Loxone Music Server - how many Spotify users

[BartW]

Hi,

As above, how many Spotify users can play their tunes simultaneously in their respective rooms? Sonos in the current house allows everybody to enjoy their own sound, and I wonder if the level of integration is going to be similar if I go for Miniserver for the new house.

 

Many thanks!

Bart

[Kelvin]

I had the same thought and from googling it seems Loxone supports up to 6 separate devices playing via Spotify Family which is the limit on Spotify Family. 

[joth]

To add the obvious, just because you use a Loxone miniserver doesn't mean you have to adopt their audio server too. Sonos integration is possible too, if that's what you prefer

 

[BartW]

Thanks, as you could probably sense from my other post, I am focusing on the money vs value aspect. 
 

sonos is well tested and proven to work. Loxone was going to be just a neatly integrated solution in the DIN cupboard. I don’t care about it talking to me when come home, I don’t need a centralised alarm clock and so on. 
 

My smoke alarm system is going to be Hush Active as it needs to be of a certain category. There are certain things I am evaluating right now, and hoping to establish the true need for a loxone system. 
 

at the moment, it seems I would benefit from having centrally controlled / adaptable:

- lights

- heating (ans to a degree mvhr)

- blinds

 

 

[Thorfun]

I guess that if you go for the Loxone Audio Server setup over Sonos you get added functionality for free. i.e. with presence sensors around the house you get a built in alarm system that can be blasted out through the Audio Server. And, for us with out sump/basement/flooding potential, the ability to produce an audible alarm/alert/message from a high water alert is invaluable. then there's the "it's dinner time"/"we're leaving in 5 minutes" etc messages broadcasted throughout the house to the occupants who spend all day in their bedrooms, aka teenagers.

 

I'm not sure if you can get Loxone to play those sort of events through Sonos.

 

also, for me, Sonos really pi$$ed me off when they came out with the whole 'we're not supporting older speakers any more so you have to upgrade if you want to get updates' business model. basically sticking 2 fingers up at those who have already purchased speakers and have been customers for many years.

[BartW]

2 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

I guess that if you go for the Loxone Audio Server setup over Sonos you get added functionality for free. i.e. with presence sensors around the house you get a built in alarm system that can be blasted out through the Audio Server. And, for us with out sump/basement/flooding potential, the ability to produce an audible alarm/alert/message from a high water alert is invaluable. then there's the "it's dinner time"/"we're leaving in 5 minutes" etc messages broadcasted throughout the house to the occupants who spend all day in their bedrooms, aka teenagers.

 

I'm not sure if you can get Loxone to play those sort of events through Sonos.

 

also, for me, Sonos really pi$$ed me off when they came out with the whole 'we're not supporting older speakers any more so you have to upgrade if you want to get updates' business model. basically sticking 2 fingers up at those who have already purchased speakers and have been customers for many years.

Hi,

I have read your thread back to back. 
 

my only thing with sonos is that it works flawlessly. I use old gen 1 and 2 amps and standard passive ceiling speakers. I use sonos bridge to send controllable signal to my soundbar. Functionality is very neat and one does not even have to use the sonos app for playback. 
 

I have used Verisure alarm for years now. Fully monitored and acted upon by a call centre. Loxone alarm was a consideration, but if sh*t goes down when I am abroad, all I will get is additional stress of knowing but being able to do nothing. 

[Thorfun]

22 minutes ago, BartW said:

Hi,

I have read your thread back to back. 
 

my only thing with sonos is that it works flawlessly. I use old gen 1 and 2 amps and standard passive ceiling speakers. I use sonos bridge to send controllable signal to my soundbar. Functionality is very neat and one does not even have to use the sonos app for playback. 
 

I have used Verisure alarm for years now. Fully monitored and acted upon by a call centre. Loxone alarm was a consideration, but if sh*t goes down when I am abroad, all I will get is additional stress of knowing but being able to do nothing. 

all valid points! our Sonos system is starting to play up. skipping songs half way through, some speakers not connecting to the mesh etc. so we've kind of given up on it.

