How to Play Music - Sonos and or CD Player?

Terrysdelight

I've just spoken with my son - I think I know what to do now.  Basically convert all my music to sound files within something like Itunes and then play the music through the internet.
Kind of defeats the object of being able to bang on a CD, especially as we live in a village and the signal can be easily disrupted.  We've had a BBQ in the past and the internet went down so couldn't play music :-(

neilmcl

Terrysdelight said:

I've just spoken with my son - I think I know what to do now.  Basically convert all my music to sound files within something like Itunes and then play the music through the internet.
Kind of defeats the object of being able to bang on a CD, especially as we live in a village and the signal can be easily disrupted.  We've had a BBQ in the past and the internet went down so couldn't play music :-(

You don't use the internet to play your music, you do so over wifi, so it doesn't matter if the internet is down or not.

Neil49

Your son is on the right track but once you have converted the cd's contents into files (ideally flac format which is a higher quality or mp3 if you don't really care) you need to store them somewhere that will connect to your Sonos.

If you convert the music and keep the files on your pc then you will have to keep the pc switched on when playing the music on Sonos. Alternatively, if your router has a USB port in the rear, copy the files onto a USB stick and plug this into your router (which is what I do). Your music will then be permanently available to your Sonos via WiFi once you have set up your router to recognise the stick. Details to do this can be found on the Sonos website.

It's worth the effort! 

neilmcl

Neil49 said:

Your son is on the right track but once you have converted the cd's contents into files (ideally flac format which is a higher quality or mp3 if you don't really care) you need to store them somewhere that will connect to your Sonos.

If you convert the music and keep the files on your pc then you will have to keep the pc switched on when playing the music on Sonos. Alternatively, if your router has a USB port in the rear, copy the files onto a USB stick and plug this into your router (which is what I do). Your music will then be permanently available to your Sonos via WiFi once you have set up your router to recognise the stick. Details to do this can be found on the Sonos website.

It's worth the effort! 

Or not to mention the other obvious on which is to copy the music files over onto your phone and play via bluetooth to your speakers.

Mickey666

Sonus wouldn't have been my first choice - too overpriced for what it is, but too late now.

Personallty, I copied all my CDs (and old vinyl) to a PC decades ago when iPods first came out. Having imported them all into iTunes I was able to play them using Apple Airport Express wifi gizmos, which also provided audio outputs for connection to my hifi amps/speakers.  When the iPad was launched I was able to use that as an iTunes remote controller.  All very handy.  Then I bought a Roku 'Soundbridge', sadly no longer available, that could access my music library and play through the hifi - though there are many other 'media players' to choose from (Sonus is but one).  Then smart TVs arrived and can also access and play all my music, as well as videos.  These days, I store all my 'media' on a NAS drive so all my connected devices have access throughout the house, plus the RAID capability help protect against hardware failure (which WILL happen eventually, so plan for that as well - don't want to lose all that precious music!).

I appreciate all that is probably confusing and my apologies for all the acronyms, but my real point is not to get to bogged down with a specific solution.  Technology changes so fast these days - for example iPods have been and gone in s flash - so be more concerned with flexibility than trying to figure out a solution that will stand the test of time, because it probably won't.

The key thing is to get everything into one format and one place so it's easily managed and can be accessed by whatever you have today and whatever comes along tomorrow.

Norman_Castle

Terrysdelight said:

I've just spoken with my son - I think I know what to do now.  Basically convert all my music to sound files within something like Itunes and then play the music through the internet.
Kind of defeats the object of being able to bang on a CD,

I've got hundreds of cds plus minidisc and vinyl and couldn't be rsed to convert it all. I also like having a music collection. All you need is something to play the cds on which most dvd players will do and a connection to the sonos. Exactly what inputs are on the sonos? Exactly how is it connected to the tv?

A quick google suggests the soundbar has an optical (toslink) input. If thats being used by the tv a dvd or cd player with optical output could be connected with the tv through one of these  https://www.amazon.co.uk/LiNKFOR-Switcher-Supports-Dolby-AC3-Compatible/dp/B07MFJKMRB/ref=pd_lpo_23_t_2/260-4144930-3777023?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07MFJKMRB&pd_rd_r=279c677c-82af-49d3-b71d-5b663333b3d9&pd_rd_w=Q6E07&pd_rd_wg=T79Ca&pf_rd_p=7b8e3b03-1439-4489-abd4-4a138cf4eca6&pf_rd_r=2JXPQHW0SX3E5M229AXV&psc=1&refRID=2JXPQHW0SX3E5M229AXV

RumRat

Upload them all to Google Play Music via your PC and then have them play when ever you like over the Sonos system. Or, forget about them and just listen to music via GPM, Deezer or Spotify etc.

Mickey666

Uploading everything is all very well as long as you're happy to be dependent on an internet connection to listen to your music.  Personally, I prefer to keep all my 'stuff' locally.  I'm not against cloud storage but I am against being wholly reliant on it.

Terrysdelight

Mickey666 said:

Uploading everything is all very well as long as you're happy to be dependent on an internet connection to listen to your music.  Personally, I prefer to keep all my 'stuff' locally.  I'm not against cloud storage but I am against being wholly reliant on it.

That's the problem where I live, it's fairly remote and the internet plays up.

Mickey666

Storage is so cheap these days that it's simpler to just buy a larger hard drive for your PC.  I chose a NAS drive for flexibility but I have network wiring thoughout the house and some other special requirements, but the principle is the same.   Cloud storage simply cannot be relied upon to be available 100% of the time.   Actually, USB memory sticks are pretty cheap these days.  My music collection is around 15,000 songs and around 80GB whereas a 128GB memory stick is less than £20 so I could carry it around on my keyring with plenty of room to expand if I wanted to!