Sonos Rivals HomePod With New Assistant Speaker, Adding AirPlay 2 Support to Speakers Next Year

boshii said:
Airplay 2 is software-based so current speakers should be able to receive the update as well next year.
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Are you FULLY sure this is the case? I believe the software supports a specific Wi-Fi chipset that requires mesh capabilities?

euvnairb said:
Finally! Airplay! I hope the airplay update will be available for all existing sonos speakers. It's not much of an issue for me because I can play music from my library off the Sonos app on my phone, but when I want to play off my macbook, I have to airplay through an Apple TV.

The Sonos One sounds interesting to me in particular because I already have Sonos speakers in my house.
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JamesLeSmash said:
Why don't you use the Sonos.app for MacOS?
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My thoughts exactly!

Sonos did at one point make both Windows PC and MacOS apps (worked with Sierra) for local computer and iTunes library playback. Win10 is a bit buggy and I HATE that it creates a new power management profile and makes it default, but Sierra worked flawlessly.

SonosDesktopController

OSX Source: http://www.sonos.com/redir/controller_software_mac
 
avanpelt said:
If Sonos is releasing a $199 speaker with voice assistant compatibility built in, you better believe Apple will be lowering the price of HomePod. There is no way Siri is worth a $150 price premium over a comparable Sonos product.
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The Sonis One is basically a Play 1 with extra mics. It’s not even in the same league as the HomePod, which is better than the Play 3 and closing in on the Play 5 for sound quality.

The premium you pay for a HomePod isn’t Siri. It’s for the real-time modeling/sound processing.
 
I can't imagine any of these devices having much sound quality compared to a decent wired 2 channel system.

All the technology in the world can't change acoustics.
 
deanthedev said:
The Sonis One is basically a Play 1 with extra mics. It’s not even in the same league as the HomePod, which is better than the Play 3 and closing in on the Play 5 for sound quality.

The premium you pay for a HomePod isn’t Siri. It’s for the real-time modeling/sound processing.
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Have you heard the HomePod first hand? Curious if you are making assumptions on sound quality based on previews from the internet.
 
And yet you STILL cannot add music to your Apple Music library from the Sonos app. It's absolutely infuriating! Pure customer apathy by Apple. I literally hate them for this. It's been the most requested feature for YEARS.
 
Blakjack said:
Sonos just shatted on Apple. There speaker will support both rivals voice assistants and will be 130 bucks cheaper? If the Apple homepod doesn’t have significantly better sound quality It’s going to be a sad day. There is no way whatsoever Apple can support a claim their homepod is worth even 50 dollars more at this point. I understand they are selling it’s sound quality but let’s be real....the Siri function is what’s important in this smart speaker race. And we all know Siri is literal garbage compared to the likes of Google assistant and Alexa. To add to its lack of value, companies aren’t adopting Apple’s HomeKit at a rate that justifies buying the homepod over this new Sonos One. I was so exited about going broke (not really) by buying two homepods. But now I can save some money and buy two Sonos ones and actually get a superior product.
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The Sonos system actually does more than the HomePod. It's also a home theater system.
 
eternlgladiator said:
We have a couple and use them for two main things. Music and the weather. I know we have about 50 different ways to get the weather but when I'm not home I really miss being able to "Alex, what's the weather today" while I'm getting ready. It's sooooo much easier than checking on my phone. I use it timers sometimes as well but not exclusively yet. While it still feels like a bit of a novelty. It definitely has a place in our home now.
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I use my dots to turn on/off/set scenes for my hue lights, my tv/entertainment system through a Logitech hub, arm my self monitored smartthings alarm system when I go to bed, and my wife programs her sous vide to cook things as well as uses timers, weather, music through Spotify etc. There’s lots of uses if you end up buying additional items. The sous vide is awesome, produces great food with ease.

This is a big deal for me though. I have not been happy with my Spotify experience for the past few months, but switched to it because Apple Music isn’t compatable with Alexa. It seems like I can get a Sonos for Alexa but still use Apple Music. I was already setup with Apple Music with multiple Apple TVs and iPhones so this is a good compromise, and I’m sure the sound on the Sonos is way better than the dot connected to a Bluetooth speaker. Also AM is way better when it comes to uploading your music to the cloud, it’s accesable anywhere you go in your library and when you search, it shows as a unified library, no other service is as seamless as AM is. Don’t even get me started on amazon music cloud.
 
