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Just bought Sonos system Do Not Buy It, Warning!
- Thread starter patent10021
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SBlue1
macrumors 68020
I like Airport Axpress but it always feels like a workaround. I already got two AE base stations, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. The one in the kitchen is wasting a precious second power plug and is kind of in the way. 🙂 I know its first world problems but I don't like cords and would prefer a clean and more elegant way of streaming my music. The AE in the living room is connected to my sound system and is not visible so its not an aesthetic problem but I would need to buy another Sonos amp since it is required to connect the AE to an amp.
No amp needed if you don't want to Airplay.
Sonos support told me they don't know when or if they are going to incorporate Airplay. So now I am looking for another solution. I know Bose supports Airplay but everybody I know says Bose is overpriced. 🙂
No amp needed if you don't want to Airplay.
Sonos support told me they don't know when or if they are going to incorporate Airplay. So now I am looking for another solution. I know Bose supports Airplay but everybody I know says Bose is overpriced. 🙂
DesTheRed
macrumors newbie
Menel,
Got no idea how to direct message on here cant seem to find any link. Any chance you could help me out a little more on the specifics of your setup? Sounds pretty neat but would need a little more data from you if you wouldn't mind?
Got no idea how to direct message on here cant seem to find any link. Any chance you could help me out a little more on the specifics of your setup? Sounds pretty neat but would need a little more data from you if you wouldn't mind?
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Menel
Suspended
Be glad to help, don't know what data you need?
I noted all the equipment I was using.
It seems to me that the problem is not Sonos, the problem is the user.
We have 2 Sonos Play 5's and 1 Play 3, streams spotify like a dream all over the house, plus radio from tunein radio. Our music collection is on a NAS Drive which Sonos can read but for the most part we just stick with spotify.
We have 2 Sonos Play 5's and 1 Play 3, streams spotify like a dream all over the house, plus radio from tunein radio. Our music collection is on a NAS Drive which Sonos can read but for the most part we just stick with spotify.
Hi guys
Sorry haven't noticed this thread's replies. Yup I made an assumption when buying the Sonos. That's why the word exists. We all do it. Was renovating my place and very eager to get rid of my older stereo system with bookshelf speakers, tuner and tons of cables so when I saw it online I raced down to get it lol
Reason:
It advertises Airplay over AES so I associated that withiTunes Radio. I don't think it was a great stretch to think it also meant iTunes Radio since iTunes Radio together with Airplay make up Apple's music ecosystem. I believe that a system that cannot play iTunes Radio via Airplay won't sell huge numbers. Also, while Sonos advertises Airplay over AES, it's by FAR an apple-like plug and play solution.
So I stick to my thread title of WARNING because I believe that most people shopping for an AirPlay solution want to play or will want to play iTunes Radio when it comes to their country and would just associate iTunes Radio with Airplay.
I also now believe that many of these wireless speaker manufacturers know that they SHOULD be more explicit and say NO it doesn't work with iTunes Radio since they DO list Spotify and Pandora in the product info.
** I ended up getting the BOSE SoundTouch system and WOW. Amazing. Not only true plug & play Airplay setup but awesome sound. Everything I ever hoped for. I got rid of the ol school bookshelf speakers with tuner etc and no have zero cables with sound quality that matches my old system. I think for a little bit more than Sonos it's a no brainer. The Sonos also requires a HUB so it's not as wireless as they say. And yes the BOSE speakers can be linked wirelessly in any room.
I always thought that people were paying just for the name and I stayed clear of BOSE but now that I have one it's easy to see why BOSE is known for whatever it is their known for. Check it out the BOSE SoundTouch on YouTube.
For me this is the best setup because I rely on iTunes Radio for artist discovery over Airplay as much as listening to my own library.
