Is Sonos the only viable wireless surround sound system?
Discussion
Mark300zx said:
Seems to dominate the stores but are there other options available at this price point?
No, there are plenty of others out there, but Sonos seems to work well for most.It didn’t work for me, so I replaced it with Google Chromecast Audio devices. They are brilliant for less than £30 each and run a lot more stable than Sonos on my network. You can also buy the tech built into speakers which makes it more of a rival to the Sonos Play 1/3/5s.
That’s great for streaming Spotify around the house, but I haven’t been able to find an iOS control app I’m happy with for streaming my own collection, so I’ve just bought a Bluesound Node2i for the main zone. This is a bit like Sonos, but more expensive. I’m hoping it will be a bit more stable!
What are you going to stream, your own collection or online music?
kingston12 said:
No, there are plenty of others out there, but Sonos seems to work well for most.
It didn’t work for me, so I replaced it with Google Chromecast Audio devices. They are brilliant for less than £30 each and run a lot more stable than Sonos on my network. You can also buy the tech built into speakers which makes it more of a rival to the Sonos Play 1/3/5s.
That’s great for streaming Spotify around the house, but I haven’t been able to find an iOS control app I’m happy with for streaming my own collection, so I’ve just bought a Bluesound Node2i for the main zone. This is a bit like Sonos, but more expensive. I’m hoping it will be a bit more stable!
What are you going to stream, your own collection or online music?
I was going to use for home theatre with a Sonon sound bar.It didn’t work for me, so I replaced it with Google Chromecast Audio devices. They are brilliant for less than £30 each and run a lot more stable than Sonos on my network. You can also buy the tech built into speakers which makes it more of a rival to the Sonos Play 1/3/5s.
That’s great for streaming Spotify around the house, but I haven’t been able to find an iOS control app I’m happy with for streaming my own collection, so I’ve just bought a Bluesound Node2i for the main zone. This is a bit like Sonos, but more expensive. I’m hoping it will be a bit more stable!
What are you going to stream, your own collection or online music?
Mark300zx said:
I was going to use for home theatre with a Sonon sound bar.
Apologies, I really should have read the title of your thread before going off on a complete tangent!Sonos should be a really good option for home cinema, although it is expensive for what it is. Sony do a system (HT-ZF9) which has wireless surround speakers and subwoofer.
I don't think there are that many others. I'm surprised wireless surrounds haven't become a bit more popular - the wires are a hassle, but the proper 5.1 effect is much better than a sounder with faux-surround (IMO).
kingston12 said:
Mark300zx said:
Seems to dominate the stores but are there other options available at this price point?
No, there are plenty of others out there, but Sonos seems to work well for most.It didn’t work for me, so I replaced it with Google Chromecast Audio devices. They are brilliant for less than £30 each and run a lot more stable than Sonos on my network. You can also buy the tech built into speakers which makes it more of a rival to the Sonos Play 1/3/5s.
That’s great for streaming Spotify around the house, but I haven’t been able to find an iOS control app I’m happy with for streaming my own collection, so I’ve just bought a Bluesound Node2i for the main zone. This is a bit like Sonos, but more expensive. I’m hoping it will be a bit more stable!
What are you going to stream, your own collection or online music?
only thing it won't do is replicate the surroundsoud processing, but if you use it to stream to an AVR amp that solves that issue as well.
Roundm said:
Kingston12 - you should take a look at Roon - I have a Qnap NAS with all my music on it (FLAC files) and can run the Roon server in the QNAP directly (effectively as an App) - it'll stream music to Sonos, Chromecast and anything that supports it's own protocol RAAS (of which there is a lot of quality gear including Bluesound and others). I have a mix of Chromecast, Sonos (which I'm moving away from as I dislike bugging my house with microphones and I refuse to put Alexa or similar in there until it can run without sending all data back to Amazon or Google or anyone) and some streamers which support HiRes streaming (192Kb etc) into my main hifi.
only thing it won't do is replicate the surroundsoud processing, but if you use it to stream to an AVR amp that solves that issue as well.
I did look at Roon, and I am still quite keen on it. only thing it won't do is replicate the surroundsoud processing, but if you use it to stream to an AVR amp that solves that issue as well.
I quite liked the idea of the Bluesound to get me up and running quickly, and it has done just that. It's been great to have my digital music collection back after so long.
