Sonos Home Entertainment - Is it Worth it?

Adamc

Hi 

Sonos have a premium price tag but would the same amount of money be better spent on a good amp-based system? 

For a soundbar, sub and speakers, Sonos costs upwards of £1000.

Thanks

RumRat

You can spend £1000 just on the Amp for something good. What makes anything 'worth it' depends on what your expectations are. For most multi use lounges, it could be seen as a waste of money spending more than £400 and probably a lot less. For a dedicated cinema room, maybe £1000 is a base start figure.
Best suggestion IMO would be to go to a dedicated Audio/Visual specialist and listen to what's on offer and seek their advice. If there is a Richer Sounds in easy reach, you could start there, or, someone like Sevenoaks...

EssexExile

Richer Sounds are very good but please everyone, they are salesmen trying to sell you something! I told a chap in the local Richer shop what I wanted to do, play music stored on my phone through my old but expensive hifi system, he pointed me at a Sonos thingy and sung its praises. It seemed a lot of money so I went home and thought about it. Then I bought a cable for £7 and plugged my phone into my hifi phono sockets and off I went. Then I got all techy and bought a Bluetooth box for under £20 and now my phone doesn't even have to be in the same room.
So do your own research, yes ask people in Richer Sounds and elsewhere but don't take their word as gospel.
Sonos in my opinion are overpriced.

Mickey666

Yes, multi-thousand pound sounds systems are always going to be superior to anything cheaper.  It's the first rule of hi-fi and no one who has spent such sums is going to disagree because they have 'golden ears' that can hear the difference that all that money makes.  But don't take my word for it, try it out for yourself with a few sound-enhancing accessories such as gold-plated mains plugs and oxygen-free, directional cables interconnects made from unobtainum.  Here are a few links to give you an idea of what awaits as you get suckered into the pursuit of aural perfection:

https://www.analogueseduction.net/uk-mains-plugs/isoclean-audiophile-gold-plated-uk-13a-mains-plug.html 

https://www.analogueseduction.net/burn-in-devices/blue-horizon-proburn-cable-burn-in-machine.html 

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/11/most-expensive-speaker-cable-world-audioquest-audiophile/

https://successstory.com/spendit/most-expensive-audio-cables 

Do let us know how you get on

fred246

It's all about getting your technology in the correct boxes. While I am typing this I am listening to music on a 40 year old amplifier with 40 year old handmade English speakers. The DAC has to be newish to stream from the lastest technology. So you buy speakers and an amplifier that can last that long. The input has to be able to change with time. The Sonos has got it all in one box so you have to bin the lot when the software can't be updated. This happened recently and then Sonos backtracked. So buy quality speakers and cable and set it up. Plug in a nice AV amp. Your streaming device, Blu Ray player etc can change with time.

fwor

Adamc said:

Sonos have a premium price tag but would the same amount of money be better spent on a good amp-based system?

Different people want different things, but it seems you haven't really understood what Sonos offers.

I've only just started looking at it (having just bought and repaired a simple, obsolete Sonos setup), and the things that a good amp-based system don't do - unless you add a streamer - is to give you direct access to thousands of internet radio stations, and dozens of subscription-based media services. Most of the radio stations are free - some are even advert-free.

Another thing it won't give you is proper, synchronised multi-room, where you can have the same music playing in several rooms, time synchronised (even though each player is getting the music at slightly different times over the network), or multiple zones playing different content in different rooms.

And Sonos can give you a wire-free service that doesn't rely on your router's wi-fi network (so music won't slow don't other access to the internet). And you can put your music library onto a network storage device (a NAS) so that access to it is not dependent on any one user's computer being available.

Plus you can control the whole lot - including multiple zones - from a mobile phone or from their PC-based control system.

I should add that - even given the above - Sonos is IMO quite an expensive solution. There are quite a few competitors around now - e.g. Roon, Bluesound, etc. - though each has its own variation on the theme of streaming and multi-room.

Mickey666

fwor said:

Adamc said:

Sonos have a premium price tag but would the same amount of money be better spent on a good amp-based system?

Different people want different things, but it seems you haven't really understood what Sonos offers.

I've only just started looking at it (having just bought and repaired a simple, obsolete Sonos setup), and the things that a good amp-based system don't do - unless you add a streamer - is to give you direct access to thousands of internet radio stations, and dozens of subscription-based media services. Most of the radio stations are free - some are even advert-free.

Another thing it won't give you is proper, synchronised multi-room, where you can have the same music playing in several rooms, time synchronised (even though each player is getting the music at slightly different times over the network), or multiple zones playing different content in different rooms.

And Sonos can give you a wire-free service that doesn't rely on your router's wi-fi network (so music won't slow don't other access to the internet). And you can put your music library onto a network storage device (a NAS) so that access to it is not dependent on any one user's computer being available.

Plus you can control the whole lot - including multiple zones - from a mobile phone or from their PC-based control system.

You don't need a Sonos system to do that.  My music library is on a NAS box and can connect to a wide variety of 'media player' devices.  Apple AirPlay is also a handy way to stream music from a NAS library to a separate amp/speaker hifi system, controllable via a phone or tablet app.  I'm sure there are others as well.  I'm not sure Sonos has any unique features, apart from the price tag perhaps.

The point is that many people already have all the basic 'components' needed for such a system (ie home network, NAS box or PC, smartphone, tablet, hifi system etc) and integrating them just needs a few bits of freely available software.  None of this is particularly difficult or new - I digitised and networked my vinyl, CD and music DVD collection about 20 years ago, soon after the first iPod was launched and have used a number of 'media players' over the years, from Netgear, Roku and others, all of which have worked perfectly well with my Quad, NAD and Arcam hifi systems, as they would with any other hifi systems.

That's not to denigrate the Sonos system if someone wants and an 'off-the-shelf' system, but I'm not sure it has any unique features - apart from the high price tag perhaps.

fwor

Mickey666 said:

You don't need a Sonos system to do that.

Of course you don't, and I never said that you do. It is just one of several things that cannot be done by a "good amp-based system", in reply to what the OP asked.

I'm not trying to over-sell what Sonos do. I fully accept that it's expensive, and there are plenty of other ways to do the same thing - some cheaper, some less functional.

Mickey666

But an amp-based system CAN be used as the major part of a networked music system.  All it needs is an appropriate 'media player' / streamer / call-it-what-you-like device.  Such a core system can play vinyl (needs a record deck), cassette tapes (needs a tape deck), CDs (needs a CD player) . . . . or streamed music over a home network from a PC or NAS library (needs a 'media player').

fred246

I have a multi-room system in the house. I can only think of about 5 times in the last 20 years that we have played the same music in all the rooms. A party or christmas are the only times we have done it. People generally don't want to listen to the same music. I definitely wouldn't pay for a Sonos if that is the only reason you are buying it. All the other features can be done easily and much more cheaply by using streaming devices into conventional systems.

MattMattMattUK

I do not personally think Songs is worth it, however I do use Google Home instead, with a Home, or Home Max Pair in every room. My main TV is a Sony Bravia with a soundbar which I can also control via Home.

I would say with Sonos you are paying for the brand, the functionality is less than with Google Home, the price is higher, but if you want some of the very specific things Sonos offers then you might go down that route.