UKC

Hey all, Im thining about getting a Sonos system with the Sonos 1 for the bathroom and (outdoors) and 3 for the kitchen.

has anyone got one and whats the music quality really like? Is there a cheaper or better way of doing the same thing?

I've looked at the Bose SoundPlay alternative but whilst the sound quality will be faultless (I have an 8 year old 1-2-3 system and it still kicks ass) various forums suggest that the app is a bit rubbish and the connectivity is tricky.

Thoughts before I blow £400 would be appreciated.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I have a Play 3 and a Play 1. The sound quality is good for the size of speaker (for both), but not as good as a proper hifi setup in my opinion. The software is not perfect and I have had the odd occasion where the devices have lost the network (rebooting the wifi router fixes it). I also 'feel' like they're quite expensive for what they are - though I can't really justify that objectively.

However, I think it is undoubtedly the best system available for what it does at the present time. I am quite a techy by trade and I considered making my own equivalent system but I'm glad I didn't. By and large it Just Works and that's what you want in an appliance like this. The units themselves also look good and have a feeling of quality about them.

If you have a large music collection then being able to access it all wherever you put a unit is really good, and the grouping multiple rooms or multiple speakers in the same room works flawlessly and means that you listen music more often. The mobile apps work well.

Once you've got one it's really tempting to keep bolting more units on to improve the coverage in your house. You can avoid this to some extent because the units are very easy to relocate - they take about 30 seconds to boot back up when you unplug them but you can just take them to wherever you want the music at the time.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I had exactly this quandary a couple of months back and almsot plumped for Sonos, but eventually went of the Bose Soundtouch 30.

The sound is exceptional for a fairly small unit - we have a large lounge/kitchen area and it fills it fine. Connection seems fine, but sometimes its a bit slow waking up.

I mainly run Spotify for music, and unfortunately it doesn't yet have native support. However I just use AirPlay on my iPhone or iPad to send music to it - I never actually use the app - the volume rocker on the side of my phone adjusts the stereo volume quickly and it has a handy physical remote as well for skipping, pausing, volume and presets.

Its also great being able to just press a preset to get radio on instantly. The software should improve - they're making updates regularly - my reckoning was that the Sonos systems were getting a bit dated now - its easier to update software - you're stuck with the hardware.

The other thing I like is there's no need for a separate bridge when you get more than one - they just talk to each other on the normal wifi.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I have a play 1 and a couple of 3's and 5's.

They are by far and away the best at the streaming wirelessly around the house, however as mullermn says they are not as good as a dedicated HIFI set up and they are expensive for what they are.

However I found the higher up the price bracket you go the better they get. the 5's being the best i have. Also if you start bracketing the units together in stereo it improves again.

Also the really cool thing is that they form a chain. so when my parents have large parties at their house we run a perimiter of them around the property, using the extended families units, with only one near the actual router so even though the furthest away one from the base is 100M they still link in. The best thing about that is that you dont end up with music playing at a million dB in one area and it being quiet somewhere else!

In reply to yorkshireman:

>The other thing I like is there's no need for a separate bridge when you >get more than one - they just talk to each other on the normal wifi.

A clarification on this - you do need a bridge, but some of the top-end units have them built in (the Play 5 and the sound bar, for example), so as long as you can connect one of those to the internet via a cable the rest will work wirelessly on their own mesh network.

When I got mine Amazon were giving bridges away, so I got mine for free and even have a spare one somewhere still in the box.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I have a play 3 in the kitchen, and also a connect in the living room, which hooks into the amp and speakers of my old separate system. Their big selling point is the multi-room aspect, as has been said. The sound is fine - but it's better through the connect than the play 3.

My biggest gripe is probably that you can't just turn the radio on (unless you leaving it running on mute). So I walk into the kitchen in the morning and have to fiddle with my phone, rather than hitting a button.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

The biggest downside is probably that the real benefit comes with the more units you own, but the more you buy the more you get invested in the one product line. If Sonos turn out to be a dud in a year's time you (and I) could be left with £1000 of kit that has no future.

The same risk applies to Bose or any single vendor - the multiroom-internet-aware hifi thing is just too new to have standardised properly.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I have a play 3 and play 5 they were easy to setup and have run for the past 3 years with no problems my one grip is that Google music does not work through the app. A fab system that does what it says on the box.

In reply to sammycolon:

Hi Sammy,

In case you don't know - get the macronos app, then hit the cast icon in google play. That makes whatever your are playing on google play available through whichever unit you choose. But I agree, its annoying to have to downloads another app to do this.

Hello thedrunkenbakers. We have a single Sonos 1 in the kitchen (decent size, maybe 7m x 5m) and its great. Not much outlay really for access to all our music and more radio stations than I knew existed. However, since you cant (yet?) stream to the Sonos stuff, Im about to set up another (old) speaker that links to my laptop in the adjacent room, so I can get at iplayer etc.