Proper multiroom would be great though. I got rid of Sonos years ago because I could never get it to run properly on my network. I have got a Chromecast Audio in each 'zone', attached to a variety of AVRs and active speakers. They work really well for Spotify, but having my own library in all zones would be great, especially without going to the expense of a Node 2i for each.
I have got a Synology NAS that could run as the Core. When I get a chance, I'll sign up for the free trial and configure it to see if it works for me.
Just a quick note on the Chromecast Audio - Google have discontinued this product.
https://9to5google.com/2019/01/11/google-discontin...
https://9to5google.com/2019/01/11/google-discontin...
Roundm said:
Kingston12 - I have a mix of Chromecast, Sonos (which I'm moving away from as I dislike bugging my house with microphones and I refuse to put Alexa or similar in there until it can run without sending all data back to Amazon or Google or anyone) .
The new Sonos One SL (and the IKEA/Sonos speakers) do not have mics - long thread on the Sonos forum with users requesting it,If you use Roon you can also use things like Raspberry Pi with wifi (or any Windows NUC for example) and a USB DAC like Cyrus SoundKey into an amp to get fantastic quality sound which leaves Sonos for dead. It's more complicated to set up but once done, runs for ever.
It will also drive DACs like Chord Dave. Roon really is the way forward I think.
A full list of Roon partners is here: https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
Roon tested and Roon ready devices: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Partner_Devices_Matrix
It will also drive DACs like Chord Dave. Roon really is the way forward I think.
A full list of Roon partners is here: https://roonlabs.com/partners.html
Roon tested and Roon ready devices: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Partner_Devices_Matrix
I have always liked the look of Sonos - its ability to cope with Home Cinema and multi room streaming - none moreso because it seems easy to understand from the web site.
However for decent home cinema, and stable and good quality multi room music streaming, which would you choose - especially using Apple Music as a source?
Also, can I add a turntable to the system easily?
However for decent home cinema, and stable and good quality multi room music streaming, which would you choose - especially using Apple Music as a source?
Also, can I add a turntable to the system easily?
Edited by mattyn1 on Sunday 13th October 11:00
I really like my sonos setup , I have play3 doted around the house like kitchen and bedrooms then a beam and sub with pair of Play5s as surrounds . I haven’t tried it with Apple Music but it’s pretty flawless with Spotify. It’s so easy to set up , I added a turntable via the play5 but I have to remove them as surrounds to make it work , which takes 30 seconds but it’s a bit of a pain .
matjk said:
I really like my sonos setup , I have play3 doted around the house like kitchen and bedrooms then a beam and sub with pair of Play5s as surrounds . I haven’t tried it with Apple Music but it’s pretty flawless with Spotify. It’s so easy to set up , I added a turntable via the play5 but I have to remove them as surrounds to make it work , which takes 30 seconds but it’s a bit of a pain .
Sounds good...... did you test any others? Heos for instance?I currently run a HEOS set up in my house
i have the HEOS bar and sub connected to one of my tv's
i also have the 7 series speaker in HS2 guise. NB the HS2 is important if you wish to stream HI RES files eg new Amazon HD music service.
IF you have newer marantz equipment HEOS is also built into it as part of the Denon family.
over the next wee while may add the series 1 speakers as they can integrate with bar and make 5.1 sound etc
I done a fair bit of reading and testing prior to committing to HEOS a couple of years back and NO regrets. It is a very good system, easy to use etc and the speakers are of high build quality. would highly recommend over Sonos
Yamaha multicast supposed to be very good so worth a look. Out of the bunch, these 2 would get my vote all day long
i have the HEOS bar and sub connected to one of my tv's
i also have the 7 series speaker in HS2 guise. NB the HS2 is important if you wish to stream HI RES files eg new Amazon HD music service.
IF you have newer marantz equipment HEOS is also built into it as part of the Denon family.
over the next wee while may add the series 1 speakers as they can integrate with bar and make 5.1 sound etc
I done a fair bit of reading and testing prior to committing to HEOS a couple of years back and NO regrets. It is a very good system, easy to use etc and the speakers are of high build quality. would highly recommend over Sonos
Yamaha multicast supposed to be very good so worth a look. Out of the bunch, these 2 would get my vote all day long
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