarily memory requirements, as it requires a lot of buffering to make it work. It makes sense that the older Sonos products, like the play:3 have less memory in it, since the cost of memory as gone down over the years, then the newer products, like the play:5 gen 2.

Danny

jgatie

I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of Sonos products but that sounds like marketing bull. How much CPU power does the Play:5 has that the Play:3 doesn't? and how much processing power does AirPlay2 requires at the first place?

It has been suggested Airplay 2 requires a 64 bit processor, which the newer Sonos have, whereas the older units are 32 bit. Also, if it were marketing bull just to get you to buy new devices, why stop at the older devices? Why give Airplay to the Playbase when you can force people to buy a Beam? Or the Play:5, or even the One?

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