[Pocster]

Max2play raspberry pi 👍

[BartW]

5 hours ago, pocster said:

Max2play raspberry pi 👍

sounds like scuba diving to someone who has hardly got grasp of snorkling…

[Adsibob]

On 26/12/2022 at 10:59, Thorfun said:

all valid points! our Sonos system is starting to play up. skipping songs half way through, some speakers not connecting to the mesh etc. so we've kind of given up on it.

@Thorfun, I’m considering investing in Sonos gear but still on the fence as to how far into it to go. Did you ever get to the bottom of your issue?

[Thorfun]

11 hours ago, Adsibob said:

@Thorfun, I’m considering investing in Sonos gear but still on the fence as to how far into it to go. Did you ever get to the bottom of your issue?

i did!! 🙂

 

all our Sonos gear is old first gen stuff. back then you had to have a Sonos bridge which connected to the internet and all other Sonos devices connected using the proprietary mesh network. what i didn't realise is that these days you don't need that bridge type connection and can simply join the Sonos devices directly to your wifi network. so, i simply did that and now all speakers connect (as i have a good Ubiquity mesh network) and we no longer get skipping songs. so all good for Sonos for us now. i still have the Loxone Audio servers and will connect them to ceiling speakers in the new house and then make a decision as to whether to keep using our old Sonos stuff.

[Adsibob]

26 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

i did!! 🙂

 

all our Sonos gear is old first gen stuff. back then you had to have a Sonos bridge which connected to the internet and all other Sonos devices connected using the proprietary mesh network. what i didn't realise is that these days you don't need that bridge type connection and can simply join the Sonos devices directly to your wifi network. so, i simply did that and now all speakers connect (as i have a good Ubiquity mesh network) and we no longer get skipping songs. so all good for Sonos for us now. i still have the Loxone Audio servers and will connect them to ceiling speakers in the new house and then make a decision as to whether to keep using our old Sonos stuff.

That's good. I have a ubiquity system with a UDR plus two APs powered by PoE. The ubiquity setup is pretty incredible. Literally had zero downtime since we set it up 9 months or so ago. I still can't believe how good it is.

 

We have one Sonos Beam Gen 2 as a sound bar connected to the tv. It works well, but the amazon alexa integration isn't brilliant. Am thinking of getting two more speakers for a surround sound system. Was going to get a pair of Era 300 but the reviews are very mixed. Some people say they are great for surround sound when used as rears in combo with a soundbar such as the the beam gen 2, but that they sound a little weird for music because they are focused on spatial audio, and not all music has been engineered for that. Then other reviews say that the best sonos speakers for stereo music are Sonos Fives, but then there are lots of audiophiles which say they aren't great.

[Thorfun]

13 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

Then other reviews say that the best sonos speakers for stereo music are Sonos Fives, but then there are lots of audiophiles which say they aren't great.

I learnt a long time ago after reading many threads on avforums that audiophiles generally talk out of their arses. the 'normal' person won't notice many of the differences that they often talk about and so it's best to take their reviews with a pinch of salt! 

[Adsibob]

3 minutes ago, Thorfun said:

I learnt a long time ago after reading many threads on avforums that audiophiles generally talk out of their arses. the 'normal' person won't notice many of the differences that they often talk about and so it's best to take their reviews with a pinch of salt! 

Yes, I'm minded to agree. But I also have a really nice record player and a decent vinyl collection, and some purists say that converting the analogue signal from vinyl into a digitised signal for Sonos is sacrilege. 

[Thorfun]

2 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

Yes, I'm minded to agree. But I also have a really nice record player and a decent vinyl collection, and some purists say that converting the analogue signal from vinyl into a digitised signal for Sonos is sacrilege. 

yes, it might be sacrilegious but who gives a f**k! it's much more convenient in digital format. by all means have a lovely analogue vinyl setup but also have a setup that enjoys the convenience of digital.

 

it's single minded bigoted people that think their way is the best and only way that causes so many issues in the world. if only people could understand that it's ok to be different and have different opinions and to also enjoy different ways of doing something.

[Pocster]

2 hours ago, Thorfun said:

it's single minded bigoted people that think their way is the best and only way that causes so many issues in the world. if only people could understand that it's ok to be different and have different opinions and to also enjoy different ways of doing something.

Shout me out ! 😁