You are correct Sonos is not for everybody. It is in the higher price performance music category. There are hundreds of good quality speakers in Bluetooth and AirPlay category. This thread is discussing Sonos, those who are willing to spend on this type of system have better solutions then AirPlay for high quality sound integration.
The only "high quality sound" in Sonos library is the Connect, which costs $350. The Airport Express is lossless (Redbook CD quality) and costs $99, so there isn't a trade off for "high quality sound". It is the reason audio manufactures often include Airplay in their components.
The Sonos category is more about un-spec'd speakers that cost more than better sounding spec'd speakers because some people will pay for the convenience of multi-room and "wireless" (although you have to plug them in) audio.
Multi-room audio is great for background music at a party, but is not a good way to get decent SQ for people that listen to music critically. If you have music playing in another room it can affect the sound stage and overall sound in general from the actual room you are in.
Maybe keeping your personal opinion out of your review would lend some credence to your assessment.
To say it offers a "sub-par experience" because it cannot play YouTube or Netflix audio is simply your opinion and your selective use case and in no way reflects upon what Sonos is designed to do: multi zone whole home audio. .
I see a lot of people say that it is designed specifically for multi-zone audio, but they sell individual mono speakers. I don't think they would be as successful if they required you to buy a full system. So, the fact is, many people are using one, mono speaker and are not even using a set of them for whole home audio. I agree that multi-zone is the strength, but there are plenty of people that see the reviews and think that the $199 mono speaker without specs will sound great since no one really ever reviews the sound quality (which is difficult.. which is why many like to see published specs).
I don't know if it is subpar because it lacks the ability to use it with all the apps that you can use with Airplay, but it will be a consideration for a lot of people that want to just open an app and use it today without crossing their fingers that it will be added to Sonos in the future.
I've been using Sonos for five+ years. I have connect amps driving in-wall, in-ceiling, and outdoor speaker installations. They all work great with 100% of the music (and soon, 100% of the services) I want to use, 100% of the time. It's running from the moment I wake up until I hit the hay. It doesn't crash. It doesn't lag, it doesn't stutter. It is rock solid. Just like AirPlay, right
5 years ago, Airplay had issues because of the wifi specs at the time (of course, you could wire it and not even have anything on wifi if you were streaming from a connected computer).
People with modern routers should not have issues these days in a normal environment. At home, I never have Airplay issues, so I thought my home setup was unique after reading posts like yours. Then I started taking my AppleTV on vacations. It works perfectly every time in every strange system I have run across...even for Airplaying video, which is much more data hungry. Even Sonos has started allowing you to just connect to your
main wifi network.
I have very, very few other products I am still using to the same extent after five years.
I still have three Airport Express units that are the older models that were introduced in 2008. They work better than the day I got them, even though one of them is in a room that has no climate control (sunroom) and the other is in a bathroom. So it isn't unusual at all to have these type of devices for a long time. I actually have a Marantz receiver from the 70s, so 5 years of use in the audio spectrum isn't something that is all that impressive.
I am not considered with lock in as I can, God forbid, AirPlay to my Sonos if I so choose.
"God Forbid"..Yeah, that is why Sonos has advertised that it is Airplay compatible...in smaller print they tell you to connect an Airport Express....yep, everyone has one laying around to compliment the other system they just bought.
I have no complaints with the sound quality. But I don't have the auditory acuity of a 16 year old either. Nor do I care. I don't sit around and listen to music, it's an accompaniment to other activities.
"That kind of money" that I've spent in no way comes even close to what true audiophile freaks spend by an order of magnitude. And I can guarantee you true audiophiles are not using AirPlay with their whole estate audio systems. Of course, being a discerning audiophile, you know that high end speakers to accompany your high end amplifier do not come cheap.
I would not be surprised if a lot of Sonos owners don't sit and listen to music. It would explain why they put a premium on controlling zones over speaker quality.
Airplay could easily be used in an audiophile's whole estate audio system.
Crestron, just to mention one whole estate system, supports Airplay. However, most audiophiles don't listen to music critically while walking around the house. For one, you lose the imaging, stereo effect, etc. Luckily, Airplay is also built into products by respected brands like
McIntosh and
Classe. Yes, these companies could just let you attach a plastic, bulky eyesore to their equipment, but many (including mainstream companies like Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc..) prefer an integrated approach.
Anyways, please enjoy your AirPlay system while you wait around for two years for it to continue developing and eventually meet the remaining mystical 20% of critical parameters that Sonos cannot meet. I'm sure I'll still be here using my Sonos, not wasting more time speccing, evaling, comparing, installing, and configuring systems. Just listenin' to music
Once the system is setup, like Sonos, it doesn't require any other work. It just works...at least in the many wireless setups I have tried.
All that being said, if you need zone control and don't mind trade offs, Sonos is a perfectly good option. I personally don't need control of different audio streams all over the house from one device. We have multiple iOS devices in the house and one person can control and listen to what they want in one room, while someone else controls and listens to what they want in another room. However, I realize that people have different needs.