If you are considering Sonos be sure to read up the last few years of major mess ups and recent company layoffs. I moved away from them about 6 years ago when it was clear their software upgrades and expertise pretty underwhelming compared to other choices. They were great for a while on those fronts however. The whole S1 S2 fiasco was when I bailed but that was dwarfed but their mis-steps in the last 12 mos. Their software is very user friendly.
Whole home audio - wired or wireless?
I’m trying to decide if wired speakers in the ceiling is still a worthwhile project, or should I just use Bluesound wireless speakers. In-ceiling is nice because it tends to provide unobtrusive distributed sound. Wireless still needs a power source and requires mounting or shelving, though it’s also more flexible for moving things around. Anyone else recently face this decision? If wired, what amp/controller system are you using?
- ...
- 8 posts total
Post removed |
I’m not likely to be drawn back to Sonos. Seems like I had a similar experience to @jbs - constantly frustrated by glitches, lost/unfound devices, robo responses from Sonos "help," etc. If I do pure wireless, it’ll be Bluesound. I could have been a bit clearer about my intentions. I have a dedicated hi-fi listening room and my MBR has a nice two-channel system as well. Whole house audio for us would be mainly for background music during entertaining. @fastfreight thank you for the heads up about too many endpoints for Roon. It kinda makes me think I want a hybrid system - same as I have in my other home. I have an HTD MCA66, which powers six pair of in ceiling speakers, with a Bluesound Node as the primary input source. I then have three other Nodes on traditional stereo setups and a pair of Pulse Flexes. For entertaining, I just move between the HTD app (to control the six wired speaker zones) and the Bluesound or Roon app (to select the streaming content, and add other zones). So, for my purposes, Sonance 8" ceiling speakers (or possibly Klipsch) would do the job nicely. I’m just kinda hoping I can avoid a guy (or myself) crawling into the attic and cutting holes in the drywall. |
I have a Naim system in my home. I have a ND5 XS in my listening room linked to my preamp. I have Muso QB 2s in each bedroom and a Muso 2 in my great room. All is WiFi enabled and Naim app has native Qobuz among other streaming sources. Similar to Sonos and Bluesound I can play music in one room, all rooms or anything in between. The Naim speakers sound great (better than Sonos in my humble opinion and I've listened to Sonos a lot). They are also beautiful speakers only bested in appearance (again my opinion) by the Sonus Faber Omnia. The setup has been reliable as well with only connection issues when a speaker(s) has a firmware update. It is certainly a more expensive setup than Sonos or Bluesound, but the appearance and sound is worth it to me. |
- 8 posts total