The best Sonos alternatives 2020: budget and premium multi-room solutions

[What Hi-Fi?]

Sonos might be among the best in the business, but it isn't your only option if you want to go multi-room.

The best Sonos alternatives 2020: budget and premium multi-room solutions : Read more

 

[arcadelt]

I recently discovered that when the Internet is down, not only do Alexa and Google Assistant not work, but the apps do not work either. I don’t own an Echo or Google Home based multiroom audio system, so don’t know exactly how they are controlled, but I suspect lack of connectivity might render them useless too. On the other hand, in that circumstance my Sonos system continued to work flawlessly with local content.

 

[rodanger75]

Is there a multi room music system that can receive a stream from a local PC over Wifi in multicast ? Sonos devices can't (although they can receive AirPlay from a Mac), and all I see on other systems is Bluetooth input (which is good but not as good as multicast for range and quality).

 

[arcadelt]

Is there a multi room music system that can receive a stream from a local PC over Wifi in multicast ? Sonos devices can't (although they can receive AirPlay from a Mac), and all I see on other systems is Bluetooth input (which is good but not as good as multicast for range and quality).

you can set a computer as a music source for a Sonos system, and the Sonos app can then reach into that source and play that music over WiFi. Is that similar to what you are asking?

 

[SonosSucker]

Sonos might be among the best in the business, but it isn't your only option if you want to go multi-room.

The best Sonos alternatives 2020: budget and premium multi-room solutions : Read more

Sonos has become a terrible system.

The Sonos S2 app is awful (I use it on MacOS and iOS,). It hasn't been updated but for bug fixes since it was launched - how many decent apps can say the same? Looking for music is difficult within each service. I use both Apple Music (primary) and Amazon (stations and playlists only). We used to use Spotify. The Apple Music sub-app doesn't allow for viewing by Composer or Genre (Amazon does), you can't filter searches at a minimum between Apple Music's offerings and your own content. Amazon sub-app doesn't allow any searches by artist or album. In all apps, including Sonos's own "favorites," playlists are lumped together with no folders or groupings). You can't jump through a huge list of artists or albums by typing a letter or using an alphabet scrollbar like other music apps. The lack of genre grouping is the most annoying and so easily fixed!

There's no feedback from the app to any of the cloud services - so no updates to Frequently Played, Recently Played, Favorites. Adding songs to queue loses any artist or album grouping. Only a limited excerpt of song information displays. Sonos somehow picks up old album covers (that were incorrect and updated over a year ago) from my Apple Music songs. Amazon Music doesn't allow you to add the songs to your queue so you can't mix and match across services.

Removing a service requires that service's ID and passcode - yet the reason I want to remove a service is because it's outdated and I don't have the login info! Updating, sure. But removing????

The room grouping, ability to integrate the PlayBars as regular speakers, and ability to use a variety of streaming services is nice. The number of streaming services supported is excessive when the majority of music listeners focus on the three main ecosystems (Google, Apple, Amazon) and two primary apps (Spotify, Pandora). I'd prefer they spend the time on updating at least the app's UI!

Sonos WAS a great system - in 2016. Today, its closed design is outdated. Bluetooth has been around forever, yet they only added it in the new system 3 years ago. The integration with smart homes is severely limited. It lacks a separate hub to connect it to wifi and smart home systems. And of course, they bricked the previous system without any way to update it (with a hub, for example) or find a way for it to play nicely with the current system. Infuriating.

Sonos pitches itself as a premium system at a moderately expensive price that is easily expanded. It is none of those. It's no longer a good value with its limitations, outdated and difficult app navigation, lack of app updates, and blind ear (pun intended) to user feedback. Sonos has failed to keep up with the times. A closed loop that doesn't integrate with the web, cloud, or smart homes is NOT a system. It's an expensive set of wireless speakers with only average sound.

Sonos bricked me, and I'm sure they'll do it again in 2-3 years. Unless I can figure out a way to get my 3 year old speakers to connect to a hub or something so I can bypass the app and use Apple's app, I'M bricking them! I'll be lucky to get $50 for a $2000 system on eBay or Craigslist. I might keep the TV soundbars despite the fact that they are IR/line-of-sight. *Sigh* Even introducing their "updated" system failed to use technologies (e.g. RF, bluetooth, hubs) that have long been accepted and used by everyone else. Heck, my Lutron lights have better options than Sonos!

DON'T BUY SONOS is the only advice I can offer. I don't know what else to get; the options you gave were really limited.

 

[SonosSucker]

I recently discovered that when the Internet is down, not only do Alexa and Google Assistant not work, but the apps do not work either. I don’t own an Echo or Google Home based multiroom audio system, so don’t know exactly how they are controlled, but I suspect lack of connectivity might render them useless too. On the other hand, in that circumstance my Sonos system continued to work flawlessly with local content.

Yes, but if they had a hub, even an internet outage wouldn't affect it. I have cheap smart outlet plugs, several Lutron switches and recently added an AppleTV so I can access HomeKit when I'm away. When our internet goes down, unless our router blew up, we still have our home network - we just have no connection to the world. Our printers work. Our lights and outlets work. Sonos works. Apple speakers work. Other speakers work. You can't get streaming services, nor access to your music in the cloud, so I'm not sure what the point would be since no content is stored locally that I know of? Unless you use cellular data, in which case ANY Wifi connected speaker system would work.

It's all a moot point when we lose power, which is frequent, though if we run the generator, I can have all of my connected devices (and yes, the Lutrons and cheap wall outlet plugs still work manually if that outlet/circuit is connected to our generator (which they aren't).