This speaker requires you to fully commit every facet of it's use through the Sonos App. No sound can come from the speaker that does not go through Sonos web services first. No exceptions. If there is any network problem with you, your ISP, your cell provider or Sonos, the speaker will be unusable, as it all must pass through the Sonos App.
Was excited to get the Sonos Beam 2 in the mail, hooked it up to my TV……then…..Sonos happened.
I'm forced to install a Sonos app and give Sonos every permission available (location, full name, email, network access, microphone access, phone access, device history access?). It’s just a speaker! WTF?!
Forced to use Sonos app to use a speaker I just paid $500 for? Can’t play any audio from my phone to the speaker, no music, no radio, no podcast, and no other devices can connect. All must pass through the one and only Sonos app on the one phone entity with no other connection options permitted.
Can’t connect directly through the Wi-Fi and there is no Bluetooth, ever, zero, ditto, natta.
Spent 30min on the phone with Sonos support, trying to talk to a guy that could barely understand me or me him, repeatedly putting me on hold to ask his supervisor basic questions. The answers always amounted to using the Sonos app. He is even trained specifically to not admit the Sonos speakers can't be used by anything other than the Sonos App.
No clue what the sound quality is as I never got to listen to it. After over an hour of trying to deal with a single speaker the only audio source playable was the hardwired TV and that was nothing special. What a joke! There are cheaper systems, with better audio quality that are infinitely easier and more versatile from Bose to Sony to even Vizio.
Sonos appears to be a kitchy brand designed to try and get you committed and not let go, though this one is going right back to Costco.
I own my devices, they don’t own me. Why would anybody want this kind of audio system?
