Official SONOS owners thread - Page 23

+2 on DBPoweramp.

I have the WD My Book-live NAS.
It worked well until I upgraded my service to Comcast with an all in one modem/router.

I'm sure the WD NAS drive is a fine choice >> I just need to figure out how to get it the Comcast box to "play nice"

New to the Sonos arena. Ordered my Play 5 and Bridge and they should be here tomorrow. Already making plans for future zones (Master bed, bath, shower... back yard, etc). This might be the death of my wallet

You just got married?

Best Buy is running a promotion on SONOS AMP and CONNECT right now and I'm not sure how long it lasts. The deal I took was saving $250 on the AMP with a speaker purchase. It was the perfect opportunity to buy my outdoor speakers and AMP at a discount. I picked up the Definitive Technology 6.5" speaker for $249.99 and got the SONOS AMP for 249.99 after the promotion. I repeated this order an hour later and scored the second speaker and another AMP for another $500. Grand total of $1000 + tax for two SONOS AMPs and one pair of Definitive Technology speakers. Woot!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=pcmcat295600050016

I've used a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo for several years with great satisfaction. It just always works. However if I were buying a NAS now I'd look at Synology products. They seem to get the best reviews amongst audiophiles that I've seen elsewhere, and have some magic in their systems for music playback.

For ripping I either use iTunes and rip all to AFLAC but just started using dbpoweramp which is a very nice product but can be overkill for a Sonos user. I'm not an Apple fanboy but for ease of use their ALAC lossless file format gets the job done on Sonos. dbpoweramp gives you lots of flexibility for higher rez files but Sonos doesn't play them back. The equivalent format of FLAC that Sonos will play is pretty much equal to ALAC. So if you're dedicated to your iTunes player keep it all simple and just use it.

I was strolling through Target yesterday and there was a Sonos display......Play 3 and 5 --- but I didn't see anything else

What a deal man! I sure wish I needed speakers but mine are already in wall/in ceiling. I need 4 more connect amps but can't use the speakers and there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest for the 800 series speakers on eBay.

Sonos will play FLAC.

That is correct. What I wrote may not have been clear enough. Basically FLAC and ALAC give the same performance over Sonos - both very good. So if Sonos is your playback device you may as well use iTunes ripping to ALAC as there is no additional value sonically in using dbpoweramp to rip to FLAC. Although dbpoweramp has some nice batch ripping features, including to ALAC. All the other higher rez file formats that dbproweramp can rip can't be played by a Sonos so why bother. Using iTunes ensures your files will be playable on Sonos and all your iThings - which is good and convenient. With dbpoweramp you may rip a bunch of stuff only to realize later it can't be played everywhere. So again, if you're committed to iTunes - and there's nothing wrong with that - your life will be less complicated if you use it for all your ripping, and you'll get excellent results with Sonos. Just set the default in iTunes to always rip to high rez (ALAC) and rip away.

+1 on the iTunes ALAC ripping. iTunes can be set to automatically change the encoding to 256, 128 etc when syncing your iDevices. Very straightforward and simple.

I had the same idea a few years back but never tried it

I just tried Sirius XM and Pandora on --- Which never worked before on hughes satellite internet -- and it now works all of a sudden ......also was able to update my Sonos controller

Wonder why??

Maybe even Rhapsody ??

Looks like the Sonos Mattes subs finally came out last week and sold out in minutes. They only made a few and immediately discontinued them. Probably to push customers towards the uglier, more expensive glossy models. Color me disappointed.

I'm listening to my Sonos Play:5 right now! We've got the 5 and a couple 3's. I definitely enjoyed the upgrade from 3 to 5 in our workspace. (It's actually almost more power than we need here.)

As a side note, my coworkers use the Play:3 in their office at the end of the hall, and I love throwing some random song into their playlist without them noticing.

EDIT: Clicked once, but post submitted twice. Sorry!

I have had my Play 5 for a few weeks, and I am SICK and TIRED of having to move it around the house... Must buy more!!!! This may be a full on addiction.

'and I am SICK and TIRED of having to move it around the house... '

That seems to be the usual pattern with Sonos - it is a bit addictive!!!

Joe

Yup, same here, and looks like I will be adding another zone shortly (I think I have 4 zones currently). Don't think I have a need for the sub or sound bar (although tempted to get the sound bar just for $hits and giggles lol)

I have been using a WD My Book Live 2TB as a NAS device for some time now and it works seamlessly. I also use Itunes ( library mapped to an appropriate folder on the NAS drive). Rip all of my CD's using Itunes in Apple Lossless format ( ALAC) and it all works great with the 2 Sonos ZP-90's in use in my house.
Can definitely recomend this as a cost effective choice.

I posted this on another Sonos Playbar thread, but I thought I would re-post here as well in hopes of hitting a wider Sonos owner audience...

Can anyone confirm that the Playbar will produce 3.0/3.1 channel audio via DSP even when receiving a PCM 2.0 source from the TV? I've tried emailing Sonos with this question and have not received a reply.

I'm not interested in pairing the Playbar with Play:3's to create a "true" or "discrete" 5.1 setup (like many of the other contributors). I just want some virtual/simulated surround in my minimalist living room setup while also benefiting from Sonos' music streaming features. However, plain 2.0/2.1 channel stereo is a bit plain for the price.

Thanks in advance!

I got a brief sonos demo today and it still left me a little confused. I currently stream my iTunes/iPhone through an airport express and control it on my iPhone. Am I correct in thinking I can still do this w/sonos? What are the advantages of using sonos vs my current setup?

Different sources in different rooms(can be done with Apple stuff but you need multiple instances of iTunes running somewhere) and perfect syncing when playing the same music in multiple zones.

But with sonos you can have one iTunes up and still have separate things playing in the other zones as long as there's another sonos unit in each of those zones? Also, I know that regardless of the bit rate sent through the airport, it only outputs at the native cd bit rate, not lossless. But the sonos will actually output the lossless rates correct? I'm guessing there's an internal DAC of higher quality than the airport?