When we're talking about music, it's only really iTunes/iTunes Radio that can be streamed direct from the cloud to Apple TV isn't it? You can't do Spotify, for example. Sonos supports something like 25 cloud-based services.
AppleTV doesn't have support for Spotify (directly anyway). Obviously, they could easily add support at any time, but who is to guess when/if that will happen. I'm hoping for full 3rd party App support this year. You can, of course, play any Airplay supported App to the AppleTV from an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Mac in the mean time. I'm not a fan of radio of any kind, so I don't miss them, personally, but obviously many do. Apple has been steadily adding video sources over the years, but I'd still prefer 3rd party App support so I can add something like XBMC/Kodi myself. But even so, Sonos has no video support what-so-ever so it's rather moot to me given I don't care about radio sources (and yes you can get iTunes Radio and their regular radio services directly without a computer or mobile device.
The thing is that I now use my two older iPod Touches as remotes for two of my rooms (plugged in so I don't have to worry about battery life; they sit by my bed and my living room listening chair). I use them as remotes and to do light surfing, but I could easily stream Pandora or something from them to the AppleTV as well. They're already sitting there so it wouldn't tie up my Touch Gen 5 or my Phone to do it.
Plus, I'm not really a fan on having to switch on my TV to listen to music.
So don't. I use my my iPod Touch to control all three of my AppleTVs and my computer as well. AppleTV has had iOS "Remote" support for almost as long as it is has existed. In other words, I don't have to turn on my TV to play music or to redirect it anywhere in my house. I now have three iPod Touches (Gen 1, 4 and 5) and I've relegated my older ones as the battery gets worse or new apps aren't supported to remote and armchair surfing duties. I now have a dedicated Touch in my living room main audio room and my bedroom (which is Airport Express only with Klipsch 2.1 THX Sat/Sub speakers). I carry the 5 around with me.
understanding with Airplay speakers (or Airport Express connected speakers) is the content is not going direct from the cloud to the speakers, even with iTunes/iTunes Radio. Rather it needs to be relayed via your computer or iOS device. Is that not true?
No, it's not true. The AppleTV will send the iTunes Radio songs and any other cloud-based music you have on their server directly to your speakers or any other Airplay speakers straight from the AppleTV interface (anything you buy from Apple is automatically available in the Cloud, audio and video alike, plus you can get a service to put your entire library in the Cloud if you want. The older AppleTVs can, of course store music directly on their own hard drive as well). Movies you've purchased can be streamed directly from the Cloud to AppleTV as well (and the audio can be redirected to another or even an additional room if you like). AppleTV and iTunes also supports whole house audio mode (i.e. I can sync all SIX of my rooms to play the same audio at the same time, which is great for house parties or Christmas/mood music or when you're doing chores around the house or whatever.
This relay adds a step that is unnecessary with Sonos.
The ONLY thing you need your computer on for is to stream music or video that is locally stored on your computer's iTunes library. If it's on the iTunes Cloud server (whether put there by you or anything you bought from Apple automatically along with movie rentals or iTunes Radio or any other supported audio/video service), you can watch/listen to them directly from AppleTV and AppleTV can redirect the audio to any other AppleTV or Airport Express room in your house directly, no computer needed.
I do use my Apple TV currently to play iTunes Radio, but frankly my TV's built-in speakers aren't the greatest, and I'd rather just have a speaker for audio stuff like pandora, podcasts, NPR radio, etc so I don't have to turn on the TV to listen to that. So for me the decision was really whether to get an Airplay speaker (like the Bowers and Wilkins Z2, for example, which gets good reviews), or a Sonos speaker.
-Across the forums and comment sections of the internet, the consistent refrain from Sonos owners is that they never drop out, never cut off the first few seconds of a track, never play fine for 2 minutes and then just disconnect randomly from the network. Whereas such issues seem to occur sporadically with Airplay speakers (including, as we've seen, for the OP of this very thread).
I have six rooms of audio and the only time I EVER had a song miss the first few seconds is when I used an ancient (circa 1997) home theater surround processor (external type you used to connect via 6-input connection on early receivers when Dolby Digital/DTS first came out). That DAC in it cannot instantly lock onto a signal for some reason. I've got a $25 little external stand-alone DAC in my living room (purely to isolate a ground loop caused somehow by having HDMI and the analog outputs on my 1st Gen ATV) and it syncs instantly and I miss nothing and the same is true of my home theater room's receiver's internal DAC. I've never had an Apple Airport Express have that problem either and I don't think I've ever lost a connection with a unit playing audio either (that would be a router signal issue and could happen with Sonos if you put the receivers too far away as well; they aren't without range).
