I have store that I need to put music in. Currently I'm using an old bose wave system connected to an old iPod nano. I was planning on using two of the smaller sonos speakers. One in the front of the store and one in the back and then depending on how good or bad the coverage is i would add two more and have one in each corner.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone use sonos?
- Thread starter jetjaguar
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I used to use Sonos in my old shop connected to a MacBook air with 3 speakers and a bridge. It was good, most of the time. But every now and then the connection would stutter to a halt though. And set-up/resetting could be a bit of a pig. In my new shop I use AirPlay with an airport express and I find it much more reliable. I am using an 'ac' network here though, with the 'n' airport express only a few feet from an extreme 'ac'.
I have five Sonos devices. Four speakers and the boost. Absolutely love them. No complaints, especially now that I have the boost. It has improved my performance throughout the house.
How big is your store? All one big space where the music goes?
What's the music source most of the time? Internet? Your iPod?
Sounds like a good plan. Sonos is great, especially for something like that where you can set it to a station, or playlist or whatever, and not have to fiddle with it. A great way to go. The vast majority of people are super happy with it, so don't let the unhappy ones scare you off - like any tech product, there can be glitches, but Sonos is one of the most reliable networked audio systems around.
Pretty long with 24 foot ceilings .. all one long space. Right now we have our lists on the iPod nano but I can use spotify, pandora or sonos said we could use their app on mac to use iTunes playlists. Also if we buy from sonos they will give us the bridge for free plus 45 days if we don't like it.
Going to order two of the small speakers and see how that goes and if not strong enough we will add two more so they will be at the 4 corners of the store about 10 feet off the ground
Not using Sonos in a store myself, just at home, but it has worked flawlessly 99% of the time and I love the sound (soundbar with TV and single Play 3s and 5s). True, there can very rarely happen a connection hickup when streaming from Spotify, but pausing/unpausing the speaker directly with the button on it usually fixes that. And it might just as well be my internet connection.
Might be worth noting that Sonos also recently released a "Boost", improving and extending the Sonos wireless range.
Overall I can only recommend it.
Might be worth noting that Sonos also recently released a "Boost", improving and extending the Sonos wireless range.
Overall I can only recommend it.
i was looking at getting play 1s .. would you recommend 3s ? The guy i spoke to said get two 1s and then if it isn't strong enough then get 2 more .. one in each corner of the store
Can't say how a pair of 1s would work in a large space like a store or such, but they are fairly small speakers so their power would be limited. In my small livingroom, I have a Playbar, Sub and a pair of 1s as rear speakers, and running just the 1s as a stereo set without the other speakers is rather impressive. You're not going to get bass you feel in the chest (like you do with the Sub), but they're surprisingly good at what they do for being so small.
This is in a limited space though - at the end of the day, the 1 is just a single 3.5" woofer + tweeter. I would look at a set of 3s for a larger room, not just because the 3 can play louder (and with better bass response too), but because it'll produce more sound without having to push its drivers so hard, meaning it'll sound better.
Without a Sub in the loop, Sonos on-board EQ processing starts dialling back the bass at around 50% volume on the Play1 to not cause distortion. Now, this is pretty darned loud, so depending on what kind of business you're running, you may not want to turn it up this much anyway. Just giving you my own findings so you can make a more informed decision...
On the whole, I enjoy my Sonos gear quite a bit. I've had the system for almost a year now. I've expanded with a bathroom speaker (another 1, since it's moisture proof), and a 3 in my bedroom. They've performed quite flawlessly since, once I had a brief moment where sound became unsynched and stuttered, but it cleared itself up almost immediately, and there's A LOT of wifi networks all around me, and it still performs really well. It's fairly impressive on the whole IMO.
Plus, if you run Sonos speakers wirelessly, they'll act as an access point. Plug in an ethernet cable to the speaker and you get internet access to your laptop or whatever. It's pretty neat.Just to add I picked up a second hand Sonos dock and lightning to 32pin cable (£55 - uk) and this allows Spotify radio to function normally and others can attach their iPhone/Ipad/Touch/Nano with their own playlists etc. Spotify radio does not function via Sonos app, everything else does though. May not be relevant for your situation but I'm a big Spotify radio user.
I really like the Sonos eco system but the salespeople are a tad on the optimistic side. Without the dock all music must be played via the Sonos app. This isn't a huge issue as it is very good and will load all your iTunes music no problem and will load most of the popular streaming services too, but for Spotify the radio channels/functionality does not appear so cannot be selected (there is a workaround re saving as a playlist then accessing via playlists but it's a phaff). For me the dock option added 4 extras, full Spotify radio, others plugging in and playing their music, playing voice memos and playing my own creations that are not stored in iTunes.
I'm no exert but I believe this is all correct.
I personally would not go back to Airplay solution now, multiple speakers in perfect sync is very nice indeed, multiple tunes on multiple speakers is even better and all whilst retaining full use of whatever device you have.