Sonos or wired?

[ocd]

Just got new LG 65B which is a worthy replacement for my old Panasonic plasma. I have a marantz nr1601 receiver and and old mission 5.1 speaker system. There are wires under the carpet and it’s a bit of a mess where everything connects to the sub. Should I go for Sonos bar and a couple of play 1s, and maybe the sub at a later date, or go for a new surround system with the same budget? I would need to cut in the wires and redecorate which will need to be budgeted for.

[chasingracecars]

I would stick with wired system and get a Yamaha amp for MusicCast or a Denon amp for HEOS.

I have Sonos but am looking to get rid it of due to constant dropping out. Once upon a time it worked fine but now soo reliant on wifi.

[Lovey1]

I have never had an issue with Sonos dropping out. Not saying don't go for the wired set up but personally i love the simplicity of the Sonos set up

[AREA]

Go wired. Sonos is too temperamental and a faff with updates.

Been there, bought loads, spent thousands, got out of it.

[Freakuk]

I've got an old Bose wired system and like the OP wires everywhere under the carpet and the sub it's a rats nest of wires.

And in another room I have a Playbar, 2 Play 1's and Sub, I did have some issues with WiFi but sorted once I implemented a Mesh network and it's been pretty much rock solid ever since.

I'm in the Sonos camp now given the ease of implementation and the sound is pretty impressive in the room I have it.

[anonymous-user]

Wired..
I have Sonus, always rock solid & great. Until it fails at the worst time when have company etc.

[matjk]

I have Sonos , pretty rock solid if you connect a bridge or any one of the speakers to Ethernet as it sets up it’s own mesh network .
The new beam and couple of ones sounds decent but you really need the sub, I added speakers all round the house now as it’s so easy to add a new ones.
Cables are such a pain

[smn159]

We've had a playbar / sub and a couple of Play 1's for probably getting on for 18 months now. Playbar is wired as we had ethernet to the TV anyway, rest is wireless. Number of dropouts = 0

Sonos in the rest of the house too, including some older ZP80's and ZP100's as well as Play1's. Mixture of wired where the cables are nearby anyway and wireless where they aren't. A few dropout troubles early on when it was all wireless, but pretty much zero problems now.

[ocd]

Thanks for all your opinions. I’m tempted by the bar, sub and a couple of Play 1. We already have a Play 5 in the kitchen and there’s Cat6 in the TV room so hopefully it should be stable. I’ve missed the post Xmas discounts, and the 10% off deals earlier this week which is disappointing. Anyone know how often Sonos does deals? Is it worth haggling with an independent dealer like RS or is Sonos like Porsche when it comes to doing discounts with its resellers?

[matjk]

There’s a face book page, Sonos club UK that was set up by a company called D & C smart home that do good deals and get very good feedback , think they do free shipping and interest free credit and always beat sonos mainstream prices.
I normally buy from Argos in the sales as the Mrs gets 10% off (staff discount)
The playbar is getting on a bit now with no hdmi or airplay2 , the base is said to sound better but I opted for a beam

[ocd]

Just taken the plunge....
Sevenoaks online had an open box Beam at £70 under retail, and a new Sub with the same discount. I chucked in a couple of new Play 1s at £10 off. Free delivery which is nice, so all in all whilst it's not excatly bargain basement, it looks like a reasonable deal compared with JL. Can't wait!

[bonerp]

I have a playbar on my 65" lg c8 with two 1's and a sub. Sound is quite amazing and even cranked right up won't distort. However on the playbar make sure you don't stress the optical cable and my port disintegrated when I unplugged it. It wasn't under stress but it's fragile. Luckily sonos were good enough to exchange it under warranty.
I also have a Samsung soundbar and sub in my cinema room but sonos is much better. I've had this set up for at least 4 years. I have drop out issues on my connect which runs the record player, but no dropouts with playbar or any of the speakers including a 3 and 5 upstairs. Expensive but big sound. The sub is immense and adds so much more to a strong system.

[Prohibiting]

ocd said:

Just taken the plunge....
Sevenoaks online had an open box Beam at £70 under retail, and a new Sub with the same discount. I chucked in a couple of new Play 1s at £10 off. Free delivery which is nice, so all in all whilst it's not excatly bargain basement, it looks like a reasonable deal compared with JL. Can't wait!

Keep us updated.

[troika]

chasingracecars said:

I would stick with wired system and get a Yamaha amp for MusicCast or a Denon amp for HEOS.

I have Sonos but am looking to get rid it of due to constant dropping out. Once upon a time it worked fine but now soo reliant on wifi.

That’s a good shout. Something like a Yamaha RN402 or 602 will murder any Sonos system. I use a 402 in the kitchen with ceiling speakers and it’s great. MusicCast is better than Sonos IMO (I have a Sonos Connect plugged into my Naim rig for streaming Spotify etc).

[ocd]

All of the speakers delivered today. Very impressed with Sevenoaks who substituted a new Beam at the discounted price for the opened box one I bought, because it had already been sold when I placed my online order. All set up very quickly with the Sonos app and the sound quality is excellent. The sub is awesome and seems to add palpable depth to the sound. Just working out how to integrate Alexa with the TV functions. The beam certainly punches out very high quality sound and the surround effects with the Play 1s is much better than my old set up. Mrs OCD happy to lose the wires. Result!