Sonos Early Black Friday Sale Has 20% Off Home Theater Audio Bundles This Weekend Only

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes one more syllable makes all rhe difference.
you seriously going to attempt to argue that a speaker knowing what room it is in and what other accessories are in that room is a bad thing?

No, you are the one arguing that things can't be done on Sonos that can and that one more syllable is "too much of a compromise." I'm mostly trying to offer others reading our little debate corrections to wrong or misleading information.

If Sonos supported this you’d be singing its praises.

Nope, I don't even care about one more syllable. I do care about people getting correct information and this one is easy enough for anyone to question which of us is sharing correct information: try recommendations I've offered and see- no that's HEAR- for themselves on their own Sonos speakers using Siri commands. For example, that guy in post #34 seems to believe what you are saying in this thread. However, as soon as he tries what I've offered, he's going to discover that that IS a misconception... that Siri commands will- in fact- flow Apple Music audio to Sonos speakers. Anyone who takes the few minutes to try will see which of us is sharing actual experiences and which seems to be going to great lengths to try to position HP as significantly advantaged.

To those intrigued but do not own a Sonos speaker, Best Buy has a 14-day return policy. Go buy one set it up as described and see if it can do what I've offered in this thread. It will. But if it's impossible to make Siri work with it, enjoy Apple Music on it, and/or too difficult to add a syllable to a Siri order, return it for a full refund.

The SAME deal can work the other way too: Apple also offers 2-week returns. A Sonos person can buy an HP and have it sub in for select Sonos usages. Be sure to pick up the HP subwoofer if you have a Sonos sub, the HP soundbar if you have a Sonos soundbar and/or the HP surround sound speakers if you like surround. And if you like to enjoy stuff that can't be connected to your TV over HDMI, be sure to use AUX in on the HPs to play that audio. And if you like some music services beyond AM and YouTube Music, be sure to install those on HP so they can be native too. Don't forget the battery-based HPs like Sonos Move that you can carry outside or to the beach or picnic to enjoy music there as well.*

*to anyone confused by this last paragraph, only the first 2 sentences are true. None of the rest is possible with HPs because such HP products, software or features do not exist... though Sonos offers all of that (too).

The reason all of you take this so personally is because of the huge financial investment you’ve likely made to the Sonos ecosystem.

Nope. I own only a couple of Sonos speakers myself, used in rooms where others would have HPs. On the other hand, I have helped many friends & family "go Sonos" and had much experience setting them up to work with all kinds of otherwise Apple-centric households. None of them ever communicate "too much of a compromise." A few of them have added some HPs too and never make any comment about one being more useful or easier than the other. They just play whatever they want to play on any of them in any combination of enjoying them.

I'm A/V and tech support for these people. If something was "compromising" or not working as expected, I'd definitely hear about it.

However better integration with the Apple ecosystem would make Sonos a better platform / product for everyone.

To this one I can agree. Any further integration would improve Sonos offerings. That practically goes without saying.

However, framing it like there is NO or little integration and/or Siri commands can't work with Sonos and/or microphones in speakers is near essential and/or saying an extra syllable is "too much of a compromise" is only good as an opinion of how YOU feel yourself. Anyone else can easily & quickly judge integration, whether Siri commands can make things play on Sonos, etc. Whether speaking an extra syllable is too much for others, they can be their own judge too.

In exchange for putting up with the great burden of one more syllable and/or having to command Siri through the other Apple tech they likely have on them or nearby, they can also get a much more OPEN platform that already:

• has Subwoofer for deeper bass,
• has surround sound speakers available and all the software to make all that work fleshed out and operational today,
• already works with pretty much ALL 100+ streaming services NATIVE instead of adding one at a time every few years (how many of those are native on HPs today?),
• has AUX in to overcome walled garden dependencies on very narrow ways of enjoying audio,
• Etc.

I share those not to put HP down- HP sounds GREAT- but to convey the concept that Sonos can deliver MOST of the listening benefits of HP with many additional benefits generally desired by HP owners too. If HP scratches all itches for you and others, great! But for those looking for such things, Sonos offers great alternatives- and then some- not nearly so locked down... for about the same costs as HP pricing.

 

[schlackattack]

Oh I agree, HomePod is just as bad. Good quality audio is definitely found elsewhere. And for the price of a pair of HomePods or a decent Sonos setup one can get a decent pair of bookshelf speakers and an AV receiver that would leave both Sonos and HomePod in the dust.

True, but the experience of having tiny speakers that still sounds good (though not great0, no wires, no amp, voice-activated via local compute, auto-tuned for the space, integrated with every music/sound streaming service, for like $400 is compelling, even for people that might have a higher end dedicated setup in a particular room.

 

[schlackattack]

This is not true. Sonos does not work with HomeKit in any useful way. It shows up as a speaker in the home app but no Sonos speaker with a mic can control anything in HomeKit. Also the claim that Siri commands work is false. Sonos speakers only support Alexa (they dropped Google assistant support)

They ALSO support "Hey Sonos", which imho is better than Alexa, Siri, or Google, because 1) it's all local compute on the speaker, no voice is sent to the cloud, and 2) it only does music, no misunderstandings related to other skills or tasks, and not marketing BS telling you about new services.

 

[WhiteShadow]

I think you meant to say, Sale up to 20% Off...

