Ferdinand Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 (edited) I am looking for a retrofit system to allow me to play music in different rooms. I'm not really an audio nerd - really want to avoid any major wiring, and need the capability to stream music / radio to selectable rooms. This is not something I have considered before, so any comments are most welcome. Cheers Ferdinand (Cliff Richard, eat your heart out. Really not sure about those pastel shade roller suits or Cliff's roller skills. Very 1981.) Edited November 12, 2019 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russdl Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 I'll start the ball rolling with the excellent Naim Mu-so, or it's little brother the Mu-so Qb, it will do what you want, but at a price - which might not be what you want! https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/naim-mu-so-2 https://www.whathifi.com/naim/mu-so-qb/review 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickfromwales Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Sonos all the way. Idiot proof, and child’s play, with one of the most robust platforms I’ve come across so far. Or, cheaper but coarser, something like a Lithe Bluetooth speaker, multiples of, but I’m not sure if these will network with one another. @Barney12’s, largely Sonos, system will exfoliate you. Tres bien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney12 Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 As Nick has said you really can’t go wrong with Sonos. If you’re not an audio nerd then you’re unlikely to be disappointed by a Sonos One in each room. Relatively low cost and infinitely expandable. The gen 2 units have voice control builtIn (Google Assistant and Alexa) if that’s your bag. Even if it’s not then you’ll grow to love the simplicity of just asking it to play your favourite music or radio station when you walk into the room. Go buy yourself a Sonos One and try it. If you buy direct from Sonos you’ll get 100 days to try it and if you’re not happy send it back for a refund. As Nick eluded you can go “big” with Sonos. I have 5 central Amps, 3 subs, several standalone speakers and a 5.1 setup using a Soundbar, Play 3’s and Sub in the TV Room. In whole house mode cranked up you can “feel” the music and it’s not muffled, distorted crap either. The only slight draw back is that I have to go round and straighten all the pictures on the walls after an evening of dancing ?????? P.S. I’ve had the dubious honour of having dinner with Sir Cliff. After coffee he pulled out his acoustic and did a few renditions of his classics. My overriding memory is “bloody hell he’s thin”. ? The worse part was we had to drink his own wine from his Portuguese vineyard. It was not exactly great. I believe he’s flogged it now as it was something of a failure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Another fan of Sonos. We like KISS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Another vote for Sonos here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Sonos. Even ‘non-technical’ people can use them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 1 hour ago, Barney12 said: . In whole house mode cranked up you can “feel” the music and it’s not muffled, distorted crap either. The only slight draw back is that I have to go round and straighten all the pictures on the walls after an evening of dancing ?????? For historical reasons the first tune will be the excruciating "Herbert". Cranked up won't quite work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 The Sonos IKEA stuff is good value and (imho) looks pretty smart - https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/symfonisk-by-sonos-and-ikea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 2 hours ago, Barney12 said: After coffee he pulled out his acoustic and did a few renditions of his classics You were lucky, when my sister met him, he pulled out his bible (about 1970). At least it was not his colostomy bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted December 3, 2019 Author Share Posted December 3, 2019 (edited) A supplementary question. How does one integrate Sonos with say Alexa? Can an Alexa stream different things to different rooms? Hopefully it is just plug and play, without the plug? (This is an area of profound ignorance for me; have always been a speech radio World Service man. But now is a time to ring some changes.)) Edited December 3, 2019 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joth Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 @Ferdinand depends which Sonos devices you have. The newer integrated speakers, like the Beam, have Alexa built in. Others you need to buy an Alexa echo or whatever they call them to pair with it, which should be relatively PnP (little plug, lots of play) To get started, in the Sonos app go to Settings > Services > Voice - Add a service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joth Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 Full disclosure: I only bought into Sonos recently to try out, largely due to this thread, so still a novice and have not integrated voice control. The Sonos Amp I bought is DOA and waiting for an RMA authorization to send back, so I'm hoping for some magic when it is replaced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted December 3, 2019 Author Share Posted December 3, 2019 (edited) Thanks. At this point I have nothing and an Amazon Prime subscription. The Sonos Ikea stuff looks interesting, once I had recovered from the idea of £300 for 2 speakers as the low-cost end of the range. My requirement is 1 - just to play music in 2-4 downstairs rooms, and probably have some variability. When I started the thread, the idea was to have music where parts could be excluded if different people had different tastes. 2 - The ability to play 2 or more channels would be nice. 3 - Extendibility in future would be a nice-to-have. Ferdinand Edited December 3, 2019 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joth Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 Yeah Sonos must be the best all round option to meet those three requirements. I have avoided it due to the sticker shock and fear of buying into premium priced lock in, but the IKEA collaboration went some way to address both those concerns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMagic Posted December 3, 2019 Share Posted December 3, 2019 +1 for Sonos - you can also control it locally, i.e. with no need for the 'cloud' meaning that should they ever go belly up (or your t'internet is down), you'll still be able to use the equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joth Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 On 03/12/2019 at 06:35, Ferdinand said: How does one integrate Sonos with say Alexa? Can an Alexa stream different things to different rooms? Interestingly it looks like Sonos recently acquired the leading independent, non-cloud dependent voice assistant tech company Snips. Not content with being about the only manufacturer to have both Alexa and Goog assistant integrated inside their devices, they're now rolling their own? Not all happy in the world of home automation though, be interesting to see which way it goes from here. https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2019/12/03/sonos-shutting-down-local-voice-option-snips/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 On 12/11/2019 at 10:33, Andrew said: The Sonos IKEA stuff is good value and (imho) looks pretty smart - https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/symfonisk-by-sonos-and-ikea I would say that Sonos One is probably better value than Sonos Ikea, given the superior performance and not-that-different price. F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I just got an email from Sonos to say that from May a couple of my products will be classed as "legacy" and I can either "Trade Up" with a 30% discount or get no further support. Apparently when you trade up they brick the old device. Cheeky American rip-off b*******s! Previous hi-fi lasted 25 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vijay Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 8 minutes ago, Mr Punter said: I just got an email from Sonos to say that from May a couple of my products will be classed as "legacy" and I can either "Trade Up" with a 30% discount or get no further support. Apparently when you trade up they brick the old device. Cheeky American rip-off b*******s! Previous hi-fi lasted 25 years. So they stop you from making any money back by selling them on? Top recycling by them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triassic Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Very environmentally conscious of Sonos, not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 That's enough to put me off a brand that does that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpd Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 39 minutes ago, ProDave said: That's enough to put me off a brand that does that. Yup time to go back to basics...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivienz Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Very glad I haven't got any amps fitted yet! I really hate this idea of being blackmailed like this. It's what puts me off companies like Apple and Microsoft - their stuff looks lovely and performs well, but the level of devotion that they require just isn't for me. I recently got a new desktop as my old one from 2008 was in need of an upgrade and W10 installation but the new version of MS office and outlook hacked me right off when I found that the only way to get support on the product was by effectively signing up for an annual subscription. I installed all the free equivalents from LibreOffice and Thunderbird email and they're working very nicely for my purposes. It's not that I don't want to pay for anything, it's that I'm not paying a whole heap of cash for something that won't get support (the one-off Office) or risk something disappearing into the ether if I no longer want to subscribe. And, yes, the inability to recycle is awful. I still have my 30 year old hifi which is just as well, because OH still plays his even older vinyl on it. Grrrrr! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamonHD Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 FYI: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/21/sonos_bricking_laudio_gear/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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