How can a sound-bar that can't even decode DTS be considered 'great'?
Literally decked out my entire house with Sonos gear and overlooked that. An entire house worth of Sonos stuff was instantly returned after trying to watch Pacific Rim.
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Apple and Beats Scrapped Sonos-Like Speaker Post Acquisition
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How can a sound-bar that can't even decode DTS be considered 'great'?
Literally decked out my entire house with Sonos gear and overlooked that. An entire house worth of Sonos stuff was instantly returned after trying to watch Pacific Rim.
Do you want to know something about Bang and Olufsen? I am an ex TV and VCR repair engineer (I was one in the 1990s), and when I was doing my apprenticeship, my boss said to me "Look inside this B&O VCR, and tell me what you see..." ... and what I saw was EXACTLY the same, cheap, plasticky Hitachi VHS deck that was in a Hitachi VCR next to us, but the B&O was 3-4x the price... because it had some shiny B&O casing on the outside. I know this re-badging is VERY common practice, but my point is not to be drawn into thinking that just because something says "B&O" on the front, it means it's SUPERB - far from it.
See this link for confirmation of what I have just said:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...orums/p/15339/132191.aspx&hl=en&gl=uk&strip=1
So, the banks got their fees. The lawyers got theirs, too. The Beats crowd got to party, uh, like billionaires. Tim Cook and those around him got their bonuses and got to feel really awesomely with it....
Who cares if this is one of the worst acquisitions (and valuations) in the last decade or so and who cares if many other corporate leaders would have lost their jobs for something like it....
Why spoil the party, when the favors will be returned at some other Board meeting? It's only (other people's) money!
Who cares if this is one of the worst acquisitions (and valuations) in the last decade or so and who cares if many other corporate leaders would have lost their jobs for something like it....
Why spoil the party, when the favors will be returned at some other Board meeting? It's only (other people's) money!
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Whether this is true or not, it still doesn't bring Apple IEM to the "most overpriced headphones/earbuds" category.
Yes, if you are sitting at the computer you can just control it directly. I want to be able to do this (easily) without sitting at the computer...like you can currently do with the Remote app. I use a Mac mini as a media hub, so this would be a nice feature to have ( I have workarounds to do this with Rdio). However, I mainly just stream directly from iOS to one AirPlay device at a time, so it isn't really a necessity.
I don't disbelieve you.
The VCR was commonly acknowledged to be poor value when it came out, even by B&O lovers. It wasn't even pretty, at least the cheaper one; just a thick, black box like any other component. And there wasn't much point to the very expensive pretty one, as the tech was almost the same. But that's hardly what B&O is known for.
I have a B&O music system from 1990 that still sounds as good as the day I got it. It was an upgrade from a Philips hifi I had. I remember being exhilarated at the silkiness of the strings. It's long, slim and beautiful. It was a relative bargain: CD player, tape deck, amplifier, radio and two 35W speakers for £990.
These days, I connect my iMac to it with a good cable and lose myself in my favourite music. I sometimes wonder whether it would be worth getting an external DAC. The sound is so good, though, I'm not sure I would notice a big difference.
I don't think their systems are nearly such good value now, which is why I want Apple to buy them and slash their prices, not that I need a new system.
The value from B&O isn't the equipment, it's from the ego-stroking salespeople and superior design. Oh, and the masseuse that comes by every month as part of their maintenance program.
I respectively disagree with your assessment of the Echo speaker. I assume you actually have one? I like the Echo's clear room projecting sound. Many of my guests have commented on how they enjoy the clear sound and overall performance. However, to your point, the sound quality was not the reason for my post. Echo Alexa is an amazing way to interact with your music, home integration, weather, news, books, shopping lists, todo lists, and even tell a joke or two at a party. Sonos, Bose, Apple and all other speakers cannot compare. The challenge to Apple Siri, Why have you missed the value of voice speaker integration? A huge blunder, especially when Apple purchased Beats.
Apple already has wireless technology that is good to go for a multi-room speaker system. In fact, airplay is already widely used and licensed by several brands in speaker systems. Apple has the world's largest music store, a streaming music service, licensing deals in place, and a soon to be world leader radio station. Unlike Sonos, Apple wouldn't be dependent on third-party services to provide the music for it's speaker system. Apple makes the devices that interact with the speakers, and have a proven track record in building wonderful user interfaces that anyone can use. If Apple chose to enter this space, they would be ready to compete effectively with Sonos from day one.
That's not to deny Sonos has done a lot of things right. I have Sonos in my home and like the product. But I'm definitely not blown away by the quality of the sound from the speakers, the apps are awful, and their wireless mesh is far from perfectly reliable. In fact, it's so imperfect Sonos has released a booster product designed to try and improve the reliability of the wireless connectivity.
