*** Official SONOS Thread ***

[RoyMi6]

Damit, why didn't anyone tell me they were everything I wanted earlier?!

I've been putting off buying them for as long as I can remember, hoping for something to come along to beat them on price while still maintaining usability (I was even happy to sacrifice on some quality!) but I finally gave in an ordered the 2xPlay:1 starter pack.

From the moment I started playing my first song after starting the app I knew I'd be hooked. The combination of fool proof interface with "out the box it just works" awesomeness (that we all secretly want) just makes it a tough one to beat.

I've tried countless systems and mashups of various devices to try and get this experience but nothing has worked..

For me, the icing on the cake has to be the alarm functionality that removes the clumsiness of an app based system (I'm a massive fan of simple button controls http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18631835) and allows you to schedule your radio station of choice (or any playlist) without using you phone. This has the effect of "resetting" the system each morning so that the physical button the device allow you to "turn on and off the radio" just like you normally would with a simple DAB radio.

It even acts as a nice "double" alarm for us as we like to get up at 07:30 and leave at 08:30 - so I've set the SONOS to only turn on for an hour on weekday mornings - reminding us to leave the house when the radio goes off.

It's really nice to have the accessibility I wanted for listening to music, as all my previous attempts have been hampered with touch and go performance or usability.

Oh, and the room groupings - genius. So simple, so quick. Love it. Really makes moving them a round much less of a task. Of course, this is also avoided if you can afford to put them in every room of your house... but since we've just bought a 5 bedroom behemoth I think it will be a while before every room has one.

For anyone looking to dip their toes into it I can highly recommend the pair of Play:1's. The real strength of the system (for me) lies in the "whole house" system and the Play:1's a nicely formed, and punchy, little devices.

Can't see myself going back - can see myself spending a lot more money

 

[RoyMi6]

try a flexson stand for the play:1 - really helps the sound. 27 quid or so though

We actually quite like it hidden away behind a vase of flowers on the mantle. The Trueplay feature they have now that "tunes" the speaker to the room seems to have done a good job a balancing the base / treble every time I've moved them.

I bought the Play 1 pair on Sunday. Should hopefully be delivered tomorrow.

The one thing i found on reviews is that having just one Play 1 in the room (and putting the other in another room) does affect the sound quality and its better to keep them both in a single room. Can you comment on this?

Not sure exactly what they're talking about... Yes, you can set up any two speakers as a stereo pair (play:1's are perfect for this) and you'll get a noticeable fuller sound. So again, yes, that's going to sound "better" - but for us, since we're using them for casual background music/radio we much prefer having the whole house filled with the music.

From a technical aspect the Sonos can work one of two ways. Either entirely over your WiFi (which we do) or you can plug one in via ethernet (or buy a sonos bridge) to create its own Sonos wireless network. The dedicated network is meant to be "more reliable" and provide "better sound". We've not had any reliability problems running on regular WiFi and my ears couldn't tell the difference between wired and unwired - but again, this could be due to our choice of music source.

I much prefer the flexibility of being able to move them around and have them almost "hidden" - so running it over the WiFi is fine for us and this shouldn't make any difference if they're in the "same room" or not. It's simply not a limiting factor. Like I say, the only aspect it would make a difference for is the physical difference between either having 1 or 2 speakers in the same room...

All the employees get 25% discount(I believe) as they have a corporate ordering page.

They can go take a long walk off a short plank

 

[RoyMi6]

Great bits of kit. Got Play 5s in the kitchen and lounge and a Play 1 we move around. Really tempted by the new Play 5 too.

Trueplay tuning is excellent. Great they're still adding features to old kit.

Yeah, being so impressed with the Play:1's it's a hard decision about my next purchase.

Can't decide between getting more rooms filled with perfectly adequate Play:1's or a single room kitted out with "better" sound...

I mean a single Play:5 is the same cost as 3xPlay:1's! And I love my Play:1's!

 

[RoyMi6]

Two benefits of the 5 over multiple ones...

1. The 5 has an audio in so you can connect devices directly to it.
2. The 5 has a bass, which gives significantly more low end power than the 1s.

Line in is exactly the sort of thing I was trying to avoid by getting Sonos, so not high on my requirements.

More base doesn't add much for casual listening, especially when 99% of the time it's going to be the radio and background music when friends are over. Don't get me wrong, I'll no doubt appreciate the improvement in sound quality when I finally cave and buy a Play:5 for the living room, but for us I think the "whole house" thing is higher on the priority list.

Which would be better for our kitchen/dinner 4m x 9m. Will be xmas pressie for wife who just wants background music. Have 2 toddlers so will not be loud.

1 x play 5 or 2 x play 1 in stereo?

2xPlay:1 but DON'T use them in "stereo pair" mode - USE them in "group" mode.

