MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I have Chromecast in 4 rooms including the garage. Old amps and speakers, but also a pure dab radio in the bedroom that has a great sound. Whichever of these systems you have I would strongly suggest a supplementary router to your ISP's.
Re Stumpys post. I also own an audiocast. I have a seperates system in the office. Can i just plug tge audiocast into the amp and stream from a phone/tablet? Would this be possible via bluetooth as no wireless out there
Bookmarked
Re Stumpys post. I also own an audiocast. I have a seperates system in the office. Can i just plug tge audiocast into the amp and stream from a phone/tablet? Would this be possible via bluetooth as no wireless out there
If you mean a Chromecast Audio, then I think it only works over wi-fi.
You could get a Bluetooth receiver to plug into the separates and stream direct from the phone to the stereo via Bluetooth.
You can pick Bluetooth receivers up for around £20.
Chromecast looks clever and cheap, but if you want a multi room system you’d need either powered speakers in every room or loads of standalone amplifiers to plug them into. For a good quality integrated system in multiple rooms I still think Sonos is a far better option.
Is a Sonos system not a set of powered speakers in every room?
I think the advantage of the Chromecast is that you are not tied to using a proprietary and relatively expensive speaker system, so there are a lot more devices to choose from, and you can reuse existing music systems.
If you mean a Chromecast Audio, then I think it only works over wi-fi.
You can connect a Chromecast directly to your network by cable, using an adapter:
https://store.google.com/gb/product/ethernet_adapter_for_chromecast
Is a Sonos system not a set of powered speakers in every room?
I think the advantage of the Chromecast is that you are not tied to using a proprietary and relatively expensive speaker system, so there are a lot more devices to choose from, and you can reuse existing music systems.
You can do that so with a Sonos connect (or Zone Player as they used to be called). Plugs in to an existing amp and is the route to the best sound quality, although quite spendy. Especially when compared to the £30 Chromecast audio (that apparently also has digital optical out).
A Sonos system works best with a Connect amp for each room, then you can run normal speakers rather than buying powered integrated Sonos play speakers which are lower quality. The Sonos system in my house has 7 amps so that all of the rooms have nice quality audio. Plus a Sonos Connect that links with my existing hifi / home cinema. I did have the advantage of wiring all of the speakers in during the original fit so that all of the amps are in one place and all of the speaker wire is hidden.
Although Chromecast looks very clever and cheap, from what I can see there is no option for multi room decent quality networked audio. Also regarding the Sonos app, if you don’t like it you can control music directly from Spotify instead and have it play through Sonos.
I'd be interested to hear what sources people are using for the Sonos amps as my experience is that they sound quote poor and are woefully underpowered.
Now before people disagree I am a massive Sonos fan with 5 x Play 1's, 1 x Play 5, 1 x Sub, 1 x Playbar.
To give your more background I was trying to use the Sonos amp with a turntable and Project phono amp so maybe the analogue feed was just too low a level for it to be successful?
I only really use my own music from lossless files on a NAS drive, or Spotify / Tunein radio etc. They’re not the loudest but the range of volume is beyond what you’d ever need unless you plan on running a club night in your own house...
Chromecast audio (that apparently also has digital optical out).
Nope. Just a 3,5mm jack output.
Although Chromecast looks very clever and cheap, from what I can see there is no option for multi room decent quality networked audio.
I don't know if this is what you mean, but you can link Chromecast Audios into groups, to set-up multi-room audio. I only have one, so haven't tried it, but it looks pretty simple and seems to do exactly what Sonos does.
Im sure that you can with chromecast but you would need an amp and speaker in each room for them to connect to. If you wanted better quality than a little integrated speaker / amp, or just wanted good speaker placement rather than the fake stereo / surround you get from single units then you’d need to either already have multiple amps and speakers set up to connect to, or you’d have to buy a job lot of amps and speakers. Unless I’m missing something...
I looked into all this before Christmas. I was thinking if maybe 2 Sonos l s. But they don't support up iplayer radio. That's about half of what goes through my blue tooth speaker......
I listen to iPlayer radio, with the tunein widget. The new Sonos are also AirPlay I believe meaning you could play directly from iphone
If I was really concerned about quality and I was going down the Sonos amp and separate speakers route (and was only streaming lossless), then I’d buy the Sonos Connect and some active speakers to go on the end of it, like the brilliant AE1 Actives.
I had a Sonos Amp connected to some PMC DB1s, and thought it sounded okay, but honestly not appreciably better than a pair of well placed Play 3s.
Edit: I should caveat that, the Sonos Amp I had was first gen, and haven’t heard the latest one which looks like a big redesign.
Chromecast audio (that apparently also has digital optical out).
Nope. Just a 3,5mm jack output.
The 3.5mm output has dual functionality. Needs an optical cable with a Mini Toslink plug for digital output.
Nope. Just a 3,5mm jack output.
