finally a competitor for Sonos??????

[anonymous-user]

FYI - Spotify on Sonos now supports Artist Radio.

I had missed it badly since last.fm stopped the service.

[14-7]

bristolracer said:

at those prices it wont be worrying Sonos.

But the new Sonos Play 5 is £429 and the old £340 if I remember correctly. Bit of a price jump if you ask me and one which may make me consider slowly switching to another system especially given the fact that Sonos could do a bit better with sound quality given the prices.

[Watchman]

14-7 said:

But the new Sonos Play 5 is £429 and the old £340 if I remember correctly. Bit of a price jump if you ask me and one which may make me consider slowly switching to another system especially given the fact that Sonos could do a bit better with sound quality given the prices.

I took delivery of a new Play:5 this week, along with a Play:1 and a PlayBar. The new Play:5 is fantastic IMO - deep bass and will go very loud without distortion.

Given the price I used to pay for HiFi all those years ago, Sonos kit represent real VFM to me. All that convenience and enough grunt to fill a decent sized gaff.

[astroarcadia]

I'm in the market for a wireless speaker.

Quick question - Is the Sonos App the only to play music on a Play1?

I'm guessing the Sonos App has a lightweight version of the Spotify App built-in?

[51mon]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one too.... Currently weighing up the Heos 1 / Sonos 1 as a cheap(ish) way of getting music on the go around the house.

Currently leaning towards to Heos I think due to extra functionality (bluetooth / line in connections), and battery pack for use in the garden (would be getting the go-pack too).

Anyone have any experience of the sound back - to- back? I realise they're both entry level so aren't going to be amazing.....

[durbster]

I'm no audio nerd but for what it's worth we've got SONOS at work and I've got HEOS at home as mentioned above.

While our office and my house have very different acoustics, I don't think there's much between them on the sound quality front. The HEOS 3 is significantly better than the 1 though, moreso than the price different implies I think. That said, the 1 is more than adequate for a small room.

The bloke in Richer Sounds - more of an audio enthusiast than me I should think - said there wasn't really anything in it in terms of sound quality, so SONOS were now playing catch-up on features.

Incidentally, if you have a branch of Richer Sounds nearby then you can go in and try them both out. I've not bought anything from them before and was more than impressed with the customer service.

[Digger]

Does Heos now have Spotify compatibility? . . . oh, and TuneIn Radio?

That's 95% usage, if not greater that my Sonos kit gets used for.

[durbster]

The HEOS supports Spotify Connect so yes, full support for that. That was the biggest thing to swing it over SONOS for me.

Looking at the app on my phone now and it also has:
TuneIn
Deezer
Napster
Soundcloud
Tidal
rdio

[phil_cardiff]

Am I missing something? From what I've read Chromecast Audio should blow Sonos and the likes away? The price is amazing and you get to choose which device outputs your music. Multiroom functionality is on it's way soon too. Spotify supported too. I'm struggling to see the catch.

When you compare the price of the Sonos bridge and the Chromecast Audio...well...

[Watchman]

phil_cardiff said:

Am I missing something? From what I've read Chromecast Audio should blow Sonos and the likes away? The price is amazing and you get to choose which device outputs your music. Multiroom functionality is on it's way soon too. Spotify supported too. I'm struggling to see the catch.

When you compare the price of the Sonos bridge and the Chromecast Audio...well...

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

Sonos only needs your device to instruct it what to play. Once Sonos is suitably instructed, the device itself is free to do something else - even leave the range of influence. This is notable because I can pick up any of our devices in the house to affect changes to the Sonos playlist.

It really depends on how you want to work with your devices. And Chromecast requires you to have a music reproduction system already available, or to buy one. I can see how some people struggle to get past the initial price differential but once you look into what you really need to setup a multi-room system, the Sonos doesn't seem so expensive.

That said, I will probably buy a Chromecast too - but it won't replace my Sonos. I'll just use it when camping, or in the garage.

[phil_cardiff]

Watchman said:

phil_cardiff said:

Am I missing something? From what I've read Chromecast Audio should blow Sonos and the likes away? The price is amazing and you get to choose which device outputs your music. Multiroom functionality is on it's way soon too. Spotify supported too. I'm struggling to see the catch.

When you compare the price of the Sonos bridge and the Chromecast Audio...well...

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

Sonos only needs your device to instruct it what to play. Once Sonos is suitably instructed, the device itself is free to do something else - even leave the range of influence. This is notable because I can pick up any of our devices in the house to affect changes to the Sonos playlist.