There is a good youtube clip of a guy comparing Sonos 1 on its own vs in stereo vs Sonos 3 sound quality. Worth a look.

Good luck in choosing....

In reply to mav:



Hmm, this is something I want as I have a DAB in the kitchen right now which would be replaced by the chosen technology. I suppose switching on the ipad really isnt that bad but this somewhat removes the elegance I wanted.

In reply to goosebump:




Is that correct re streaming? I thought you could stream from a NAS drive (which is on the acquire list this year) or from a shared folder on a hard drive. I wont use spotify but I have tonnes of digital music and I listen to the radio a lot too.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

It depends what you want. If you just want to mirror the music in one room in the other rooms there are *much* cheaper ways of doing the same thing.

If you want to choose different sources in each room (which unless you have a very large house is going to result in musical confusion in the hall) then sonos or similar is the solution.

Our setup allows each room to choose to either mirror the living room or play its own CD's/radio/etc. Cost about £350 for everything including cables.

I describe what I've got here.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=464257

Only change since that post is the NAS box has been replaced with a decent server (HP MicroServer) so we have full gigabit from the server to the rest of the house.

In reply to John_Hat:

Taking a step back. My requirements are pretty minimal.

I just want radio and streaming availability in the kitchen, where I spend a lot of time, and bathroom. I have a smart internet TV in the lounge connected to a decent SS system which can stream and I dont need it in the bedroom. We have a nice patio which would be good to have decent music for BBQs when the sun comes out so portability is important too.

i would like this in a simple, elegant package with as few wires as possible.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

The Sonos 1 has a "pause" button which allows you to stop the music on that device. If you want it to simply start where you left off, you just hit the button again. If you're not changing between radio stations/playlists/sources, you don't have to fiddle around with an app each time.

Not sure whether the Sonos 3/5 has a similar button, but I'd imagine they would.

OM

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I've had it for about 5 yrs now. Initial set up was to a desk top comp. through a pioneer amp and speakers in the kitchen and living room. I have since hooked it up to a QUAD hi-fi system, a QNAP nas and added a play 3 for bathroom and barbies. I absolutely love it. Nothing has gone wrong and it is really easy to manage. Plenty of software updates and from what I've seen they keep the hardware up to date as well.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:



I have a SoundTouch in the kitchen running wirelessly from the Mac in the office. Does exactly what you want. As others have said, the app (especially the iPhone one) is a bit clunky but is being updated all the time.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

All my music is on a NAS and use it with a play 3.
And you can play music straight from your phone as well

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
I have a Play:1 and a Play:5. The sound on the 5 is great and the 1 surprisingly good for the small unit. Compares favourably to my old Naim amp and JPW speakers. The general feeling is that 5 is better than a 3, which is better than a 1 - but two 1s are better than a three. Two 5s as a stereo pair are generally felt to be comparable to a good studio monitor, but the cost rises accordingly.

Setup is only easy if you wire the bridge (or a unit if you aren't going to be moving it) to the router. Bridge wired to a PC, attached by wireless to a wifi network is flaky. Once I had that sorted out I have had no further issues with connectivity.

The software allows e.g. an alarm to be set to turn on the radio on a certain unit at a certain time. Similarly pressing the play button as described above starts where you left off... so if it was set to the radio it will start up again with a press.

The Play:1 belts out music in the garden quite nicely (we have a big garden and happy neighbours!)

The major advantage of a Play:5 is that it has an audio line in, which can connect to the audio line out of an Airport Express. Thus it is easy to send any audio output from a mac or iOS device to the whole Sonos network (e.g. whilst listening to TMS as England are disembowelled by Mitchell Johnston).

Sonos wins on elegance and wires every time IMO. We sound like we have similar needs and it has worked well for me (especially as I got a very good deal indeed for the 5). If you can afford it a 5 is much more flexible due to the line in.

hth

b

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

Sorry, Ive confused you. Yes you can play stuff stored on a NAS box/hard drive no probs. What you cant do (unless things have changed, I would be pleased to be proven wrong) is stream iplayer > Sonos.

In reply to goosebump:

Yes you can: I'm doing it now.

Needs either a Connect or a Play:5. They both have line in. Connect something with a line out playing iPlayer audio and select "line in" on the Sonos app.

This doesn't work well with audio on iPlayer video though - big delay. The only way to do that is complex and expensive as it involves an Apple TV, a PlayBar, and a TV with digital audio out.

hth

b

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

As I said there is a mute (though I think it now acts as a pause) which can work. It depends on you. If I'm working in the kitchen, I tend to listen to alobums through the sonos. And I don't remember to switch it back to radio when I stop. I also tend to listen to different stations at different time of the day, so mute doesn't always work.

But - I knew all this when I bought it. I wouldn't go back.