School me on SONOS and other home streaming systems

oh yeah what are your favorite plugins? I've pretty much stopped tinkering.

I'm continually trying to get my weather plugins to keep working, and I use Spotty to stream from Spotify of course, also some that let me customize the album lists more to my liking (studio albums by year, then compilations, then live albums by year)

my dream was a weather plugin that would play the song of my choice when the NWS issued a severe weather warning for my area

hahaha. You're probably on the right track.

In Newfoundland that would interrupt my tunes too much.

now, all the same, and in the absence of any kind of push alert to your serving system, you could have a script that asks the weather service for alerts on your area, every x minutes, and if there is one, have the script send terminal commands to LMS to play a certain file (on every player, top volume, if you're so inclined). LMS only needs to come at the end of this, is what I'm saying. All i do with terminal commands is do some basic stuff with keyboard shortcuts. it's handy

DJP which one did you go for, Beam or Arc?

Arc, to go with the 75” tv

I also have arc+sub+2 1s

I set the surrounds to 'full' mode instead of 'ambient' for music, destroying any remnant audiophile bonafides. I am free now.

If you’ve tried it, how is the Arc alone for music? Like, is it as least as good as a stereo pair of Ones? I’ve been trying to talk myself into one and could more easily justify it if it could double as my home office sound system.

My Sonos app on the iphone is sort of glitchy -- it often lags heavily and/or doesn't display what's actually being played. The way it integrates spotify is also a little awkward and navigation can be confusing.

Ultimately, I like the Move, but I don't see myself ever going to a house-wide Sonos system. Most likely I think I'll eventually get a Sonos receiver that I can connect to a regular stereo, and then we can use the Move as an auxiliary speaker for outside or other rooms of the house while music is playing on the main stereo, as well as using it as a stand-alone.

that sounds like a good plan.

xp I haven't listened to the arc alone for music. I can give it a try tomorrow. I think the two Ones likely give you a better stereo image. I replaced two play:5s, and this was the most obvious difference. For clarity, if you get the arc, you won't use the Ones as surrounds?

Our beam serves as our living room/kitchen streamer when tv is off, brilliant sound

I think I prefer two play:1s spaced further apart over the arc alone for stereo music. The arc w/ surrounds is great for music, though.

my living room setup is a sonos amp connected to my paradigm stereo speakers I have had for some time, a monoprice sub as well. I stuck two play:1 speakers on the built-in shelves behind me and it works well!

I guess for the classic arrangement I lack a center channel, but I sit off-center a lot of the time
so...

maybe I stick a soundbar under the tv for that?

my idiot stance is I can hear move sound going back and forth, my floor wobbles at the right time, the turntable hooked in works well, and sometimes sounds fly at my face from behind me!

Thanks Sufjan. Yeah, for the time being anyway it would just be the Arc with no surrounds if I get one. I have a handful of Sonos speakers throughout the house but this was supposed to be a TV area in the basement that has also become my home office since last March. Was hoping to address both the TV and music with one system. Anything is going to be a compromise because my desk is situated in a way where I'm never going to have speakers facing me directly. I guess I should just go listen to one if I can find it in stock anywhere.

Man Alive I started out like that too, had no intention of getting more than the one speaker that I'd gotten for my wife when the stereo and Airports were too much of a hassle with her home with a newborn, but they've been multiplying and it's amazing having music throughout the house now. I did recently pick up a used final generation Connect (basically what is now the Port) for $150 so I can stream to my traditional stereo in the living room and outdoor speakers in the backyard or have my turntable playing to Sonos speakers in other rooms, it's pretty great. I do find the various music services aren't integrated as well as I'd like in the app, but with Spotify can't you cast to Sonos directly from the Spotify app?

np. The arc will be a nice upgrade for the TV, and it sounds good for music. I just think there's a fundamental limitation in the width of the stereo image from an arc alone. Perhaps, I am corny for favoring that. I agree that you should listen to one yourself, if possible. You can always grab surrounds later when on sale.

with Spotify can't you cast to Sonos directly from the Spotify app?

― early rejecter,

Yes, directly from the Sonos app also iirc

But can be an issue ito logging in simultaneously with the same account as eg youd use on yr phone

I've come around to using the sonos app. I like the way it handles adding to the queue compared to spotify. I can also play "Blinding Lights" 100x for my children on the amazon prime account from the same app while keeping my spotify record clean.

I think the Sonos Move will probably fit my sitch the best, but there’s this Bang & Olufson speaker called the Beolit 20 that also has my eye. It’s $100 more expensive and only has Bluetooth, but some other aspects of it sound attractive. Anyone here used one of these B&O speakers? Could it sound dramatically better than Sonos?