Couple of reasons for my suggestion:

1) If you put each Play:1 at opposite ends of the room you'll end up being able to have them quieter while still having the whole room able to hear music. Conversations in the room will be much easier no matter where each person is standing (in my opinion)

2) Having them at opposite ends of the room in stereo pair mode will mean that music that makes use of stereo shifting will result in the possibility of one speaker not even playing some part of the music. If you have them turned down low - from the kitchen you might not even be able to hear the other speaker playing the backup guitar that's only coming out the other speaker.

3) Set them up as separate speakers then "group them". When you go to play music both will play a mono version of the music and in turn will play both left and right channels. When grouped together like this setting one to play music (either or) will result in the other playing the same thing. Additionally using the app to pause, change track or even change volume will effect both (both speakers volume can be controlled individually while grouped as well). You've even still got the added benefit that the "play/pause/stop" button on the top of either speaker will "play/pause/stop" the other speaker while grouped.

Essentially, "grouping" your speakers will function identically to a "stereo pair" but instead of each speaker only playing the left or right channel it will play both channels out of each speaker.

 

[RoyMi6]

Yup you can just install the iOS app on her phone, tune it and forget about it. It's very effective.

+1

If your partner sets up the Sonos app on her phone she'll even be able to see your linked accounts AND link her own.

For example, I've added my Spotify account, and my partners added hers.

We can both see each others Spotify accounts from each of our phones and play form either of our own playlists.

Spotify is maybe a bad example because you can "share" playlists with Spotify, but you get my meaning.

The only thing I can't play that's "hers" specifically is local content from her phone - everything else I can see, if she adds the accounts.

 

[RoyMi6]

very useful. I was assuming stereo would sound better but I see what you mean at low volumes.

FYI "un-grouping" and turning them into a stero pair will take about 30seconds via the app. Physically picking them up and plugging them in next to one another is probably the longest part of that 30 seconds

 

[RoyMi6]

Have they made them work with music store in iTunes Match yet?

It will work with local content on your phone. But no, don't think it will play songs stored online in match (don't use match myself so not 100% up to date on how it works since I tried the free trial at launch.

 

[RoyMi6]

Anyone notice much difference in performance with the boost vs WiFi alone?

Only bought the PLAY:1 pair and had no problems using just WiFi but if the marketing is anything to go by the Boost does sounds like a nice addition - but only considering I can get one for £20! (would never pay £79 for it)

Advantage of the boost for me would be being able to put it right in the middle of the house (in network cupboard) instead hooking up one of the speakers in the living room to the network (if I even chose to do that!)

Ach, maybe I'm just looking to buy more SONOS for the sake of it... I can't fault it at the moment!

 

[RoyMi6]

As a new Sonos owner this isn't something that's obvious, and isn't in the setup documentation, but just won it a ton of girlfriend points... and it is!

You can skip to the next track by double tapping the play/pause button on the device.

(found it by accident but there's a post on their blog about it as well: http://blog.sonos.com/products/the-button-formerly-known-as-mute/)

It's a simple thing, but means when you've got that ONE song that doesn't suit every occasion that rather than whipping out your phone, unlocking it, starting up the Sonos app, sliding up to see the playing track info then clicking "next" - you can just double tap the top button.

Considering we've got the Sonos in easy reach in the dining room we often find ourselves using the hardware buttons to tweak the volume, and this is just the icing on the cake.

+1 to Sonos.

 

[RoyMi6]

Step 1) Buy the play:1 starter pack (2 for £300)

Step 2) Be suitably impressed with its performance to size ratio

Step 3) Put 2nd play:1 in another room

Step 4) enjoy the full benefit that sonos has by having multi room sound

Step 5) get addicted and order a second pair of play:1's like i have

Even if you DONT think a single play:1 (or even a pair) isn't what you're after in your kitchen/dinner you'll have a great pair of speakers for other rooms in the house

Also, just a side note, but a single play:1 is perfect for background music in any single room. I think the only case it would fail is a long, double aspect type room. In which case though, a pair of play:1s at opposite ends of the room works better for background music because they can both be lower volume while still being hear from anywhere in it.

However, if you're looking for a "sit down listen to music" type affair while the play:1 (or a pair in stereo) is still a cracking device (and totally adequate) you might benefit from a play:3/5.

The play:5 reviews so well I might just have to get one. I think the play:3 is due for an upgrade so probably worth holding off on.

So yeah, all in all, grab a pair of play:1s

 

[RoyMi6]

Pretty expensive, though.

TBH, if I had speakers already I'd be using something like Gramafon. Sonos works well for me because I don't already have speakers.

Yeah, that's got to be my biggest gripe with Sonos - the connect (non amp version) is far too expensive for what it is.

If the single Play:1 can be sold for £150 (as part of the bundle) then the connect should be less than that.

It's a shame, because if the connect was £80, I'm sure even the audiophiles with their own gear would be snapping them up for every room - I know I would have.

But at £280 it's taking the mick.

 

[RoyMi6]

Just got an invite to Apple Music with Sonos BETA.

So for anyone that's wondering, it's definitely coming.

 

[RoyMi6]

If your home wireless isn't up to scratch there are two possible solutions provided by Sonos.

