Switching from Squeezebox to Sonos

Do you have LMS installed to run your current squeezebox system?  If so, then you could run new Sonos devices on that, as well as retain the native Sonos features.

If you're not too fussed about higher end audio quality, I'd go for Google nest hubs as your alarm clocks - also compatible with LMS.

The Beam and Roams are good.  Be aware that many users have battery issues with the Roam - I keep mine permanently on mains without issues. 

Well, that's the Google nest hubs in the bin, then! 

Roams would be good for bedrooms.  

Sonos app is either android or IOS.  There's a Windows program which is so-so (but you have to use the phone apps to setup Sonos devices).

I guess you have LMS on a Windows machine.  Which version is it?   If you keep LMS then you could access the Roams as airplay receivers using Squeezer and keep your existing alarm settings.

Essentially, all you should need to do to access the Roams as airplay receivers is to install one plugin on LMS.   THE Roams will appear as squeezebox players controllable via Squeezer.  They retain their Sonos features also which are controllable using the Sonos S2 app. 

Annoying, can’t edit my post above for the second time.  So this page has thrown away all that I’d entered!  That aside…

So the Nest Hub is also touchscreen, handy! And you can turn off the mic. :-)

And whilst on a rapidly aging OS it’s no worse than my Lenovo Tab3’s that run a Kodi slideshow (again from pictures on the same server as my music library).  I think the Tab3’s are Android 8!

So I could run the ‘Squeezer’ Android app on the Nest Hub for my music and Kodi for a slideshow on the same device?.  Nice if so. [edit] Ah no the Squeezer app is not a player for the device it’s installed on, only a remote for other Players.  So is there something that makes the Nest Hub ‘look’ like a Squeezebox Player?

Can I also control the Sonos Beam from the Android ‘Squeezer’ app as if the Beam were a ‘Player’ as far as LMS is concerned??

So the Nest Hub is just displaying now playing and outputting the audio, but control of it still has to come via the Squeezer App on my phone?  I know nothing of Chromecast so my guess is that this service makes the Nest Hub look like a Player to the Squeezer app?

Soooo, how would I cancel an Alarm, if the Nest Hub is just a dumb ‘Player’?

Signing off now for a while, so Happy New Year to everyone!

That's it.    Thinking it over, maybe the Roams are a better choice.  The sound is good given their small size and they're less intrusive than the Nest.  With Roams you'd have the best of 2 worlds (sonos plus LMS).   These smart speakers are good but can easily do their own thing which causes frustration.  I use a cheap Google mini speaker as an alarm and not much else.

I should check out the squeezer app - I used it a few times years ago.

Roam as seen via Squeezer:

Soooo, how would I cancel an Alarm, if the Nest Hub is just a dumb ‘Player’?

Guess you'd have to use Squeezer... I've never messed with alarms in LMS. Sorry. 

If I may barge in with a question in what looks to be a interesting discussion:

I am presently very well served by Echo Show devices wired to the line in jacks on my Sonos kit, that allow me to bypass the Sonos controller app, and allow album art to be seen for all that is playing, whether on a single Echo or on all that are grouped together. The problem I am anticipating is when any Echo need to be replaced, because none of the current line up have a line out - the Google devices never had these.

Is there a way to get these devices to play as mine do now, via Sonos, but without a wired connection between line level jacks? 

Note that the Sonos Alexa integration cannot be used, it is not available in India. And even if it was, it would not show album art, so I would not use it anyway.

PS: Using a third party application hosted on a Raspberry, I am also able to listen to my ripped music files in all formats, with album art, via the Echo Shows, and the solution would have to address this as well. Ideally...

Do you mean you want to play Sonos content on the Shows? 

If so, then I'm afraid there's no way. 

And why Google from the beginning, and the latest generation of Show hardware, denies users a way to get better sound quality from them via wired downstream third party speakers, is an irritating mystery… as irritating as the absence of line in jacks on Sonos Play 1 units.

I can only think of one way to maybe achieve this.   You'd need to attach a Bluetooth receiver to the Sonos device - then switch Echo to use the bluetooth 'speaker' (receiver).   Would that work.?

This topic takes me back a decade! I used to own a Squeezebox Duet that fed into my Marantz receiver and a Radio in the kitchen. The Radio was very good, but the Duet was a disaster. Always losing connecting between the base and the remote. Final straw was the inability of the system to get both devices (Duet in the living and Radio in the kitchen) to sync properly.

Big advantage of the system (when it worked) was that I could play my mp3-collection without being limited by to 65k max. When Logitech abandoned Squeezebox and I got a new internet capable Marantz I sold my Squeezebox devices, only to succeed in syncing music in the living and and the kitchen when I replaced the Marantz with Sonos.

I too haven't seen the value of sync in different rooms. Where I do see and get tremendous value from it though is in my open plan central space in an apartment, that serves for living/dining/kitchen and adjacent patio, where one set of speakers won’t suffice, when at times the entire space is to be filled with the same music which can only be done via zones in perfect sync. But Echo does this just as well as Sonos does, I have found, with Show units also showing the same album art in each served zone in this space. 

That is true, but if the on unit buttons are used to change the volume, the changes are much more gradual than via voice command to select a volume level or to change the existing one.