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Sorry haven't noticed this thread's replies. Yup I made an assumption when buying the Sonos. That's why the word exists. We all do it. Was renovating my place and very eager to get rid of my older stereo system with bookshelf speakers, tuner and tons of cables so when I saw it online I raced down to get it lol
Reason:
It advertises Airplay over AES so I associated that withiTunes Radio. I don't think it was a great stretch to think it also meant iTunes Radio since iTunes Radio together with Airplay make up Apple's music ecosystem. I believe that a system that cannot play iTunes Radio via Airplay won't sell huge numbers. Also, while Sonos advertises Airplay over AES, it's by FAR an apple-like plug and play solution.
So I stick to my thread title of WARNING because I believe that most people shopping for an AirPlay solution want to play or will want to play iTunes Radio when it comes to their country and would just associate iTunes Radio with Airplay.
I also now believe that many of these wireless speaker manufacturers know that they SHOULD be more explicit and say NO it doesn't work with iTunes Radio since they DO list Spotify and Pandora in the product info.
** I ended up getting the BOSE SoundTouch system and WOW. Amazing. Not only true plug & play Airplay setup but awesome sound. Everything I ever hoped for. I got rid of the ol school bookshelf speakers with tuner etc and no have zero cables with sound quality that matches my old system. I think for a little bit more than Sonos it's a no brainer. The Sonos also requires a HUB so it's not as wireless as they say. And yes the BOSE speakers can be linked wirelessly in any room.
I always thought that people were paying just for the name and I stayed clear of BOSE but now that I have one it's easy to see why BOSE is known for whatever it is their known for. Check it out the BOSE SoundTouch on YouTube.
For me this is the best setup because I rely on iTunes Radio for artist discovery over Airplay as much as listening to my own library.
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You didn't do your research pure and simple. Your fault not Sonos'. Sonos does not advertise that it does AirPlay. It does mention that an AirPort Express can be used as an input if you want AirPort compatibility.
Sonos is the 2nd biggest speaker manufacture in the world by revenue as well as the fastest growing. They are doubling their revenue every year and are on track to be bigger than Bose in the next 2 or so years. Therefore you are wrong, a system that doesn't support iTunes Radio over AirPlay can and does sell in huge numbers.
Sonos supports more streaming music services than any other brand with 48 in total. It does not need a warning that it does not integrate with iTunes Radio. By your logic, the Bose Soundtouch should have warnings that it doesn't natively integrate with Spotify, Google Play Music, Beats Music, Rdio, 8tracks, Rhapsody, Deezer or the dozens of other services.
The Sonos Bridge actually creates a more stable solution than the Bose Soundtouch. The Bridge helps to create SonosNet, a dedicated wireless network for audio. This means it can support up to 32 wireless multiple streams as opposed to Soundtouches 4 streams. SonosNet also means that grouping actually works properly and stereo pairing of two devices is possible.
Amen too that, who uses iTunes Radio, rdio and google play music pumping through 3 x play 5's and a sub, and play 3's in office a nd bedrooms. Seamless.
I have a 18 year old bose surround sound system still going strong in our TV room, but it will be replaced with Sonos when the time comes.
WTF are you talking about? Sonos is desperately advertising AirPlay. You and everyone else who is jumping on the "you didn't do your research bandwagon" must have some kind of social problem. What do you call this?
http://www.sonos.com/airplay/
They have also in their support forums/blogs threads about how to get Airplay working with a kind of hack (even though iTunes Radio still won't work)
1000th post on the topic of iTunes Radio!! They're getting inundated with iTunes Radio requests because NO ONE cares about iTunes Radio lol!!! And this is only in the USA! When iTunes Radio comes to all the other countries 1000's more will wonder why the F Sonos doesn't work with iTunes Radio.
https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/will_sonos_ever_connect_with_itunes_radio
you must be some kind of gripe with Apple. No one cares about some so called figures for 2 years in the future that no one can prove.
