Need it just for the kitchen/Dining room to stream music and internet radio.
Have looked at Pure, Lg, Samsung and SONOS and htink the SONOS play:3 is the best option (no bridge needed etc for future additions) dedicated wireless network, free software updates etc.

Can anyone convince me otherwise?!

Cheers

Stuart

The only downside to Sonos is cost, if you like the sound quality.
Great otherwise.

AFAIK when you use Sonos without a bridge it doesn’t use it’s own, dedicated wireless network just your regular one.

ive got the play 3 and play 1.

tbh im thinking about selling the play 3 and buying another play 1 as the sound is as good but just not as loud. And the play 1 is plenty loud enough for a normal size room.

Remember to get an air filter in the rooms where the wifi is passing through for the Sonos. The sound will be a little muffled otherwise.

Rachel

Another reason. There is no integration of iPlayer on demand radio. Live streaming via TuneIn radio yes. iPlayer listen again no.

Which is a bit poor IMHO.

Remember to get an air filter in the rooms where the wifi is passing through for the Sonos. The sound will be a little muffled otherwise.

Any explanation for that? Does the dust interfere with the WiFi?

Mikewsmith – yes. Also, it’s good practice to site the router in a location where the airflow means air is flowing from the router to the devices. If it’s I the middle, you might get phasing differences when playing music simultaneously to multiple devices.

Rachel

And you’ll need shielding film on the windows too as sunlight can cause distortion in the signal that carries the sound.

Only reason not to would be the alternative of buying a £50+ pair of speakers and a £2 wire and plugging your phone into it and streaming that way.

Only reason not to would be the alternative of buying a £50+ pair of speakers and a £2 wire and plugging your phone into it and streaming that way.

Exactly how I’m listening now. (Although plugged into the laptop).
Sounds great. Certainly not muffled! Muffled by dust 😆

I preferred the Play 1 to the 3, or 5 if you need the power.

For a single room it’s an expensive solution but if you want to expand to more rooms or add speakers in a stereo pair Sonos is excellent.

We use a £25 Logitech bluetooth adaptor, linked to a 20 year old set of Cambridge Audio/Gale speakers to stream Google Music/iplayer/Soundcloud/radio from phones and tablets.

Whilst I accept that Bluetooth loses sound quality, the old Hi-Fi is still much better than lots of things and compensates.

We get a nice sound, the flexibility of streaming anything from a phone, all for £25. Undoubtedly Sonos is lovely, but its a lot for a 1 room solution

Only potential downside apart from cost is that you can only play content accessable via the SOnos App. So if you use any other app that you might want to play via your Sonos speakers, you cant (i.e. no bluetooth or airplay functionality). For example I wanted to play some audio from YouTube the other week, but couldn’t pipe it inot the Sonos Speaker. But those occations are, in all liklihoon, few and far between as the Sonos App is pretty good and allows you to access other music services thorugh it e.g. Spotify.

I’m chuffed with mine and will expand the system over time.

I was going to get Sonos 1 speakers for my girls xmas pressies, but was put off by the price and limitations (mains power only, no direct connection and I don’t like the idea of having to use another app to the play music).

I then found the Cambridge Go. They get excellent reviews (‘despite’ being bluetooth), can also accept a direct connection with a cable, will charge your phone/tablet while playing, and have the big advantage of being portable so you can very easily take it outside/away with you.
British too.

i looked at sonos but solved my ‘needs’ with a 2nd hand airport express from t’ebay.

I have all my music on a mac mini in the living room that is hooked up to the tv and and amp and speakers. i plug the airport express into a radio unit in the kitchen and using the iphone can control what is playing where. very simple set up and as most of it was using existing kit it only cost £35.

I honestly don’t get these wireless audio things. I’ve listened to a variety of them now from cheap to mega expensive in various people’s houses and without fail they a) sound abysmal – no stereo separation, either tinny or bass heavy and muddy sound and b) need regular attention to keep working as the signal drops out or the wi-fi does something weird or another crazy excuse.

The Sonos system sounds far better, to anything that isn’t mains powered. Even my small Sonos 1 sounds better than any battery powered /portable bluetooth unit. Sonos isn’t portable, you can move it around the house, but its not intended to be portable in that way. They don’t sound as good a expensive HiFi seperates, but then you don’t have huge speakers cluttering up the place and have the problem of routing speaker cable all over the place and sound pretty good – been there, done that. For Stereo seperation you can pair Sonos units so they provide Stereo output and you can put them as far apart as your room will allow. There are limitations as there is with a proper HiFi and more protable devices. Horses for courses. As far as the true competition to Sonos is concerned – high quality stream over wifi devices like Airplay devices, Bose and a few others, they are similarly priced and probably better sound quality £ for £ (ultimately subjective). A battery powered bluetooth portable speaker is just not even in the same league.

The Sonos system sounds far better, to anything that isn’t mains powered. Even my small Sonos 1 sounds better than any battery powered /portable bluetooth unit.

That is a big statement (and qnot necessarily true) – have you listened to all the available battery powered speakers?
The reason Sonos speakers need mains power is because of their wifi usage. Bluetooth doesn’t need as much power as it’s shorter range and lower data capacity (although still enough for music).
A speaker on its own (even a brilliant one) doesn’t need that much power to operate.

I have a 1980’s Roberts radio which sounds better than any of the wireless music things I’ve heard so far!

A good reason to not go for Sonos is its expensive, there are cheaper alternatives, although you will have to do some work yourself.

Logitech Media Server & PiCorePlayer = Cheaper Sonos

Synced music throughout the house, cheaper and great SQ depending on the equipment (amp/speakers) its hooked up to.

robdob – Sonos is usually rock solid. On mine, a unit is wired in to the router (optional) and then it creates SonosNet – the more you add, the stronger it gets. No drop outs in a year, just works flawlessly.

I also have a Connect – it’s a streamer only, wired digitally into my amp and speakers and it sounds superb. Not cheap, but sound cannot be faulted. It can be played through an external DAC and Amp if required.

wobbliscott – expensive solution, but if you like YouTube and are expanding, I have a Playbar and my TV has a Chromecast. I cast YouTube to the TV and can then group the playbar with other players and send Youtube music round the house. Dumped 7 boxes (5 speakers, amp, network switch) and put in the playbar – far cleaner living room, loads more flexible to move and toddler safe!

I have my Sonos 1and3 hooked up to an airport expressunit so I can AirPlay anything to the speakers. I only use the Sonos to group and ungroup the speakers these days.

Play5 in kitchen diner and a connect with amp and speakers in the lounge here, no complaints at all.
It replaced an AirPlay system which never worked properly and “genius” bar appointments proved pointless. As per robdob’s comments.
Sonos comes with a years sub to Deezer at the moment which is great but I would struggle with the cost of a regular subscription.
With a play 5 or connect you can, I think, plug a device in to the aux on he back so you should be able to play other sources like youtube through that, never tried it though.

With a play 5 or connect you can, I think, plug a device in to the aux on he back so you should be able to play other sources like youtube through that, never tried it though.

Yes, you can connect a line in, then select that as a source and play it (the only control you have of the source through Sonos is volume though) as well as send it to a group of speakers. Thinking of doing this with my vinyl.