Apple Music Available on Sonos Devices Starting December 15

You can have everything with AirTunes or AirPlay - why use Sonos? Some day Sonos will go bankrupt and you will be left with a broken set of overpriced loudspeakers.

- Android support
- More stable in challenging wifi environments
- Excellent multi-room syncing.
- Some people find controlling all music sources from a single app to be preferable (admittedly, others see this constraint as a limitation)

I don't agree that the Play 1, 3, or 5 are overpriced.
The Connect is overpriced.

99% of the people who complain about or attempt to discredit Sonos have never used or lived with Sonos products.

You can have everything with AirTunes or AirPlay - why use Sonos? Some day Sonos will go bankrupt and you will be left with a broken set of overpriced loudspeakers.

You can have everything with AirTunes or AirPlay - why use Sonos? Some day Sonos will go bankrupt and you will be left with a broken set of overpriced loudspeakers.

I don't know, maybe because you don't want any interruptions while listening and enjoying music? Also, keep in mind that for Airplay to work, you NEED to have your phone in the network while playing music and you can't use it to listen/watch anything else on it.

- Android support
- More stable in challenging wifi environments
- Excellent multi-room syncing.
- Some people find controlling all music sources from a single app to be preferable (admittedly, others see this constraint as a limitation)

I don't agree that the Play 1, 3, or 5 are overpriced.
The Connect is overpriced.

My most common use case is that I set up a playlist on my iPad, then browse the net while the music plays. Airplay chokes and stutters when I load complex pages or sometimes even when I switch apps. Even leaving the iPad alone usually results in stuttering at some point or another. That never ever happens with my Sonos speakers.

You can have everything with AirTunes or AirPlay - why use Sonos? Some day Sonos will go bankrupt and you will be left with a broken set of overpriced loudspeakers.

At the risk of sounding like a complete cult member: only someone who's never used Sonos would ask this question.

The only problem I have with Sonos is that no matter how much you talk about its benefits, no one will understand it. ... You won't really appreciate the benefits of Sonos until you have at least two of their speakers. Not many people are willing to spend $400 just to try an ecosystem. Sonos has to do a lot of marketing/branding and educate consumers if they really want people to get on board.

This. Sonos is, and always has been, a solution for multi-room home audio. But they decided to play in the personal speaker market where there is SOME overlap but fierce competition. Sonos is their own worst enemy sometimes in this regard. So many reviews of their products treat it as though it was just a Bluetooth speaker for streaming audio from your phone, and even criticize Sonos according to those assumptions (why isn't it battery powered? why is it so expensive?)

OK, the difference is this:

Bluetooth and AirPlay speakers are "slave" devices to your playback device. Your device (iPhone for example) does the music playback, whether from MP3/AAC or streaming audio from a website, and then sends an audio stream via Bluetooth or WiFi to a speaker that's standing by on the network ready to play whatever audio stream it receives.

Sonos is an independent playback device on your network. You tell it where to look for ALL the music you care about (URLs to multiple streaming services, and/or a location on your network where your MP3/AAC stash exists, such as a NAS, or your phone) and Sonos is smart enough to do the rest. You can turn off your phone and put it away. The Sonos device(s) will keep playing. It will stand up its own wireless mesh network to communicate with other Sonos units in your house to strengthen its own wireless signal and to synchronize with other players in the house so they stay in lock-step perfect sync. Sonos devices can pair together for stereo playback or to become surround sound units for a Playbar. You can set up a single playlist consisting of your own music + Apple Music + Spotify or whatever, and it'll play everything you got.

If your primary use case is playing music from your phone, to one speaker, in one location, then Sonos isn't really the right solution. Where Sonos really shines is when you set it up around the house, point it to a stash of music on your NAS (or subscribe to streaming services) and either let different users play what they want, where they want, or let one thing play all over the house. Can you also do this with a variety of Bluetooth or AirPlay speakers? Yes. Will that be cheaper? Yes. Will it be as seamless or smooth or convenient? No.

Sonos is nice, but I can't swallow their prices. Play1 should be $75. Play3 should be $100-$125. Play5 should be $200-$250. ConnectAmp should be $100.

Their prices are deep in audio enthusiast territory, but their products are objectively mass-market consumer-oriented. Enthusiasts will likely go for more niche speaker brands, while the mass-market consumers likely go for something less expensive.

I agree that their prices LOOK expensive. But think of it this way:

Many people (including myself) spend $700+ for a phone every two years (or every year) and don't have ANY problems with it. Heck with all the new software updates, you have to replace your phone every two years even if you don't want to. But Sonos speakers, on the other hand, are built to last for much longer than 2 years. A good and solid multi-room Sonos system will cost you around $1500-$2000 and they claim the lifespan of their speakers is 10years. And it's not just a claim. They constantly keep updating ALL of their speakers, even the ones they made 10 years ago, via software updates and keep adding more features to them. They just updated their Play:5 speaker but are still supporting the old Play:5. So, although you are spending $2000 on a speaker system, but in reality you are investing for 10years of music listening at home. Our appreciation of music and the time we spend to listen to it at home have increased dramatically since we've entered the Sonos ecosystem.

The only problem I have with Sonos is that no matter how much you talk about its benefits, no one will understand it. They have to use it to fully appreciate it. Much like Apple, Sonos is an ecosystem. At some point you just have to trust them and let them do the work. But the problem with Sonos is its cost of entry and their not-so-good marketing. You won't really appreciate the benefits of Sonos until you have at least two of their speakers. Not many people are willing to spend $400 just to try an ecosystem. Sonos has to do a lot of marketing/branding and educate consumers if they really want people to get on board.

I love my Sonos speakers. It saves a lot on battery on my devices since they aren't constantly streaming to an AirPlay speaker. It's nice to just have music playing without having to worry about battery life.

Happy to see Apple Music is coming though! Just cancelled my Rdio subscription (RIP), so this is perfect timing.

First thing, why will Sonos go bankrupt? Because of AirPlay? AirPlay only works from Apple devices so AirPlay definitely won't kill it.
Secondly, people have been saying Sonos is doomed ever since AirPlay/AirTunes was announced yet in that time Sonos has grown to become the second biggest speaker manufacturer in the world based on revenue. Based on its current growth rate it will be number one in no time. Considering that there are only 40 million paying music subscribers in the world and is expected to balloon to 1 billion by 2021, I'm willing to bet that Sonos is more likely to become the biggest speaker manufacturer that has ever existed rather than go bankrupt. They have grown to second place working in a segment that is still in the early adopter phase for most of the world - that's pretty amazing.

Saying things like 'why use Sonos?' Is like asking why use iOS when Android does the same thing? It's the little things that Sonos does to create a better experience. Did you know that Sonos users listen to 70% more music than anyone else? Sonos makes just makes things easier and are guided by the principle of creating the best listening experience possible.

Not to mention the fact that Apple is spending their time with Sonos. I am not saying that Apple is the end-all-be-all, but they are not historically ones to waste their time collaborating with companies that are "doomed".