Sonos app and Play:1 speakers

When we had our home built, we wanted to put speakers in every room.  I called a local audio/video installer, since I didn't want to run the wires or install the speakers myself, and quickly realized it wasn't exactly what I wanted for several reasons.  That's when I stumbled on to Sonos and our world changed in a great way forever.

• It was going to cost more than I thought
• Would need to physically connect a device (receiver, CD player, etc.) to the wires
• Can only be managed from one central location due to hardwired speakers
• Expansion would be limited and difficult due to the need to run additional wires and physically install a speaker

I started researching the different options and to make a long story short, I settled on Sonos.  Sonos resolved all of the issues listed above by:

• The cost for each Play:1 speaker was the same as each hardwired speaker
• There was no need for a separate, physically connected device
• It could be managed by any mobile device in the house
• Adding new speakers is as easy as buying a new one

I started with a pair of Play:1's.  They don't provide a lot of bass like I want, but they sound great.  I may eventually get one of their larger models due to the size of our living room, kitchen and dining room, but for now the Play:1 gets the job done.  The Play:1 easily fills our large area with clear sound.  We now have several Play:1's and are looking to buy more Sonos speakers at some point.  Enough about the speakers, let's move on to the app/software, which is where Sonos shines.

Adding a Sonos speaker to your home network is super easy.  I won't bore you with the details, but it is super simple.  Once you get the speaker connected to your network, you have several music options to choose from.  You can use your Google Play Music library, music directly on your mobile device, TuneIn Radio, Pandora Radio, Slacker, and Amazon Music.  There are more options, but those are the ones we use on a regular basis.  If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you can use their radio stations, which is our favorite option.  One of the coolest features is once you get a radio station playing on the speaker, you can just hit play from the speaker without having to open the app.  This has a couple of advantages.  One of course is not having to find your phone and open the app to start the music.  You can just hit play from the speaker as you walk by.  The biggest advantage is hitting play from the speaker will allow the music to continue playing once you leave the home.  If you start music from the app and leave the wi-fi area, such as going to work, the music will eventually stop once your phone is out of reach.  Pressing play from the speaker will allow the music to play all day long, which is what we do all the time so our dogs can have some noise in the home to drown out all the construction going on around us.

The best feature, which I'm sure other other manufacturer's have, is the ability to have the same or different music playing on each speaker.  When cleaning the house, we put the same station/music on all speakers so we have continuity throughout the home as we walk around.  If someone is sleeping or watching TV, you can make a single speaker play music instead of all of them.  If people in various rooms want to hear different genres of music, you can have different music playing on each speaker individually.  This offers a ton of flexibility and it is easily one of the best features...especially when compared to hard wired speakers.  A hard wired speaker setup would need a switch panel of some sort where you could turn off/on speakers individually.

There are other manufactures with speakers and capabilities similar to Sonos, but we do not have experience with them.  We can only speak for the Sonos system and can say it is easy and has a lot of options we really like.  We would definitely recommend Sonos to anyone looking to pump music throughout their home.  The speakers sound great and offer a lot of flexibility.  We will say though, regardless of the brand, we would recommend everyone look to do what we did if music is important to you.  The speakers may not be cheap, but if you have some credit card miles or gift cards to spend, we recommend looking at Sonos (or a similar option).  It is easily one of the best purchases we have ever made.  We are huge music lovers, so this is hands down definitely one of the best additions we have made to our home.