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After about five years of using SONOS, I read this article about SONOS layoffs.
Because SONOS is not publicly traded, we can't know their financial situation, and having been burned in the past by companies suddenly shutting down and disappearing, I decided it's time to have a SONOS bankruptcy plan in place. I'm also hoping a different product will fix some annoying issues that SONOS has felt are not worth fixing - like giant playlist support, lack of bluetooth, lack of AirPlay, lack of a headphone jack (luckily I've got an old PLAY 5 that has one) and lack of support for another bluetooth product (e.g. stream from a Sonos to a non-Sonos bluetooth product [like wireless headphones or outdoor speakers]). Additionally SONOS has actually been removing alarm capability, with the removal of a snooze button that was only available on their dedicated control unit. Now that my control unit has died ($300 for three years of use), I have no snooze capability.
First I picked up Amazon's Echo. Sound quality is vastly superior to the SONOS 1 and remarkably it costs less. With built in alarms and snooze functionality, plus the millions of other things Echo can do, I've already replaced one SONOS 1 and two SONOS 3 with Echo's, in each of the kids rooms, replaced my SONOS 5 in the master bedroom with one and threw a fifth in the kitchen. Since we never "group" music in the bedrooms, these Echo's have been a blessing, even helping the younger boy with his simple arithmetic because he can double check is division by asking the Echo the answer.
But now my bigger issue - streaming my music from my NAS box, Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody for the Living Room/Patio/Kitchen.
This is where I'm intrigued by the Yamaha MusicCast system, Denon's HEOS and DTS Play-Fi. MusicCast appears to be SONOS closest competitor, but am I missing a few worthy competitors?
Because SONOS is not publicly traded, we can't know their financial situation, and having been burned in the past by companies suddenly shutting down and disappearing, I decided it's time to have a SONOS bankruptcy plan in place. I'm also hoping a different product will fix some annoying issues that SONOS has felt are not worth fixing - like giant playlist support, lack of bluetooth, lack of AirPlay, lack of a headphone jack (luckily I've got an old PLAY 5 that has one) and lack of support for another bluetooth product (e.g. stream from a Sonos to a non-Sonos bluetooth product [like wireless headphones or outdoor speakers]). Additionally SONOS has actually been removing alarm capability, with the removal of a snooze button that was only available on their dedicated control unit. Now that my control unit has died ($300 for three years of use), I have no snooze capability.
First I picked up Amazon's Echo. Sound quality is vastly superior to the SONOS 1 and remarkably it costs less. With built in alarms and snooze functionality, plus the millions of other things Echo can do, I've already replaced one SONOS 1 and two SONOS 3 with Echo's, in each of the kids rooms, replaced my SONOS 5 in the master bedroom with one and threw a fifth in the kitchen. Since we never "group" music in the bedrooms, these Echo's have been a blessing, even helping the younger boy with his simple arithmetic because he can double check is division by asking the Echo the answer.
But now my bigger issue - streaming my music from my NAS box, Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody for the Living Room/Patio/Kitchen.
This is where I'm intrigued by the Yamaha MusicCast system, Denon's HEOS and DTS Play-Fi. MusicCast appears to be SONOS closest competitor, but am I missing a few worthy competitors?