840quadra said:
I wish / hoped Apple would license the W1 to more of these devices. I understand they want to sell their HomePod, however, having more W1 enabled BT devices out in the wild would be a compelling reason to use their products.
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Isn't Sonos One a wifi device? What's the W1 chip have to do with that?
 
e-coli said:
And yet you STILL cannot add music to your Apple Music library from the Sonos app. It's absolutely infuriating! Pure customer apathy by Apple. I literally hate them for this. It's been the most requested feature for YEARS.
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Apple Music, online is not supported, never was since Apple changed the original online streaming and naming. All such services keep changing and screwing up API's ... hence why I LOVE owning my music ... not streaming it.
 
Apple needs to lower the prices of HomePod and ATV to help with mass adoption. With so much quality competition and lower prices, it will be hard if they keep charging such a premium.
 
SONOS and Alexa working fine.

• You need latest SONOS app update V8 available in app store

• update SONOS Speakers via app

• and you need your SONOS account email and password. If you've forgotten it like I had (old account) you can set a new one. This is done in iOS app More (three dots bottom right) > Setting > My SONOS Account

• Next, go to iOS Alexa app
Skills > type SONOS in search > enable > enter SONOS account details

• Then Smart Home > Devices > Discover

Working in UK, USA and Germany, more countries to follow.
 
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DeepIn2U said:
Apple Music, online is not supported, never was since Apple changed the original online streaming and naming. All such services keep changing and screwing up API's ... hence why I LOVE owning my music ... not streaming it.
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That's absolutely untrue. Apple Music is fully supported by Sonos, with the exception of that ONE feature that continues to be a barrier between me and the music I'm paying for.
 
whsbuss said:
Isn't Sonos One a wifi device? What's the W1 chip have to do with that?
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Wasn’t aware that it was WiFI only (without BT), and I think it is clear how W1 would be useful in such a device, since you apppear to understand both technologies.

But if not, it would be for ease of connections, being able to sync audio in multiple devices (speakers in this case), power management (if those speakers were battery powered). All that said, Apple turning on NFC for more functions can aid in some of the pairing issues.
 
So does this replace an Echo/Dot? Will this be detected by the Alexa app to enable skills etc?
 
knemonic said:
I use my dots to turn on/off/set scenes for my hue lights, my tv/entertainment system through a Logitech hub, arm my self monitored smartthings alarm system when I go to bed, and my wife programs her sous vide to cook things as well as uses timers, weather, music through Spotify etc. There’s lots of uses if you end up buying additional items. The sous vide is awesome, produces great food with ease.

This is a big deal for me though. I have not been happy with my Spotify experience for the past few months, but switched to it because Apple Music isn’t compatable with Alexa. It seems like I can get a Sonos for Alexa but still use Apple Music. I was already setup with Apple Music with multiple Apple TVs and iPhones so this is a good compromise, and I’m sure the sound on the Sonos is way better than the dot connected to a Bluetooth speaker. Also AM is way better when it comes to uploading your music to the cloud, it’s accesable anywhere you go in your library and when you search, it shows as a unified library, no other service is as seamless as AM is. Don’t even get me started on amazon music cloud.
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I don't think you will be able to control Apple Music by voice using the Sonos speaker mics. Unless I am reading it wrong, it will be using Alexa and eventually Google for the voice commands and neither are compatible with AM. Airplay 2 will be nice, but you will still need the iPhone or iPad around to control it.

The Dot has an aux out, so you can plug it into a high end system. You can still use AM via Bluetooth in the Dot if you don't like the internal music services, but you lose multiroom support. If you are plugging it into Bluetooth speakers, that can definitely be improved upon, though.

The main upside to the HomePod will be the ability to control AM with voice just using the HomePod. Unfortunately, if you want "Hey Siri" control of a music service on your iPhone, you have to use AM. That gives the HomePod the advantage in this one critical area. As I said, maybe I missing something, but I didn't see where Sonos could control Apple Music without having an iOS device involved. I still don't know if the HomePod is worth the extra money, just to get direct AM control. However, I am not going to make any decisions until the product is available. If you can tell it to play "The Beatles in zone 1" and it sends Apple Music audio to multiple Airplay 2 speakers, I would probably buy one.

As a side note, I love my Sous Vide, too.:)
 
This just killed any enthusiasm I had for the HomePod. The only thing holding me back from using Google Home was lack of native Apple Music support. With both those things (and a much better price) I'll likely pick this new Sonos up.
 
boshii said:
I would trust the company that's been in wireless home audio, and only wireless home audio, for 15 years.
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Yes, that wonderful company that (along with Amazon) removed Audible functionality over two years ago and has been telling us it’s “coming back soon” for those two years. Or the wonderful company that still hasn’t sorted its Apple Music functionality.
 
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