Enlighten me. Why would I need anything more than ONE service when the one I'm using now is for me perfect.
blah blah blah Stable? lol What kind of stability do you need? I click play in iTunes Radio and I get my sound in every room in the house where a Bose Soundtouch system is. You must have a Windows system that is unstable for you to be thinking this way.
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What kind of English is this? You two seem like your best friends.
I made a mistake on my Sonos purchase and thank God for that mistake because I wouldn't have realised how good the BOSE system was otherwise.
Associating Airplay with iTunes is justified and should be included in an Airplay system (as Bose has done).
Sonos has missed out on thousands of purchases to BOSE and this is a fact. That is why they have plastered their site with blogs and pages full of Airplay stuff. That's why they finally have an Airplay beta. Any idiot can see that they'd be doomed without an Airplay option.
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SBlue1
macrumors 68020
Why all this hate for iTunes Radio? 😕 I can't wait for iTunes Radio to be released in Germany. If you guys don't like it please don't use it!
Sonos not supporting native Airplay is a huge letdown. For me at least. If you are happy with Sonos so be happy. Accept that other people have different opinions and different needs.
Sonos not supporting native Airplay is a huge letdown. For me at least. If you are happy with Sonos so be happy. Accept that other people have different opinions and different needs.
Uofmtiger
macrumors 68020
Many companies support Airplay, so it is in products from Denon, Yamaha, Sony, Onkyo, etc. You would also get more inputs than you would with a Sonos only amp integrated system.
Unlike Sonos, there are battery operated Airplay devices. With a Sonos, you will have to plug it in all the time and lose that power outlet. If you just want a speaker that requires an occasion recharge, Phillips has stand alone speakers with Airplay that can run off a battery.
Not sure why you need a Sonos to plug in your AE, so I need more clarification on that comment.
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This won't help for iTunes Radio, as this is a totally closed system within Apple (they publish no API to access it). But you don't need AirPlay support for the vast majority of Apple content.
If you keep media on an iPad/iPhone you can directly feed a SONOS without AirPlay by using the Sonos controller app. Within the SONOS controller app, you can use the local device as a media source and feed that into the SONOS system, and so send it to grouped zones etc.
Within the SONOS controller app, pick a zone then select a music source, you will see "This iPad" or "This iPhone" in the list too.
Then from within the SONOS controller App I pick what ever is on the iPad, quite handy really. It will pick up local playlists etc. too if you have them setup. The media has to be on the device, it won't go and download it from the likes of iTunes Match for you, which is fair enough IMHO.
If you keep media on an iPad/iPhone you can directly feed a SONOS without AirPlay by using the Sonos controller app. Within the SONOS controller app, you can use the local device as a media source and feed that into the SONOS system, and so send it to grouped zones etc.
Within the SONOS controller app, pick a zone then select a music source, you will see "This iPad" or "This iPhone" in the list too.
Then from within the SONOS controller App I pick what ever is on the iPad, quite handy really. It will pick up local playlists etc. too if you have them setup. The media has to be on the device, it won't go and download it from the likes of iTunes Match for you, which is fair enough IMHO.
wrinkster22
macrumors 68030
Thanks for the link which supports my statement and not yours. Yes they have said that an AirPort Express can be plugged into the PLAY:5 which I mentioned obviously. Now where is the evidence of native AirPlay support that you keep yammering on about?
SONOS' API is available for everyone to integrate their music service with SONOS. Apple can integrate iTunes Radio if they want to...
I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air and a Mac Mini so no I do not have a gripe with Apple. I'm not a blind fanboy though. I can appreciate when another company has a superior product. My point about Sonos being the 2nd biggest speaker manufacturer in world as well as the fastest growing was to disprove your point that a hifi system that does not allow iTunes Radio over AirPlay will does not sell very well. Do you lack logic and reasoning or do you purposely try to ignore my point?
You must suffer from poor reading comprehension. My point was to point out how illogical your statement was about Sonos including a warning label. Sonos does not need a warning on the packaging that it does not support iTunes Radio. Sonos natively integrates with more music streaming services than any other brand, so if music speakers had to include warnings then Sonos' list would be far shorter than any other brands.