It sounds like you just want to buy an all-in-one speaker/receiver. Personally, I would never go that way because most of those speakers are total garbage sound quality-wise. I bought the Klipsch 2.1 sat/sub speaker system (around $150 on average) for my bedroom and both my Mac Mini and Macbook Pro's Dock station and it sounds simply unbelievably good for the money in a small room. My main living room is set up with Carver ribbon speakers/subs bi-amped with 500 watts total using a custom active crossover network and a sonic holography pre-amp. I also have a full analog vinyl rig (~$500 setup) installed in addition to AppleTV, the HD cable box and a CD player (never gets used anymore for obvious reasons) and my digital Roland piano plugged in there plus the Macbook Pro recording setup set on top of the piano for recording my own music (I play guitar also) and its plugged in as well.
As you might guess, it's not a low-end system (I have another system for home theater with a 6.1 setup with a 93" screen and projector; this one is for high-end audio and two years ago, TV as well when I hung a plasma on the wall above the piano where I used to have a picture frame). Not counting the computer and instruments, it's probably about $9000 invested. I cannot tell the difference between AppleTV (using 1st gen here) and the CD or even my digital recordings of my analog records (before I clean them of all clicks/pops using the Macbook or my Mac Mini). It'd be nice if Apple would support 24/96 playback through AppleTV (and 44.1 even for the newer Gen2/3 boxes, as 48kHz conversion kills the DTS CDs I have dumped). Otherwise, I have no real complaints. They could add the super audio formats that BDs have, I suppose (obviously only useful for my home theater room).
What I'm getting at is that when I say the Klipsch 2.1 speakers sound unbelievable for $150 in a small room, I'm not kidding. They sound better than my Alpine/Sub system in the car in my den and bedroom. I would NOT want a cheap Airplay "Speaker". It's simply not hard to connect either an AppleTV or Airport Express to a quality speaker system and then you're not dependent on the limited choices offered in such configurations (i.e. they know people that buy them are looking for convenience, not sound quality). I set up my mother's house for playback using her Bose Radio in her living room. It's not even in the same league as those speakers + an Airport Express. I can't imagine an Airplay speaker (or similar Sonos variety) sounding any/much better than a Bose Wave Radio. Yes, it's impressive sounding for a tiny radio. No, it's not a real "HiFi" speaker system, IMO.
What eventually pushed me toward the Sonos were the following points:
-I like the idea of not having my phone or iOS device tied up, as it effectively is when air playing to a speaker. From what I understand, with
My Mac Mini is available 24/7 to my system. AppleTV CAN/WILL wake my Mini from sleep when AppleTV or an iOS device with Remote requests to paly a song/movie/whatever. In other words, I don't have to leave the computer "ON". It can go to sleep. I have had problems with my mother's Macbook doing that, but it's missing the "Wake on LAN" button that is present on my Mac Mini's preference pane.
Sonos, once you command it to play it either starts buffering the content from your source device, or simply connects directly to the internet so that your source device is not really necessary to relay the playback.
Yeah, my AppleTV does the same thing. I never use my iPod Touch to play music on it to my own system (I will use it at my mom's house since it's my music on my iPod as oppose to her library; she also has an Airplay capable receiver there as well, so I don't even need an AppleTV to send Airplay music to her main living room). As I said above, my master library (containing around 9000 songs, 700 movies and dozens of tv shows locally, not counting Cloud content) is the source device and it wakes up on demand from my Mac Mini Server. I don't need to wake it to play Cloud content or Internet Radio.
People talk about how you can use your phone to make calls, or even leave the house entirely, without it impacting the playback. Any interruptions on your phone when air playing will interrupt the playback.
So don't use your phone. I don't. What I'm saying is that other than Pandora/Spotify type radio things, I don't see any advantage to Sonos and it doesn't do video and it doesn't do whole house synced audio (the last time I checked, anyway; I haven't really looked at it lately; your statement next seems to indicate maybe they have). Given I have two older iPod Touches lying around as remotes for my system, I can stream Pandora off of them if I like without tying up my Phone. I guess that makes them both a remote and a "source".
-I like the idea of having wireless coordinated stereo between two Play 1's.
I have wireless coordinated stereo between 3 AppleTVs, 2 Airport Express units and my Mac Mini available and I don't need a special network to do it. In fact, I can put the ATVs on separate bandwidths (2.4 and 5GHz) and stream multiple HD sources at the same time to different rooms in the house from my library even without any stutters.