 

[Flight Plan]

No, you are the one arguing that things can't be done on Sonos that can and that one more syllable is "too much of a compromise." I'm mostly trying to offer others reading our little debate corrections to wrong or misleading information.



Nope, I don't even care about one more syllable. I do care about people getting correct information and this one is easy enough for anyone to question which of us is sharing correct information: try recommendations I've offered and see- no that's HEAR- for themselves on their own Sonos speakers using Siri commands. For example, that guy in post #34 seems to believe what you are saying in this thread. However, as soon as he tries what I've offered, he's going to discover that that IS a misconception... that Siri commands will- in fact- flow Apple Music audio to Sonos speakers. Anyone who takes the few minutes to try will see which of us is sharing actual experiences and which seems to be going to great lengths to try to position HP as significantly advantaged.

To those intrigued but do not own a Sonos speaker, Best Buy has a 14-day return policy. Go buy one set it up as described and see if it can do what I've offered in this thread. It will. But if it's impossible to make Siri work with it, enjoy Apple Music on it, and/or too difficult to add a syllable to a Siri order, return it for a full refund.

The SAME deal can work the other way too: Apple also offers 2-week returns. A Sonos person can buy an HP and have it sub in for select Sonos usages. Be sure to pick up the HP subwoofer if you have a Sonos sub, the HP soundbar if you have a Sonos soundbar and/or the HP surround sound speakers if you like surround. And if you like to enjoy stuff that can't be connected to your TV over HDMI, be sure to use AUX in on the HPs to play that audio. And if you like some music services beyond AM and YouTube Music, be sure to install those on HP so they can be native too. Don't forget the battery-based HPs like Sonos Move that you can carry outside or to the beach or picnic to enjoy music there as well.*

*to anyone confused by this last paragraph, only the first 2 sentences are true. None of the rest is possible with HPs because such HP products, software or features do not exist... though Sonos offers all of that (too).



Nope. I own only a couple of Sonos speakers myself, used in rooms where others would have HPs. On the other hand, I have helped many friends & family "go Sonos" and had much experience setting them up to work with all kinds of otherwise Apple-centric households. None of them ever communicate "too much of a compromise." A few of them have added some HPs too and never make any comment about one being more useful or easier than the other. They just play whatever they want to play on any of them in any combination of enjoying them.

I'm A/V and tech support for these people. If something was "compromising" or not working as expected, I'd definitely hear about it.



To this one I can agree. Any further integration would improve Sonos offerings. That practically goes without saying.

However, framing it like there is NO or little integration and/or Siri commands can't work with Sonos and/or microphones in speakers is near essential and/or saying an extra syllable is "too much of a compromise" is only good as an opinion of how YOU feel yourself. Anyone else can easily & quickly judge integration, whether Siri commands can make things play on Sonos, etc. Whether speaking an extra syllable is too much for others, they can be their own judge too.

In exchange for putting up with the great burden of one more syllable and/or having to command Siri through the other Apple tech they likely have on them or nearby, they can also get a much more OPEN platform that already:

• has Subwoofer for deeper bass,
• has surround sound speakers available and all the software to make all that work fleshed out and operational today,
• already works with pretty much ALL 100+ streaming services NATIVE instead of adding one at a time every few years (how many of those are native on HPs today?),
• has AUX in to overcome walled garden dependencies on very narrow ways of enjoying audio,
• Etc.

I share those not to put HP down- HP sounds GREAT- but to convey the concept that Sonos can deliver MOST of the listening benefits of HP with many additional benefits generally desired by HP owners too. If HP scratches all itches for you and others, great! But for those looking for such things, Sonos offers great alternatives- and then some- not nearly so locked down... for about the same costs as HP pricing.

I really despise having to quote whole posts like this, but I’ve got to say thank you to Darryl. I knew you were on the right side of this argument when Darth started drawing unprovable conclusions from your posts, and then just started accusing you of some ulterior motive from being financially “all in” on the Sonos ecosystem.

Is Sonos the best? I don’t know. Is it “good enough”? It is more than good enough for many of us. And you’re right, most of us have enough Siri “ears” laying about the house, listening to everything.

But y’know, the convenience of all this stuff is worth it. But I still like to mess with the algorithm from time to time, lol! Hold on a sec…it’s time for me to put on some show-tunes before I leave the house for lunch, lol!

 

[Flight Plan]

@HobeSoundDarryl

I just wanted to close the loop on this.

I did finally end up placing an order, just today in fact. I’m getting one Port and two Era 100s. The port is from the Sonos refurbished page, so $349 instead of $449. That price even beat the holiday sale price which was $399, I think.

The two Era 100s were holiday priced at something like $89 off of the regular price for each one.

At various times, I also considered getting a second Port or a Move/Roam. But I figured that with what I ordered above, I could put an Era 100 in my home office, another in my studio, and the Port in the living room for the Bose home theater system.

I also plan to test out the Port in the studio with my Bose 901s to see how that works out.

If the Port works well, I’ll get a second one. If not, I’ll plan to replace either the Bose home theater system or the Bose 901 system, and replace as needed with another 1 or 2 Era 100s. This was already over $750, but it will give me some flexibility while deciding on any follow-on actions, like getting a Roam or Move 2 for portable use around or outside of the house.

Thanks for your encouragement, Darryl. I’m looking forward to getting whole-home sound!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Enjoy your new goodies. Your ears should appreciate it.

And try those dedicated Sonos radio stations: free, great quality, many genres. They are a nice bonus often overlooked.