I did not say anywhere that you should change your music streaming service. Good to see you found a product with the features you require. What we are saying is that it is foolish of you to start a thread warning people to stay away from Sonos due to false advertising of its features. You didn't do your research pure and simple.
People often run into problems with poor wifi signals in certain parts of their home which will impact their ability to stream music in any room. Usually because the music speaker is too far away from the router. Sonos uses a mesh network meaning each unit works as a wireless repeater negating this issue.
If you haven't had any issues then good for you. I don't know what Windows has to do with streaming music, again your logic escapes me. Many people also have more than 4 Sonos speakers running in their home wirelessly therefore it is the true system for whole home wireless audio. The Bose states they can only do 4 zones wirelessly. Hardly whole-home now is it.
Where do you get this nonsense? Now I'm beginning to think that the problem isn't that you haven't done your research - it's that you lack the reading comprehension skills to understand it. Sonos does not have an AirPlay beta.
In fact Sonos has just enabled new functionality which undermines AirPlay in certain ways called DIAL Protocol. Soon you will be able to cast directly from the likes of the Spotify or Pandora apps and the Sonos speaker will stream the music directly form the net. With this, the Spotify or Pandora app will act as just the remote. Far more elegant than Steaming the music on your Apple device and then streaming it to a speaker. They will be using this protocol with all their streaming partners and have launched it with Google Play Music just the other day.
Everyone from Youtube to Netflix and manufacturers such as Google, Samsung, Panasonic, Sonos, Sony, LG etc are incorporating DIAL into their services and devices. While ArPlay will continue to be incorporated into Apple products, DIAL is platform agnostic and be available on all smart devices. DIAL will be the standard not AirPlay. It will be more widely used for searching and consuming media than Bluetooth.
Their website, which you handily provide the link to, clearly says it only works by connecting an Airport Express to a PLAY:5, CONNECT or CONNECT:AMP. Yet you go and buy two PLAY:1s and then moan about it.
Do your research next time.
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Their website emphasises Airplay. This is Apples ecosystem and iTunes Radio is the biggest part of it.
You just answered yourself.
Many people actually thousands have posted on their blog asking wtf it can't play iTunes Radio. Which I also posted the link to.
They are in a frenzy now trying to rework their whole system. New beta app and everything.
Airport Express and Airplay are associated with iTunes Radio and iTunes Match.
Maybe you've heard of them.
Nice name calling btw, Very mature.
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Wow you just can't admit that you were wrong can you? By the way I checked your link...there is only a few topics on Ask Sonos for iTunes Radio with less than 20 'Me too's' in support of the request in total...nowhere near 1000!
Google Play Music on the other hand had over 1600 'me too's'. Guess what? Google and Sonos ended up implementing it. See here:
https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/please_add_google_music
Tell me again why you bought two PLAY:1's when that link clearly says that an AirPort Express is required and plugged into a PLAY:5, CONNECT or CONNECT:AMP? Seriously, answer the question.
They have a link on their website and an answer at Ask Sonos regarding this AirPlay hack, this hardly proves -
If this is the case it would be all over their marketing material. It isn't, otherwise you would be able to back up your claims.
Here is a challenge for you:
Admit that you made an assumption that Sonos was an AirPlay device.
Admit that making this thread was foolish and it was your own fault for not doing your research and not the fault of Sonos.
Uofmtiger
macrumors 68020
I personally do a lot of research when I buy tech, but I can see how Sonos marketing could fool people into thinking it works with Airplay with their advertising:
"WIRELESSLY STREAM ANY MUSIC APPS USING AIRPLAY FROM YOUR IPHONE, IPAD, OR IPOD TOUCH ON SONOS"
Yes, they go on to say that you need to buy an Airport Express for it to work, but using a large print headline for a feature and then saying you need to buy more hardware from another company is misleading. I don't see Apple advertising that they do everything that Sonos does and then reading small printing stating that you need to add a Sonos to your Airport Express to enable these features.