It could sound better but probably not 'dramatically'. I have the Move and love it's two-way action - Bluetooth is great for the backjyard but working via Wifi means you don't have to worry about the line-of-sight bluetooth connection. It's built-in auto EQ adjustment (Trueplay) makes a difference as well as you listen in different places.

But B&O stuff generally sounds great and their design sense is very appealing. Not $100 more appealing, mind.

Thanks. Yeah, that’s the sticking point... if they were around the same price, I may go with the B&O, but +$100 doesn’t seem worth it.

I’d never want to spend that kind of money for just a Bluetooth connection. WiFi, with Airplay at least, is an infinitely better way of working.

Yes - after poking around some more, I’m convinced I should just get into the Sonos thing. But I’m also (re-)convinced that the Five is what I should go with (to start); so I still need to gear up for spending 500.

…ugh, I shoulda geared up faster: https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/09/13/apparently-sonos-speakers-werent-expensive-enough-already-so-here-are-some-helpful-price-hikes/

my airport express has been unacceptably flaky lately. has anyone got any experience with one of these things? or similar?

https://www.turntablelab.com/products/andover-audio-songbird-music-wi-fi-streamer

i mean i can hang on for awhile with the AE but they don’t make them anymore and eventually i will need something to replace it. that time feels like it’s approaching sooner than i’d reckoned on.

These seem to be liked in the airport express replacement space. Is in my consideration set for whenever I finally sort out speakers for my office.

https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/accessories/wxad-10/index.html

i like the andover one purely because it’s made in massachusetts lol.

I discovered my workplace offers a (modest) employee discount on Sonos purchases; so I bit the bullet and bought a Five. Just set it up… only able to listen at low volume for a few minutes so far, but setup was certainly easy (plug & play).

I looked at doing that Room Tone thing (where you wave a phone around to tune the speaker), but it says “loud tones will play” while you do it. Is that true? (Also, does it really make a difference?)

Yes and yes!

I’m waiting for my family to be out to do it since we moved recently, as I know they’ll complain about the noise.

This is down for me for some reason right now.

xp Thanks! I have a pair of those hearing protector things that my wife bought for a NASCAR event; maybe I’ll wear those when I do it (I am extremely noise-sensitive/phobic, to the point that I throw my forearm over my ear like a loon when a truck’s brakes squeak next to me).

Well, I did that thing! The speaker sounds really good. (Now I already want another to pair em and stand them up sideways, haha)

The only slight bummer is that the Sonos app doesn’t appear to integrate with the iPhone feature that lets you control music being played from the phone via the lockscreen/control center (the phone doesn’t “know” music is playing).

that's irritating

you can bypass the app and use airplay to sonos as well, which does work

I seem to remember the workaround for this involving setting something up in the built-in iOS Home app but I’m not 100% sure of that, it was a while ago when I did it. I do find it a miracle that I eventually managed to build a working system that involved Sonos, Spotify, Alexa and Home all working in conjunction without falling over.

"Show Lock Screen Controls" is in preferences on android

Hmm, thx - looks like it is in iOS, too… it’s toggled on by default, but doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe I’ll restart or something

I've had the Sonos Roam for 6-8 months and have been super happy with the sound. Was a bit of a pain at the start as far as charging the battery and figuring out when and how often to do that; otherwise good.

Haven't used its exclusive programming much, but did enjoy David Byrne's monthly playlists (each on a different theme) and the Thom Yorke-curated channel of ambient things.

Amazon Ultra HD streamed thru this Sonos Five is pretty sick… even at low volume, it sounds like Billie Eilish is doing her whisper-drawl thing right here in the room. I’m really glad I got this thing!

having trouble with my volume (or possibly my hearing lol)

it all just seems much lower than it ordinarily has been -- all my remotes are currently set close to max and it doesn't seem especially loud. you used to be able to turn it way loud!

anyway is there a way to adjust or reset the scale so that "not especially loud" sits in the middle rather than at the outer extremity?

Have you turned the Volume Limit off?

is that "hardware volume control"? do i leave it off or adjust tv setting while it's off and turn it on again?

In my app, when I click into Settings -> System and then select my "Living Room" speaker under Products (I only have that one, but it looks like others would be displayed there if I had them), Volume Limit is an option under the Sound settings. I initially tried setting the volume limit at different levels; then ended up turning it off altogether.

ah ok

FWIW, the lockscreen controls have actually been working on my iPhone the past few days (not sure why, after not working for so long)... though occasionally I need to reset (unplug/replug) the speaker, because it loses connection with my phone somehow, refuses to play certain songs, or does other funky stuff.