I ’ve been a fan of whole - home digital music systems for a long time . When the political platform I had invested years in gave up the ghost – thanks for buy and killing the Squeezebox , by the way of life , Logitech – I decided it was metre to try the speakers my co-worker Chris Breenhad been raving about for year . And Chris was ripe – the Sonos stuff sounds great .
Then , all of a sudden , I largely stop using the Sonos speaker and started using something far more inferior to recreate my music . That was the twenty-four hours the Amazon Echo came into our kitchen . The Echo is inferior in sound to the Sonos ( even the extremist - small Play:1 speaker ) in every agency but one : you’re able to talk to the Echo , but the Sonos speakers require that you utilise an app to tell it what to represent .
Apparently my family were n’t the only ones romance by the convenience and voice mastery of the Echo : lots of mass did the same . Sonos responded withlayoffsand an embracement ofAlexathat take to an promulgation that this yearSonos speakers will be controllable by Alexa .
With the news this workweek thatSonos CEO and cofounder John MacFarlane resigned , there ’s been a lot of speculation about the future of Sonos , and justly so .
The Echo quickly supersede the Sonos verbalizer in my house .
What Sonos has pop off for it is great hardware – their speakers , while expensive , really do voice fantastic . I was supplied psychometric test units of both the tiny Play:1 and the big Play:5 , and was really impressed with both of them . Earlier Sonos theoretical account had somewhere between zero and one clit , which always bugged me , but these day you may break , adjust volume , and get on racecourse right from the speakers without ever having to notice a gimmick ladder the Sonos app .
Sonos ’s medicine support is also stellar . It supports every major streaming service ( yes , including Apple Music ) , and will also pelt music libraries on your local net . As a baseball game sports fan , I love that it natively supports MLB Gameday Audio as well .
Unfortunately , there are also some major gaps . Sonos ’s podcast musical accompaniment is vestigial at better . Mac and iOS equipment users will immediately notice that Sonos speakers do n’t digest AirPlay . Fortunately , I ’ve receive a way to act as my podcasts to Sonos speakers via AirPlay using theopen - reference AirSonos appwhich was late wrapped in an well-heeled - to - useMac menu bar app .
And then there ’s interpreter command . Sonos intelligibly gave some consideration to building its own voice - control condition functionality ; the Play:5 has two integrated microphones , but they ’re not used for anything . Building a vocalisation assistant seems like a tough game for a small loudspeaker company to play , but after a few days of using my Amazon Echo I find that demanding music by part felt much more convenient , especially when I was working in the kitchen .
It remains to be seen exactly how Sonos will build its Alexa integration – I like they ’d just cut a pile with Amazon to turn the Play:5 into a full - fledge Alexa - subject twist , but that seems unlikely . Still , if I could station a Play:5 in a perfect spot in my living region and use the Echo to control it , I ’d be quite felicitous .
Is it possible someone might buy Sonos ? At first glimpse it sounds like a smart move – it ’s a profitable troupe that makes high-pitched - quality product for discerning listener . But yield what happened to my last digital - euphony hardware provider – bought up by Logitech and then dismantle into oblivion – I think I might favor Sonos to stay on its own .
If Sonos remain self-governing , though , it needs to find ways to run with every voice - enabled port system of rules out there . work with Alexa is a salutary head start ; Siri and Google Home probably should n’t be too far behind .