"WIRELESSLY STREAM ANY MUSIC APPS USING AIRPLAY FROM YOUR IPHONE, IPAD, OR IPOD TOUCH ON SONOS"
Yes, they go on to say that you need to buy an Airport Express for it to work, but using a large print headline for a feature and then saying you need to buy more hardware from another company is misleading. I don't see Apple advertising that they do everything that Sonos does and then reading small printing stating that you need to add a Sonos to your Airport Express to enable these features.
SBlue1
macrumors 68020
Sonos doesn't suck. You just bought the wrong speaker.
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iTunes Radio is also the newest part of it. One thing about using new features is that it takes time for the major players to incorporate it.
Be patient. Give them time.
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It's like someone who buys a car and returns it because it's not a truck. They follow that up with an online review that says "Not a truck! I'm returning it! One star!"
🙄
Noone is hating on iTunes Radio. Sure, it's a letdown that Sonos doesn't support it. There are many reasons to buy a Sonos system. iTunes Radio support is NOT one of them.
Let's move on, guys.
Uofmtiger
macrumors 68020
Once again, no one is advertising their car as being a truck. People can look at them and tell the difference. Sonos is advertising their product as having Airplay support:
"WIRELESSLY STREAM ANY MUSIC APPS USING AIRPLAY FROM YOUR IPHONE, IPAD, OR IPOD TOUCH ON SONOS"
It is like selling your car as a truck and then in small print saying you just need to buy a truck from another company to make it work.
IR is also not the biggest or largest component of AirPlay, not even close. Very few countries from outside the US even have it (and people who use it made a US account).
I tried it a bunch of times, from my experience it's very weak. Keeps repeating the same songs every hour or so, so won't work for my needs. I'll leave music discovery to those who really know how to do it (rdio, Pandora, Spotify).
I tried it a bunch of times, from my experience it's very weak. Keeps repeating the same songs every hour or so, so won't work for my needs. I'll leave music discovery to those who really know how to do it (rdio, Pandora, Spotify).
I had alot of older bose stuff at home so i went with the airport express and apple tv route .
I also found an app for ios called Whaale which lets you stream your music via airplay to multiple devices. right now you can only stream your itunes music and internet radio stations that they have added from all over the world. the developer told me they are working on adding more sources to their app as soon as possible.
the system sounds great, the whaale app keeps everything in sync so i am very happy with the sound.
i have speakers in the family room, bed room, garage and by the pool.
I also found an app for ios called Whaale which lets you stream your music via airplay to multiple devices. right now you can only stream your itunes music and internet radio stations that they have added from all over the world. the developer told me they are working on adding more sources to their app as soon as possible.
the system sounds great, the whaale app keeps everything in sync so i am very happy with the sound.
i have speakers in the family room, bed room, garage and by the pool.
Uofmtiger
macrumors 68020
These services are personal. If you listen to Flock of Seagulls, you might not get the same variety you get with the Rolling Stones. I am sure all of these services spend more time curating popular artists. I used to listen to Jakob Dylan's Pandora channel and it had tons of repeats.
Also, if the service works in my country, it doesn't really affect my use if China doesn't have it.
I mainly use MOG for music, which is going away, so iTunes Radio would be a better option for me than Pandora. The reason is that I already pay for iTunes Match. That means iTunes Radio doesn't have the ads I get with Pandora. It also has better sound quality than Pandora and integrates more completely into iOS devices, including Siri. This is very convenient for playing music in the car without taking my eyes off the road.
edit: I have been listening to the Amos Lee iTunes Radio channel for over two hours, and so far, nothing has repeated and I wouldn't say he is all that popular. I was messing with the app and it actually has "history" so you can actually see every song that has played (not sure how far back it goes, though).
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