Chromecast Audio does have optical out. The 3.5mm jack is combined with a mini TOSLINK. So you can plug in an optical cable instead.
https://store.google.com/product/optical_cable_chromecast_audio
Also there are some speakers with Chromecast built in. eg Google Home, though it is probably not great sound quality. Or a few other brands. This Onkyo looks pretty good. https://www.richersounds.com/onkyo-vc-gx30-black.html
Ok looks like iplayer radio is available for Apple users on Sonos
The 3.5mm output has dual functionality. Needs an optical cable with a Mini Toslink plug for digital output.
Excellent. Cheers. I had no idea...
then you’d need to either already have multiple amps and speakers set up to connect to, or you’d have to buy a job lot of amps and speakers. Unless I’m missing something…
https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/active-speakers/steljes-ns1-white.html
Stereo active soeakers. Just plug in a Chromecast Audio and off you go...for around the price of a Sonos 1...
I don’t know if this is what you mean, but you can link Chromecast Audios into groups, to set-up multi-room audio. I only have one, so haven’t tried it, but it looks pretty simple and seems to do exactly what Sonos does.
You can but Sonos has magic timing thingymajigs that mean they keep perfectly in time. Chromecast doesn't. Whether that's a big issue will depend on where you use them, how far apart the rooms are and whether you can hear from room to room.
Chromecast doesn’t. Whether that’s a big issue will depend on where you use them, how far apart the rooms are and whether you can hear from room to room.
There's a timing adjust feature for each Chromecast Audio, which it looks like you can adjust to the millisecond.
Should be able to get them aligned with that....
@ampthill:
It’s available to all Sonos users via widgets
https://en.community.sonos.com/music-services-and-sources-228994/bbc-radio-iplayer-and-sonos-6806202
What functionality are you looking for that isn’t provided by TuneIn, Radioplayer, Stitcher or Pocket Casts widgets?
As I say, I'm using Chromecasts all around the house. I have Google home stream radio to whatever individual unit or group I want, and can't say that I've found timing a problem, though as mentioned in the setup you can introduce lag to compensate if required, but I'd imagine you'd have to have a large property for that to make a difference over a decent WiFi connection (which I have). If I want to I can stream from my laptop or phone to the same setup without any glitches, on the laptop you can stream directly from Chrome browser too, so SoundCloud or whatever is easy. You do need a decent WiFi setup though. My old Virgin router's WiFi gave glitches. It's just a modem now, with WiFi duties performed by a tplink thing.
CaptMorgan
There is on demand content on the iplayer app that isn't available as a podcast
Tunein allows access to the last 7 days on demand (or all the shows I’m interested in)
Thanks that's useful to know
If you want multiple zones and don't want stand alone powered speakers, ie you're going for connect amps and normal speakers, then I found sonos came up against more competition because you're already into pretty expensive territory with the amount of sonos gear you need.
In our new build house we are already using some automation stuff from Control4 so it made sense to use that for audio as well, and cost about the same as sonos if not a little less. That won't apply unless you've already got it for other stuff but I recall multi room systems from some traditional manufacturers (sorry, can't remember which) to be in a similar price bracket to sonos once you're hiding a multi channel amp in a cupboard for a few sets of separate speakers.
In the last six month the mrs and I have invested in a beam 2 x sonos one and a semi ok 4k sony tv
Connected to alexa
the difference it has made to our TV with surround (or sorts) much more enjoyable and we can just ask alexa for random mixes (Christmas carols for an hour was quite nice)
via TV we can get you tube and all sorts of streams
I can play anything on my phone
sound quality is fine for the passive listening I do now
I might connect up the playstation this weekend
Its easy and quick to set up and although not audiophile its good enough for what we need
bonus is the original TV and sound bar is in my mancave now
I assume that if I have a TV set up in the corner of the room, there's not a great deal of benefit to adding two Play 1s to a Beam? They'd have to sit right next to the TV. Guessing that loses any benefit of 'surround'?
You use them as rear surround speakers, so no if they can’t be positioned behind you they won’t add value.
Thanks captmorgan - I had the worng idea, thought they were meant for front left and right so to speak. Could work OK for rears!
We have 3 Sonos units - a 1 in our bedroom, a 3 in the kitchen and a connect hooked into a pretty basic Sony mini system in the front room. Personally I think the sound is great for a one-box solution and its so damned easy to setup and use. From opening the box a new system can be up and running in minutes. Like others have said, I'm not a massive audio geek - I just want to listen to my music easily around the house without any dicking around and the Sonos ticks those boxes.
Thanks captmorgan – I had the worng idea, thought they were meant for front left and right so to speak. Could work OK for rears!
I found that the different tonalities of each speaker type worked well if you put them on different groups and easier to balance with the app
Sonos - quick, easy, works all the time and no messing about. Sound quality may not please everyone, but they're fine for us.
I won't depress you by telling you about the two Play3s and Playbar which I bought for £300 recently...