Should also add, most of this is driven by a Windows(gasp!) PC running Mediaportal, but that would not be essential to the discussion at hand.
outrage
Thanks for sharing this Paul. I’m glad the setup works for you!
I’ve never been very successful with Chromecast. I had a few of them early on and try from time to time to use them in hotel rooms without much luck. On the road it makes sense (I don’t control the wifi setup), so I’m not blaming them for that.
I’m not familiar with Mediaportal but it looks to be in the same category as Plex?
I do think the PC part is relevant, as is the Marantz, sound bars, etc. because all of that goes into the total cost of ownership and overall complexity. For a tinkerer who has all that extra stuff laying around (you and me both), it doesn’t cost anything but time.
I recently upgraded from the Beam to an Arc in my living room. The Arc definitely does a better job filling the larger space in my new apartment. Combined with the Sub and a couple of old Play:1s it’s quite the nice setup.
That’s the setup I have, and I love it. I should have written more carefully before. I highly endorse the Arc, but if you buy one, be prepared to spend $1000 more to get the sub and the surrounds because you’ll really want them!
I think many non-audio enthusiasts would think spending 2000-2500 on a living room setup is nuts. For those of us coming the other direction (downsizing more expensive systems) it feels like quite a deal.
Late to come to the party in discussing Sonos. I used to like Sonos for the quality and connectivity. I owned around 8 number of Play 1, some giving to my daughters.
My love towards Sonos changed until I read from the news (example) that Sonos to deny software updates to owners of older equipment. They might have reverted this decision but that only a result of outcry from the users. My understanding is that they wanted to go down this path to force users to buy new equipment but this is almost an unethical conduct that I do not like
Yeah, the 2 pieces of gear I had to replace because of the change were sold to me (with trade in) at about a 75% discount. It was a PR disaster for Sonos but I agree with your take that technology has to march on eventually and they grandfathered in as many older models as they could. It’s important to point out that nobody’s stuff was going to stop working. The functionality it included when purchased remained you just didn’t get updates and couldn’t mix and match the old and new systems.
Going to +1 with @SpivR and @Jezmund_Berserker about the Sonos transition to the Version 2 of their platform.
- Sonos did a terrible job rolling it out and explaining it. No disagreement there, and it’s certainly on them.
- The v2 platform requires more capable hardware. (Mostly more memory; the original Sonos devices have, to modern eyes, a ludicrously low amount of RAM.)
This is something that everyone here should understand quite well. I don’t believe you can run Monterey on a Mac of the same vintage. Time, and software, marches on. - Their original plan to let people upgrade older equipment to newer, by “bricking” the old devices as part of the upgrade discount process, was well intentioned (it was a good deal), but like Apple’s rollout of CSAM, completely misunderstood how people would interpret it. It was the top source of the fiasco, but they backed off of that requirement. (Sounds a bit like CSAM.)
I think at this point that people holding a grudge against Sonos are probably just determined to be unhappy, despite the facts.
I’m very fond of my Sonos system, and would love to find a good home for my non-bricked v1 Connect:Amps, which are sitting in a box. The new v2 Amp is incredibly good hardware.
My one big complaint is that I find AirPlay connections to my Sonos system to be just as unreliable as AirPlay connections to my HomePods. The common factor seems to be AirPlay. When I use the Sonos app to play music, it’s rock solid reliable. (I just wish the app was better, and that it had better support for spoken word content…)
Yeah, I repeat my earlier comments - money aside (and that’s a big aside!), Sonos is the easiest answer. It sounds the best, it’s the easiest to use (just works), and the newer gear (more $) allows the voice assistants. I don’t even want to look at how many more I’ve bought since I last posted in this thread, but it’s a lot.
Here’s my opportunity to be “claim chowder’d” later: Apple will never be as good at this as Sonos is.
this post is so timely, I just retrieved my pair of Play:1 (original version) that I bought over 10 years ago and revive them to play YouTube Music in my bedroom. I got sick of having to use AirPlay to my homepod. The sound quality is still good and seems that there is no degradation after 10 years , amazing !!
I may re-deploy my homepod to another location as the HomeKit hub