Sonos Speakers Coming to Apple Online Store Today, Retail Stores on October 5

[TheMountainLife]

What do you mean what am I talking about? Every single word I wrote was 100% accurate. You said, and I quote: "I have 6 chromecast dongles to bring music in all of my rooms. Each dongle is $35 where as Play 1 is $200."

Your 6 chromecast dongles do absolutely nothing to produce the sound you hear. They are wifi receivers. You then must, without question, have:

1) Speaker (or speakers)
2) Amplification (either separate amp or built into the speaker)
3) Wiring (virtually no cost, but needed if you run 2 speakers to join them so I am adding to this list)

Again, what is listed above is unequivocally correct and required. You have to have speakers and amplification, and if using left/right stereo speakers a wire connecting the 2 (not needed for mono setups).

Your post touting the $35 per zone Chromecast was not wrong, they are $35/ea. It just was not even close to being complete and does not explain the overall cost.

If you are thinking "But I already had all of that other stuff"...fine, it didn't cost you more money today...but you did have to make that investment at some point in the past, so there was a cost.

The $200 Play:1 speaker is 100% all that is needed for a single zone solution.

What's your arguement/point here?

I shared an alternate way of bringing music to multiple rooms at the fraction of the cost of Sonos. It works for me.

My setup isn't as complicated as you make it seem. I'm using my existing Bose Companion 10's & 20's that allows 2 inputs along with a soundlink mini, soundtouch and beats pill. Last thing I wanted was another speaker to take up space. (others are likely in this same situation)

I hate commenting here sometimes because god forbid we share something that can benefit someone else there's someone always ready to poke holes without asking questions first.

 

[jdag]

What's your arguement/point here?

I shared an alternate way of bringing music to multiple rooms at the fraction of the cost of Sonos. It works for me.

My setup isn't as complicated as you make it seem. I'm using my existing Bose Companion 10's & 20's that allows 2 inputs along with a soundlink mini, soundtouch and beats pill. Last thing I wanted was another speaker to take up space. (others are likely in this same situation)

I hate commenting here sometimes because god forbid we share something that can benefit someone else there's someone always ready to poke holes without asking questions first.

My argument/point is that you left out vital pieces of information, in fact the most costly components. The premise of your posts is that there is "an alternate way of bringing music to multiple rooms at the fraction of the cost of Sonos". You then start and end your evaluation with "Each dongle is $35 where as Play 1 is $200."

That is NOT complete, simple as that, and that is my argument/point. I helped people understand that you need more than a $35 dongle.

In your latest post, for the 1st time, you reference "I'm using my existing Bose Companion 10's & 20's that allows 2 inputs along with a soundlink mini, soundtouch and beats pill." Those speakers are in addition to the $35 dongle, whereas a Sonos Play:1 at $200 is a complete package itself.

I don't know the exact cost of each of those devices, nor what you paid so don't quote me, but I believe the Companion 10s are in the $100 area, Companion 20s $250ish, Soundlink Mini $200ish, and the Beats Pill $150ish. Add in the $35/ea Chromecast dongle and you spent MORE per your zone (on average) than the $200 Play:1, hardly a fraction of the cost!

I suspect that you already had the speakers, and just added the Chromecasts. So sure, you didn't have to dig into your pocket for multiple Play:1s to upgrade what you already had. But that does not reflect total cost of ownership.



TL/DR: My 1st sentence in my 1st response to you was "There is nothing you stated that is not true." It was true, just not the complete picture, and Sonos is not necessarily more costly depending on the cost of other necessary components you need to buy or already have.

 

[s54]

Airplay can not match what the Sonos system does. Airplay is for one speaker - Sonos can manage as many speakers as you want to put up. They play under the same wifi protocol IIRC. The only drawback is you can't use iTunes as your player with sonos, you must use the sonos app but once you get used to it you really won't miss iTunes.

I love my Sonos system. I've had it for 5 years. It's an amazing setup with amazing sound clarity (for what it is). In my experience, no other wifi-capable speakers on the market sound better for the money. And no other speakers are as lag-free as the Sonos speakers.

However, some people are right. The biggest downside is that Sonos doesn't support airplay. And I personally dislike that very much. You may argue that their app is great and capable, which it is, but at the end of the day, Airplay is Airplay. Half the time, I don't want to be tied to the Sonos app in order to stream various things.

The clear advantage of Airplay is that I can stream any source of music (no matter which app it comes from) to an Airplay-capable device. And you cannot do this with Sonos. This bothers me. There are countless examples I could give you, but at the end of the day it boils down to what apps one uses. For example, say you want to stream music from the YouTube app to your Sonos speaker. Well, forget it. You can't do it with Sonos, unless of course you Airplay it to your Apple TV > TV > Sonos. But then you're involving a middleman, which sort of defeats half the purpose of owning a Sonos product in the first place. Same with various radio apps and basically anything else that I want to stream from the browser.

I don't understand why Sonos ties you to their stupid app. It sucks. I personally hate using it. It's the only thing preventing me from liking the Sonos products as much as I should. No Airplay support is actually a very big deal.

 

[DudeDad]

I disagree - Airplay allows control between devices within the same ecosystem. I run a home network using a repurposed eBay MacMini, running a copy of Airsonos. This means I can listen to all my iTunes and Apple Music from laptops to iPhones across both Sonos, and Raspberry Pi gear connected to both my HIFI and TV, as well as the independent Sonos speakers on the LAN. You need the Sonos app to set up the speakers; but it is separate to iTunes on my Macs and iPhone - and to access to the way I listen to music therein. This is not a criticism of Sonos - the app is good: I just like the Airplay integration, though I need jump through a few hoops first...

Your solution works for you, but is completely impractical for most users.

 

[Bah-Bah]

Sonos is awesome. I used to like Airplay but got sick and tired of constant dropouts and connection issues which could only be solved by switching everything off and on again every week or so.

I'm sure not everybody had those problems but I know plenty who did. Sonos isn't cheap at all but if you can afford it and rock solid connectivity is a must for you, I don't know anything that does the job better.

I'd love it if they supported Airplay though, it would be useful from time to time.