Help for massive newb, Sonos or not?

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Hello some advice on buying a new music system would be great. Basically............................

I want something that sounds great as it will be my only music player

All in one box so i can move it around

Under £500

Can listen to podcasts/radio on

Doesnt need Apple products to use it

Can play music via my phone by at least Bluetooth

Is futureproofish (if i dont have an android phone one day or havent got wireless can be used with a jack at least)

So i have been looking at buying the Sonos play 5 especially because of the android app but i have a few questions.

Is there anything else that will do what i want and will sound better? Does the Sonos play 5 actually sound that good? and is there any point in me buying Sonos and only having one speaker? (I might add others in the future but i probably wouldnt need to)

Thanks in advance for the help.

Dave
 

The_Lhc

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Biggest problem there is Sonos won't play music from your phone, bluetooth or otherwise. Ticks most of the other boxes, although "sounds great" is entirely subjective of course.
 
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Anonymous

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I own a couple of Sonos products Dave, the Play 5 that you mention and a ZP90 which hooks into my main HIFI. A couple of observations

- The Sonos kit requires a Bridge (providing a mesh network) which plugs into your router. None of your Sonos kit which makes sound will be able to hook together without this

- There is no bluetooth as such. If you want to listen to your ripped music, put it all on a NAS drive that you can access from anywhere without having to go via your PC.

- You can contol the Sonos a number of ways, via a Android or iOS device, from your PC or even a massively expensive Sonos controller

- If you are used to HIFI sound, the Play 5 may not sound the best. You can probably get a better sounding setup for the £400 it will cost for the unit and the bridge. The ZP gives some decent sound via the HIFI though

- It is a pretty flexible setup which makes all your music available all the time. The Play 3/5 units can either be run as 'stereo' devices or in mono mode as part of a stereo pair, you can always add a second device later which might improve the sound.
 

The_Lhc

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rantnrave said:
I own a couple of Sonos products Dave, the Play 5 that you mention and a ZP90 which hooks into my main HIFI. A couple of observations

- The Sonos kit requires a Bridge (providing a mesh network) which plugs into your router. None of your Sonos kit which makes sound will be able to hook together without this

Sorry but this isn't an accurate statement, the Bridge is only required if you can't wire one of your other Sonos devices to your router, I don't have a bridge, for example, because my ZP90 is wired to my router. Every Sonos device is quite capable of creating the mesh network without a bridge present (you never used to have a choice, the bridge was one of the later devices introduced to the range). In this case however, as Dave has mentioned he'll want to move the device around so he'll probably be better off with a Bridge. £39 isn't a huge burden though.

- You can contol the Sonos a number of ways, via a Android or iOS device, from your PC or even a massively expensive Sonos controller

Sonos don't sell their controller anymore.
 
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Anonymous

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So i wont be able to play MP3's from my phone? Not even through the app.
 

The_Lhc

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hodgeheg said:
So i wont be able to play MP3's from my phone? Not even through the app.

No, the app is simply a controller, it doesn't play or "send" music itself. The only way you could do it is if you also had an Apple Airport Express with the Sonos and used Airplay to send the music to the Sonos. It's not ideal though. Do you not store your itunes somewhere central, such as a PC, Mac or laptop?

I've got to be honest, if you're sure you'll never want multi-room I wouldn't bother with Sonos, you can achieve the same thing for less with something else. Don't ask me what though, I don't use docks and so forth.
 
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Anonymous

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I think what i want then is a really good bluetooth/jack speaker and ill have to do the rest through my phone or laptop. These all seem to be small and portable though so sound is never going to be that good. I know im not going to get the best sound ever through a single unit but i have listened to my mates Zepplin air and that sounds great but i havent got an iphone/ipod and never will (yes im an apple hater)

Bose and jawbone bluetooth units seem to be OK but expensive and tiny so presumably crap sound.
 

The_Lhc

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hodgeheg said:
but i havent got an iphone/ipod and never will (yes im an apple hater)

Ah ok, misread that, what have you got, in terms of where your music is stored? If you have an android phone you can control Sonos with that (in fact it's better than an iPhone as the Android can connect direct to the Sonos wireless network, the iPhone can't) or use the PC controller. You can also use the line in on all Sonos devices (except the Play:3 it doesn't have line in), so you could just take a cable from the phone's headphone output into the Sonos (you can configure it to autoplay when it detects a signal on the line-in.

Some kind of large bluetooth speaker thing is probably going to be cheaper though, there's plenty of those around.
 
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Anonymous

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really i keep my music on my phone and then add stuff to it from my Hard drive so i dont have anything networked. Most of my music listening ATM is on the radio but i would like to listen to more of my mp3's.

bose sounddock 10 looks good but pricey if i have to buy the 70 odd quid bluetooth dock, im not seeing many other big sound quality bluetooth speakers out there.
 

rs6mra

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if you like the Bose Sounddock then look for the original which when adpated allows you to stream music from your android phone via bluetooth. I had to replace the 'docking part' as this was broken and i opted for the bluetooth connection instead which i installed and it didn't sound any different. I hardly ever use it nowadays as i have the Sonos but i was impressed.
 

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