Sonos Connect

[badsoden]

I love my Squeezebox Touch and radios but they can be a bit temperamental and this causes problems for the other half so I was looking for a more simple setup. Does anyone have any thoughts on Sonos? How do they sound, are they easy to use and are they stable?

[TVC15]

Apple TV and airplay work for me and I can stream just about anything and use whatever gear I want. But happy to be convinced otherwise.

[badsoden]

I've heard Apple TV works well, my brother uses it. I have no Apple products and I'm very unlikely to get any I'm not the biggest Apple fan although I do recognise they produce great products. Difficult to explain!

[krugdoktor]

Sonos works very well, is absolutely easy to use AND uses its own network, so if you intend to use more than one Sonos device, each one connects to the next, so when your WIFI has some weak spots they are filled by the Sonos network. I use 4 devices, one in the opposite corner of my flat with many walls between my router and the Sonos and it works flawlessly.
Can recommend it highly.

[badsoden]

Are there any file format limitations?

[krugdoktor]

Unfortunately the limit is 44/16, no high-res. Any other format (WAV, AIFF, ALAC, MP3....) works

[slate]

that ... and if you have a Collection of more than 55.000 - 60.000 tracks then there is a limitation. It is not a precise number as it depends on the amount of tags your tracks have.

and if you are using addons or any internet music services then you might want to double check. The openess of Squeezebox have insure a bounty of add-ons to all kinds of services, extra functionality and remote apps on various platforms.
Sonos is closed and you have to wait for them to provide support... if ever

[badsoden]

that ... and if you have a Collection of more than 55.000 - 60.000 tracks then there is a limitation. It is not a precise number as it depends on the amount of tags your tracks have.

and if you are using addons or any internet music services then you might want to double check. The openess of Squeezebox have insure a bounty of add-ons to all kinds of services, extra functionality and remote apps on various platforms.
Sonos is closed and you have to wait for them to provide support... if ever

Those are the very things that has put me off Sonos, that and lack of 24bit support.

[NRG]

Sonospy was designed to work around these limitations: https://github.com/henkelis/sonospy

I don't know if the project is still alive or it has just 'matured' as there seems to have been no updates for a few years but it looks promising. I think the requirement is for a Linux based Proxy server to front up your music collection getting around the file limit and also down sampling hires files on the fly with SOX into 16 /48. I've not used it but it may be worth following up if you are hitting these limits.

[AlfaGTV]

Unfortunately the limit is 44/16, no high-res. Any other format (WAV, AIFF, ALAC, MP3....) works

Actually the Sonos works beautifully with 16bit 48Khz files as well. Most HiRes files sounds their best when downsampled to even halves; 88.2 and 176.4 into 44.1 Khz, 96 & 192 into 48Khz.
At least in my experience and system, that is...

Other that that i have nothing but praise for Sonos, sounds good and really easy to use and manage.

On the other hand, i only use for Internet Radio, Spotify, Wimp and local files in 16/44.1-48Khz AIFF.
Oh, another goodie; You dont need any server applications, just a network disk!
Less to get annoyed by!

Regards Mike