1) Plug in one of the units via Ethernet. From that one device it will start a dedicated Sonos Mesh network which means it won't use your home wireless at all.

2) If you don't have a place where you can put a device and connect it to WiFi (or don't want to sacrifice the position of one of the speakers so you can) pick up a Sonos Boost. This plugs directly into your network and its sole purpose is to create the dedicated Sonos Mesh Network to replace your home WiFi without plugging in a speaker.

 

[RoyMi6]

Yes - directly from any device by Airplay or Bluetooth but as I mentioned above I have had problems with mine since I bought it that Bose couldn't fix so I may switch to Sonos.

That's not what he's asking/saying.

Part of the cost with a Sonos is that it isn't just an airplay or bluetooth target and speaker. Each Sonos speaker is a full Sonos system AND a speaker.

When you choose a track on your Spotify playlist with Sonos, once you've started you can turn off that phone and it will continue to play because the Sonos speaker itself is the Sonos system - the phone is just a controller.

Saying it works "like airplay / blueooth" is the complete opposite of how Sonos works and is part of the reason why it's such a great product.

P.S. I'm not saying that the new WiFi Bose Soundtouch doens't work like Sonos, I've no idea how it works - I'm just saying Sonos isn't like Airplay or Bluetooth.

 

[RoyMi6]

Seriously tempted to get a starter play 1 kit. Just a few questions though.

How is the wireless performance on these, I use a Asus n66u router which has fairly good range.

Is the Play 1 a good substitute for our Roberts DAB/CD player. We mainly use this for radio, CD's occasionally but I can rip stuff to my iPod touch if need be I guess.

And finally is £299 the cheapest for the starter pack, has the price been known to change?

Thanks

I've got the same router as you and I've had no problems using WiFi. If you do have problems you can plug one of them in via ethernet and they'll create their own Sonos WiFi mesh that's meant to preform better.

Only reason I've not done this as I've not had the need, performance has been faultless since day one.

Yes, it's a perfect replacement. I've replaced a radio just like you have. One trick I've done is set the alarm on the Sonos units to come on in the morning and tune into BBC Radio 2.

This means that in the morning the system is "reset" and no matter what we've been listening to in the evening the Sonos start functioning like a radio again where the hardware "play/pause" button turns on and off the radio without having to get your phone out.

 

[RoyMi6]

It won't buffer radio, it'll just start/stop the stream that's in its queue.

Yeah, that was my worry when I first got the Sonos. Luckily, as Basher says, it just stops the radio - rather than pausing it and you getting confused as hell when the 8am news comes on when you get home from work and you hit play

Folks, does changing songs sometimes take a few seconds? Or fast forwarding for example?

Even on my slow 5mbps (4.2mbps actual) internet when steaming from Spotify skipping tracks only takes about 1 or 2 seconds before the next one kicks in. I've never fast forwarded music in my life, and away from home at the moment so can't test for you.

 

[RoyMi6]

I love it how so many people have "bought them for their other half".

"I have been eyeing them up for years" - haha, busted CK

 

[RoyMi6]

Sonos also currently offer a 100 day return policy.

Just make sure you're 100% happy with the return conditions!

Read them in full here: http://www.sonos.com/en-gb/support/policies#return_right

The 100 day return policy applies only to Sonos Products that are purchased directly from Sonos (either via phone or the online store).

Please note that only products in the original packaging with all materials and in new or as-new condition are eligible for the 100 Day refund.

 

[RoyMi6]

Just thinking, I have a lot of cd rips I have imported into my iTunes library, would it play these as well.

In a slightly round about way, yes: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/261

With Sonos I definitely think you benefit from a subscription to an online service. Just so simple.

With local music on your computers/devices you need to make sure that device is on. Obviously solved with a NAS (or similar) but not everyone has one.

 

[RoyMi6]

The music streams from the speaker not your device. So just queue things up and I'm pretty sure you can set a timer to turn it off.

With local music (i.e. music in your itunes library) I'm not sure this is the case.

I don't have any local music so can only test when I visit my parents (who don't have any steaming services!) but it seemed to be a whole bunch of issues stemmed from the fact that my mum had local music on her iPad which my dad couldn't choose to play unless from his iPhone unless my mum's iPad was on.

It really seems to me that local music isn't copied to the Sonos speakers so, in turn, they can't play "local" music without the source device being active. Whether it needs to be fully "on" or just "sleeping" I'm not sure.

Hi Roy

I have just purchased myself a starter set, can I ask what the reason is for setting them as separate speakers and then grouping them?

Also whats is the correct way of turning the speakers off, should I just press the play/pause button to mute or is it best to do it all within the app and then closing the app.

thanks

As Mistadave says there's no wrong way to turn off the speakers - they're always on, so stopping the music via the app or pressing the play/pause button on top achieves the same thing.

Also, when I said "set them up as separate speakers and then group them" I just mean "group them".

You don't see the option to group them unless they're NOT a stereo pair - so they need to be set up as individual speakers before you can group them. Long story short, just set them up as a group and you're done