I've had a Sonos system now for 7 years and in that time I've seen the full benefit of a wifi based music service. For the principle purpose of playing music around a house, bluetooth speakers just doesnt compare.
However I am still confused why sonos see the question of 'wifi or bluetooth' as one in which we actually have to decide and go with one of the two options. Bluetooth performs a competely different function and has a completely different set of benefits to wifi. It allows one for instance to be watching iplayer on a laptop and instantly have the benefit of an extra speaker, it allows one to effortlessly create tv surround sound with any speaker you chose (not just a ruddy playbar).
Alot of the topics within this forum question how can sonos speakers perform these relevatively basic functions. What answers do we get? Various software work arounds or some tedious way of connecting a device in through a connect amp - which lets be honest defeats the point of a wireless speaker.
As a committed Sonos customer I would like to know why sonos speakers cant have a dual system - wifi and bluetooth. They have competely different functions and would together enable the user to everything one would want with a speaker. If sonos had both in my books it would defeat all competiton out there.
So sonos why not give the customer what they want?
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Well it really comes down to their basic principles and Sonos in past has been pretty strict on staying with their basic premise (reliability). Fact is Bluetooth (and you can add the A word airplay) both provide a lot of convenience but also a lot of reliability issues when it comes to dropouts etc. (especially airplay).
Was it a mistake to not originally have Bluetooth. I don’t think so. But I think the biggest issue when it comes to flexibility has been lack of inputs. If a play:1 had an input you could feed bluetooth or airplay into it. Therefor allowing some flexibility.
Personally I hate Bluetooth and airplay in the home. I use Bluetooth of course all the time traveling and have a boss Bluetooth speaker and a waterproof Harmon Kardon Bluetooth speaker. Much bette in portable function the of course as built for that. If Sonos has ever created a battery version then I would say they should have included Bluetooth in it.
However Sonos is loosening somw of their mentality. Airplay 2 coming this year is a major step toward flexibility. And with google home coming this year their is possibility of some chromecast ability. These 2 are higher caliper standards then Bluetooth or airplay so make more sense for Sonos.
I guess from flexibility standpoint Sonos deemed Bluetooth and airplay too inferior and now that other standards are catching up to Sonos in reliability they are beginning to embrace.
Was it a mistake to not originally have Bluetooth. I don’t think so. But I think the biggest issue when it comes to flexibility has been lack of inputs. If a play:1 had an input you could feed bluetooth or airplay into it. Therefor allowing some flexibility.
Personally I hate Bluetooth and airplay in the home. I use Bluetooth of course all the time traveling and have a boss Bluetooth speaker and a waterproof Harmon Kardon Bluetooth speaker. Much bette in portable function the of course as built for that. If Sonos has ever created a battery version then I would say they should have included Bluetooth in it.
However Sonos is loosening somw of their mentality. Airplay 2 coming this year is a major step toward flexibility. And with google home coming this year their is possibility of some chromecast ability. These 2 are higher caliper standards then Bluetooth or airplay so make more sense for Sonos.
I guess from flexibility standpoint Sonos deemed Bluetooth and airplay too inferior and now that other standards are catching up to Sonos in reliability they are beginning to embrace.
I have a lot more respect for bluetooth than many here - many of the problems with it arise when the streaming device is also a phone because of all the sounds and interruptions caused to the music by use of the phone/messaging functions. With a dedicated to music source device, BT can work very well. As it also does in the Amazon Dot.
IMO, the quoted lack of inputs on the 1 was a blunder. For more on that: https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/the-case-for-making-line-in-a-standard-feature-6800582
It would have been so easy to give BT capability to the 1 via a line in jack. I believe that it would have then suffered a lot less than it did via loss of market share to third party speakers for the Dot as well, in the couple of years before Sonos released the still incomplete Alexa integration.
For home, if you have to have Bluetooth and have something with Line in, you can always get a Bluetooth receiver. You’ll have to stay in range of the receiver, but that would be true of any BT product. I’ve actually picked up several of the Brookstone Big Blue headphone amplifiers for this purpose. Unfortunately, they’ve discomtinued them and are sold out online. I actually grabbed the last 5 at my local airport site because they were 90% off - $9.99. On Fleabay and Amazonstores they’re going for $35-40
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