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

[ross7777]

https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/airplay-2-on-sonos-6797748

According to a post from a Sonos rep, the Sonos One will have Airplay 2 support. Hopefully the Play One will support it as it's $50 cheaper.

 

[scouser75]

I've only recently setup my Sonos One. My verdict. Sound is great. Alexa is rubbish. And most importantly, iOS control on it is absolutely atrocious.

I might wait for the release of Homepod and then sell the One.

 

[turtlebud]

Or you can use the Sonos app for mac.

I've been really intrigued by the sonos play 1 recently and have been reading up on it. Then I found that you can't stream spotify on it without subscribing to premium. It appears that the only way to get spotify on sonos is to pony up for premium, get a play 5, or buy audiobridge (which I am not totally opposed to). The one thing that concerns me is relying on a 3rd party app to essentially enable airplay for the sonos 1. If things change in the future, the 3rd party app may stop working or not work as well (and you'd need to wait/hope for an update).

Is this accurate or are there details that I am missing?

Ultimately, I don't _need_ to get a sonos. I have a logitech ue air speaker that is still working well as an airplay speaker and have my surround sound hooked up to my airport express. It's more of a "that looks/sounds good so I want it" rather than a need.

 

[Uofmtiger]

If I were not an Apple Music subscriber (which I listen to every day) I would have gotten the Echo as well. Commands work flawlessly, but Sonos beats it sound quality wise.

Just a couple points about the cheap Echo Dot and Spot. They have an aux out. This means you can plug it into any speaker setup with an audio input. I have mine connected to some great sounding setups, so you aren't limited to a speaker manufacturer that doesn't even publish specs.

The Bluetooth features are the most convenient I have run across, so after you pair it to the iPhone, you can just tell Alexa to connect to iPhone next time and it will automatically connect. It will also allow you to pause and play. You lose the Bluetooth out and multiroom features while it is receiving a Bluetooth signal, but it comes in handy for Apple Music or Overcast even though the Dot doesn't support those features directly. I use the Dot more for Bluetooth than I use it for directly playing audio.

That being said, the HomePod will add a level of convenience for Apple Music users. With articles like this
it appears that Apple has a growing base of people that will benefit from the HomePod:

https://thetrichordist.com/2018/01/...arketshare-of-both-plays-and-overall-revenue/

As a side note,if you are using the onboard audio sources, you can tell it to pair by voice to Bluetooth receiving devices, as well. I have one of my Dots connect to an Airplay speaker via aux in the kitchen, but I can tell Alexa to turn on my stereo (connected to an iHome Plug) and to connect to my stereo (which will connect it to my Yamaha WXC-50) and tell it to play music. This gets it to my vintage Marantz stereo setup ( the Yamaha feeds it a signal) by just using my voice. It is a nifty little device.

 

[sziehr]

So I just setup a sonos play one. I have to say the little thing for the price sounds amazing. Sonos having a required app to stream anything since airplay 2 is not out yet might very well end this trip before it got started. I have my 15 day return window. I am strongly considering my options. Airplay is a huge deal for me. I had intention to let my SO stream the audio of a movie from the iPad while she was cooking.

This does not do that not at all.

So I am looking like I am preparing for a return and maybe home pod or maybe just wait till airplay 2 really ships. I hate to have a product that was promised some sort of support for it to never arrive.

 

[whsbuss]

So I just setup a sonos play one. I have to say the little thing for the price sounds amazing. Sonos having a required app to stream anything since airplay 2 is not out yet might very well end this trip before it got started. I have my 15 day return window. I am strongly considering my options. Airplay is a huge deal for me. I had intention to let my SO stream the audio of a movie from the iPad while she was cooking.

This does not do that not at all.

So I am looking like I am preparing for a return and maybe home pod or maybe just wait till airplay 2 really ships. I hate to have a product that was promised some sort of support for it to never arrive.

Well it ain't Sonos' to blame. Apple was to release AP2 a while ago

 

[scouser75]

So I just setup a sonos play one. I have to say the little thing for the price sounds amazing. Sonos having a required app to stream anything since airplay 2 is not out yet might very well end this trip before it got started. I have my 15 day return window. I am strongly considering my options. Airplay is a huge deal for me. I had intention to let my SO stream the audio of a movie from the iPad while she was cooking.

This does not do that not at all.

So I am looking like I am preparing for a return and maybe home pod or maybe just wait till airplay 2 really ships. I hate to have a product that was promised some sort of support for it to never arrive.

You've got to be fair. Sonos didn't give a date for Airplay 2 to arrive. They simply said "2018". As whsbuss said, it's out of Sonos' hands. Apple dictate in this area unfortunately. And I have a feeling that as their Pod has just been released, chances are highly likely that Apple aint gonna allow anyone else to hinder the Homepod sales. You returning the Sonos will be exactly what Apple wants.