Yes they have, it is called Voice Integration. Echo uses Alexa, a truly unique voice integration for music via a speaker. Try asking Siri to play Pandora or anything else on the living room speaker, success? That is my point, Siri needs to control the music services. Old school launching an app to do a thumbs down. New way just ask, "Alexa thumbs down", song skipped and thumbs down added. That is what Apple is missing via a speaker.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OK, not great for you. Lots of people think Sonos is great... perhaps not for that particular application (and you should use a quality receiver for audio decoding). I wouldn't choose Sonos for my surround sound setup either but they are excellent for multi-room audio with individual user flexibility and iTunes compatibility. Someone who wants easy plug & play, with or without wires, so that they can play iTunes (or other sources) in any rooms AND their roommates/family can play other music in other rooms, all controlled manually or with iDevices, will find Sonos hard to beat. Their only weakness IMO is price (they are priced like they are made by Apple). There's a few other companies trying to offer competition but they are pretty far behind.
Sonos is not trying to be a home theater speaker company though they do have some speakers that may make one think that. They are trying to be king of what is known as "whole house audio" and for that, they are arguably head and shoulders above everyone else for any iTunes-centric consumers. In short, while they make pretty good speakers, if you think Sonos is about the speaker(s), you're missing the greater value in what they offer. I personally think their best products don't even have a speaker in them. You might want to look again.
Around here, some of us seem to be burning for the ability to flip lights on & off, etc. via home kit... like that's going to change our lives or something. Sonos products are already fully functional homekit-like implementations for iTunes audio (and other sources): any music or iTunes playlists in any room all easily controlled with iDevices... using speakers you already have or buy... or some speakers they offer. If Apple was trying to get into whole house audio, Sonos is probably exactly how they would do it. I'm guessing they dropped the Beats product to compete because it didn't compete.
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You're telling me a wireless, multi-unit, Airplay-powered speaker system is possible? I need to do some shopping.
you should contact Harvard Business Review. It was unknown till now that the secret to judging the success and usefulness of acquisitions can be measured by the fulfillment of Jim L's personal preferences.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let's stop hoping for Apple to buy every company under the sun and "improve" them. It's nice to have independant companies who have a history and legacy; just because Apple have vast wealth, doesn't mean they should buy EVERYONE and blandify them, dliuting their products into flat, boring little white cubes. Let them get their OWN products right first, before you go hoping they'll buy X, Y and Z company, imagining they will "magically" make them superior... that's an idiotic mindset to take on.
Let's look at the world the way MOST PEOPLE do, which is OUTSIDE of the Apple bubble, (where everything is assumed to be Apple-centric, irritatingly). There's VASTLY more extremely superb technology made in the world APART from Apple, let's not get delusional, and let's be careful what we hope for
Let's look at the world the way MOST PEOPLE do, which is OUTSIDE of the Apple bubble, (where everything is assumed to be Apple-centric, irritatingly). There's VASTLY more extremely superb technology made in the world APART from Apple, let's not get delusional, and let's be careful what we hope for
Depends what you demand by wireless? Speakers that don't plug in? You can do it with very hi quality hi-fi amps and any hifi speaker combo of your choosing which is the entire hifi range rather than being limited to naff sounding overpriced all in one solutions.
If you're not concerned about audio quality too much you could just use an Airport Express or even a RaspberryPi as an Airplay selectable output and a power speaker with an amp built in - downside of speakers (or "wireless" solutions) with amps built in is they need power per plug, much easier to mount hifi bookshelf or floor standing speakers when all they need is a thin speaker cable running to it.
I have extensive experience with the Echo. The sound quality is meh. Sorry, but there are better speakers out there. I use Sonos amps with my own speakers. I'lll put my Rogers LS3/5A speakers up against the Echo any day....you would listen and realize how silly the Echo sounds. As for voice integration, not a deal breaker....I'll take sound quality over voice integration any day. LISTENING to music is much more important than TALKING to music. Never, ever compromise sound quality over a perceived convenience. The fact that your friends are impressed is irrelevant...they probably think that MP3s sound great as well.
So let me get this straight, you have expensive Amps, Speakers, to stream low quality music. Am I missing something? I would agree if you are listening to CD's or vinyl in home. The point of speakers like Beats and Echo is to stream either over wifi or Bluetooth. Cannot compare them to Sonos or Bose for high end purposes. Great value for streaming at less then $200 and you get the very impressive voice control of not only your music but many of life's essential tasks. I was not comparing Echo to Sonos and other high end systems, rather to Beats speakers. In that world, Echo is very competitive both in price point, sound, and use. Apple has all the infrastructure to do the same if not better. The purpose of this tread, for me, was to challenge Apple.