Alternatives to Sonos

[anonymous-user]

In light of their recent 'foot in mouth' announcement, what are alternatives?

I use a Sonos Connect to stream to my amp, disappointed to find out it won't stream hi-def so looking for options.

Thoughts and suggestions please.

[bristolracer]

Yamaha Musiccast
Denon HEOS
Bluesound Nova

[anonymous-user]

bristolracer said:

Yamaha Musiccast
Denon HEOS
Bluesound Nova

Do you mean Bluesound Node?

[bristolracer]

garyhun said:

Do you mean Bluesound Node?

Thats the one !

[anonymous-user]

bristolracer said:

garyhun said:

Do you mean Bluesound Node?

Thats the one !

I was looking at that last week. The model with an amp is quite pricey but it looks an interesting piece of kit.

[troika]

Yamaha. If you want to replace the Connect, plug something like a WXC-50 into your amp. If you want a one box amp that will do everything, RN803D.

[PushedDover]

and whilst the Sonos UI is not amazing - do these alternates run a happy multiroom, multi media set up ?

[MrCheese]

I'm looking at Amazon Echos to replace my Sonos system, can anyone clarify what they can do in terms of pairing and multiroom...I can find answers to parts of this online but as I don't have any units it is very difficult to know exact functionality...
1) Can I pair any 2 identical Echo units as a stereo pair
2) I can setup speaker groups in the Alexa app - can I setup multiple groups that contain the same speaker so that when I want to play music to a particular combination of speakers its laready setup?
3) Can I include stereo pairs in a group?
4) Can groups mix and match different Echo unit types?
5) Any thoughts on Amazon doing a Sonos and not allowing current/future units to work together?

For reference, I use Sonos to play TuneIn radio and play music off a NAS. I used to play music directly off my iPhone until they removed that functionality.

thanks!

[survivalist]

MrCheese said:

I'm looking at Amazon Echos to replace my Sonos system, can anyone clarify what they can do in terms of pairing and multiroom...I can find answers to parts of this online but as I don't have any units it is very difficult to know exact functionality...
1) Can I pair any 2 identical Echo units as a stereo pair
2) I can setup speaker groups in the Alexa app - can I setup multiple groups that contain the same speaker so that when I want to play music to a particular combination of speakers its laready setup?
3) Can I include stereo pairs in a group?
4) Can groups mix and match different Echo unit types?
5) Any thoughts on Amazon doing a Sonos and not allowing current/future units to work together?

For reference, I use Sonos to play TuneIn radio and play music off a NAS. I used to play music directly off my iPhone until they removed that functionality.

thanks!

I was playing around with this a few months ago and based on what I found:

1. You can with the newer stuff (Echo Plus Gen 2 and 3, but not Gen 1). It’s recommended that the Two devices be identical - e.g. don’t pair a Gen 2 with a Gen 3. Makes sense anyway as you wouldn’t buy 2 different bookshelf speakers to connect to a single stereo amp.

2. Yes. A speaker could be in a group called ‘Bedrooms’ and ‘Entire House’ at the same time, for example.

3. I believe the answer is yes, don’t think I tried that though.

4. Yes. But not stereo pairs (as above)

5. Given the cost of their tech and the rate of development I’d say there’s always a risk of this, the main issue with Sonos was they timeframe and the way they have communicated it. IMHO the thing that upset people at Sonos was that it seemed like an aggressive sales tactic to force upgrades.

The benefit to the amazon range of devices is that they are cheaper in the first place.

Given your use case there might be a few other important considerations though:

You mention plying your own music. Doing it over Bluetooth is easy, but you suffer from all the usual Bluetooth issues (phone needs to be running, in range of the speaker, lower quality etc)

If you have it on a NAS then I don’t think the Echo devices can access it directly (was certainly not possible when I tried) so you’d need to set up a media server such as Plex or I believe amazon have a free one to download. That then needs to run somewhere (you NAS box might be able to run it, but if not you’ll need a PC/Mac/Server to be running the software)

Control of music outside of the steaming services also can’t really be voice controlled, so you need to use the app. Think voice control is limited to skip track/repeat/volume etc.

As someone who has both I’d say that Sonos is still more fully featured and in the case of the speakers themselves has a more mature sound to it. The challenge is that the majority of the devices are expensive and you are beholden to Sonos for ongoing functions and updates.

Personally I’ve devices to keep my Play Bars (mainly as they are already wall mounted) and at the ~£130 you can get the Play One SL for in the regular sales I’m happy buying those as well. Rightly or wrongly if a £130 device lasts 4/5 years I’m ok with that. I won’t bother with the other stuff and if I was starting from scratch I’d probably not buy the Playbars either.

[MrCheese]

survivalist - thanks for an extremely comprehensive reply!

Setting up a media server would be straightforward as I have a PC that's on all the time and a NAS drive.

The thing that completely scares me about Sonos now is the way they seem to think it is perfectly acceptable to split the system. In my case that would mean I can't pair the kitchen and lounge.

I have a Play 5 - a 400 pound speaker that is now obsolete. I could just about bring myself to replacing that but I also have 5 1st gen play 1's and 2 first gen play 3's. I'm certain they will be next on the legacy list. I'm just not prepared to drop these amounts of money on a system that clearly isn't being supported for the long run. Rant over

[tonyg58]

PushedDover said:

and whilst the Sonos UI is not amazing - do these alternates run a happy multiroom, multi media set up ?

Both MusicCast and Heos will work multiroom pretty well and will do better than CD quality
I've occasionally found the MusicCast app have trouble finding a NAS drive, but that's in a shop with twenty to thirty possible network shares on it - it should be fine at home.

The last of the Heos range of speakers will probably drop to dirt cheap prices now that Denon have launched the new Denon Home range.

[bristolracer]

My feeling is that within 5 years all new multi-room speakers will run on a standardised protocol.
Most home automation is going this way and the inclusion of Alexa in most products is leaving the manufacturers own app/software in the background.
If you are a consumer sold a multi-room speaker you would reasonably expect it to work with stuff from other makers.
Sonos will have to up their game,if Alexa is the interface then you need something to get the consumer in. They cant even do hi res audio right now so why will I buy Sonos when Denon/Yamaha is just better?