It really depends on how you want to work with your devices. And Chromecast requires you to have a music reproduction system already available, or to buy one. I can see how some people struggle to get past the initial price differential but once you look into what you really need to sketup a multi-room system, the Sonos doesn't seem so expensive.

That said, I will probably buy a Chromecast too - but it won't replace my Sonos. I'll just use it when camping, or in the garage.

From what I've read you can use a NAS to play via Chromecast Audio. And I like the fact that you get to choose what equipment plays the music rather than have what Sonos tell you to play it on or pay over the odds for the Connect.

[phil_cardiff]

And this is coming from someone whose used Sonos before and been very impressed. But I have a nice little seperates system that I'm not binning and I can't justify paying £200 or whatever to hook it up to Sonos.

[durbster]

phil_cardiff said:

Am I missing something? From what I've read Chromecast Audio should blow Sonos and the likes away? The price is amazing and you get to choose which device outputs your music. Multiroom functionality is on it's way soon too. Spotify supported too. I'm struggling to see the catch.

When you compare the price of the Sonos bridge and the Chromecast Audio...well...

Depends on your equipment.

I've got a Chromecast and it's great but they're designed for TVs so it plugs into a HDMI port. If your audio equipment has a HDMI port (do any?) or if your TV is connected to your sound system then a Chromecast would be a pretty good solution.

[Watchman]

durbster said:

Depends on your equipment.

I've got a Chromecast and it's great but they're designed for TVs so it plugs into a HDMI port. If your audio equipment has a HDMI port (do any?) or if your TV is connected to your sound system then a Chromecast would be a pretty good solution.

We're really talking about the new Chromecast Audio - a different product to the previously-named Chromecast.

[durbster]

Ah, sorry. Didn't even know that existed. Spotify added Chromecast support just recently but I assumed it was for the existing device. That makes more sense then.



I've just had a look at Chromecast audio and it looks great

[scovette]

Watchman said:

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

No, your phone can be used as just a remote control. The Chromecast itself grabs the stream whether it comes from a NAS or the internet.

You can also cast an webpage from your phone/tablet to the non-Audio Chromecast, in which case your phone would indeed need to be on all the time.

[Watchman]

scovette said:

Watchman said:

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

No, your phone can be used as just a remote control. The Chromecast itself grabs the stream whether it comes from a NAS or the internet.

You can also cast an webpage from your phone/tablet to the non-Audio Chromecast, in which case your phone would indeed need to be on all the time.

See, that makes the Chromecast Audio a serious contender then - and it's on my Christmas list.

Thanks for the explanation.

[Digger]

Anyone done a head-to-head with both a Play 1 and a Heos 1, having adjusted tone to their liking?

Thoughts welcome!

[DudleySquires]

Watchman said:

scovette said:

Watchman said:

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

No, your phone can be used as just a remote control. The Chromecast itself grabs the stream whether it comes from a NAS or the internet.

You can also cast an webpage from your phone/tablet to the non-Audio Chromecast, in which case your phone would indeed need to be on all the time.

See, that makes the Chromecast Audio a serious contender then - and it's on my Christmas list.

Thanks for the explanation.

Mine too

But, does it support sync-ing across multiple chromecasts, as can be done with gramofon, and indeed with sonos? i.e. can one iphone (or laptop etc) "cast", say, spotify, to multiple chromecasts at once, so I can hear it on otherwise separate speaker systems within the house? Can't see anything like that mentioned on the website.

If it can then its a winner

[phil_cardiff]

DudleySquires said:

Watchman said:

scovette said:

Watchman said:

Doesn't Chromecast need your device (phone) to "play" the music via the "cast"?

No, your phone can be used as just a remote control. The Chromecast itself grabs the stream whether it comes from a NAS or the internet.

You can also cast an webpage from your phone/tablet to the non-Audio Chromecast, in which case your phone would indeed need to be on all the time.

See, that makes the Chromecast Audio a serious contender then - and it's on my Christmas list.

Thanks for the explanation.

Mine too

But, does it support sync-ing across multiple chromecasts, as can be done with gramofon, and indeed with sonos? i.e. can one iphone (or laptop etc) "cast", say, spotify, to multiple chromecasts at once, so I can hear it on otherwise separate speaker systems within the house? Can't see anything like that mentioned on the website.

If it can then its a winner

Not yet. Apparently multi room functionality is coming early 2016. Once that works then it's a no brainer for me.