Wireless Speakers - Sonos?

[grrrd]

So we are embarking on building an extension on the back of our house, and the misses keeps on throwing up some lovely (costly) ideas. some of her ideas have included;

A laundry shoot from the upstairs bathroom to the utility room downstairs
Pocket Doors, everywhere
GlassPannel Firedoors (look them up - stupid price!)
Slide and Hide Ovens (2 of them!)
Inbuilt Coffee machines
embedded ceiling speakers


So the last one took my fancy - some sort of speaker system, that is cross room (between the kitchen/dining room/new 'Garden Room'). Her initial want was to have speakers recessed into the ceiling like they have in pubs/shops. Did a little research into these and (firstly they seemed pretty expensive!) but secondly apparently the sound quality is lost for they are not in a box design for the speaker.
Then started to look at the Sonos systems - these seemed a little more reasonably priced (well forgetting the price of the sub/soundbar). So does anyone have these at home? Are they worth it? Is there better for the same money (for less!? )

We are not audio snobs (currently we don't have any music system at home). I do have a plex server where i can dump music too, I would like to get to 3 rooms (2 will be newly built, but one is existing, so wireless would be a preference). Being able to mount / hide away / blend in is required also. I do like the Sonos idea that you can have the same music playing across each room, or different in each room.

Any suggestions would be greatly received!

[piggzy]

I looked into wireless audio a couple of years ago. The guy in the shop made out that wireless quality just want there yet. May have changed now, not sure.

He sorted of acted like anyone considering wireless is clearly a bellend but maybe he was an ott audiophile geek.

I would be interested to see if this has changed as wireless would suit me too.

[grrrd]

Well - I'm not that fussed about high end quality. They say they handle MP3 at 320bit which is what my music collection is on (or below).

The other thing i have noticed with Sonos is that it does seem to hold its value second hand. So £150 investment in a Play 1 to see if we like it, if not i will move it on for like £100 doesn't seem that bad to me!

Maybe i should buy one now and we can see if we like it before the build??!

[aceg3905]

I bit the bullet, as the wife wanted an easy to use solution. The Sonos rock, simply rock... I was concerned about the sound quality from something so small, so took a trip to john Lewis where they had a nice in store setup to play with...

on the back of that last year I ended up getting

2 - Play 1s - Kitchen, Master Bedroom
1 - Play 3 - Gym
2 - Play 5s (new one) - office, Lounge

they are never off, not once does the wife have an issue in using them. most of the time there playing from the google Play account, master bedroom is setup to use tune-in as a radio alarm in the mornings, and a google play playlist for the morning alarm...

I was skeptical but I would recommend them to anyone. if i didn't already have a decent surround setup id also consider a Play bar, with sub and play3's for satellite speakers..

but get yourself down to somewhere that has the demo setups and see for yourself, the power that the tiny play1's kick out is crazy, and when we have them all on and playing the same content the house is jumping...

[grrrd]

I bit the bullet, as the wife wanted an easy to use solution. The Sonos rock, simply rock... I was concerned about the sound quality from something so small, so took a trip to john Lewis where they had a nice in store setup to play with...

on the back of that last year I ended up getting

2 - Play 1s - Kitchen, Master Bedroom
1 - Play 3 - Gym
2 - Play 5s (new one) - office, Lounge

they are never off, not once does the wife have an issue in using them. most of the time there playing from the google Play account, master bedroom is setup to use tune-in as a radio alarm in the mornings, and a google play playlist for the morning alarm...

I was skeptical but I would recommend them to anyone. if i didn't already have a decent surround setup id also consider a Play bar, with sub and play3's for satellite speakers..

but get yourself down to somewhere that has the demo setups and see for yourself, the power that the tiny play1's kick out is crazy, and when we have them all on and playing the same content the house is jumping...

Thanks for the reply - i was a little concerned about the lack of stereo by only having 1 Play 1 in the kitchen / dining room - does that matter or would you say you don't notice it at all?

[aceg3905]

I don't know how it does it, but i do not notice it at all. i cant stress enough to get yourself somewhere to try them, you will be blown away...

[hoponbaby]

Got to agree, the play 1's even as a solo speaker are simply fantastic

[muttleymacclad]

+1 for sonos systems. Sound great and neat integration with phones (Android and iPhone), media libraries etc.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[beansontoast]

Really pleased with my Sonos speakers. I have the playbar and bought two 1's to make rear surrounds. However, I ended up with one in the kitchen and one that I plug in near the bathroom - the 1's are moisture sealed. Lovely things & reassuringly weighty.

[grrrd]

So I purchased the play 1 as a test. £159 in curry's, endenred has 6.5% and 1% quidco came in at about £145. Seeing that they go for about £125 on eBay, didn't see much of a capital risk!
So first impression is its a good looking thing. The sound that comes from it fills my living room with nice deep sound. The radio station choice is amazing. Steaming from my phone works a dream. Need to create a windows share on my Plex server for the tunes but looks easy enough.
Only gripe so far is not being able to play a YouTube video on it (do it loads for my little girl to stop a tantrum or something) I can see why some people can sink some serious dough into this system!

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[beansontoast]

Excellent news. I did lend a play 1 to a colleague at my previous workplace who said it was "an expensive lend" because he liked it so much.

Keep an eye out for offers. I had a years free deezer for registering a play 1 around Christmas 2014. I renewed for £25 for a year in late 2015. I actually bought a pair of play 1 speakers, I took one round my mates house to register it and get the free one year deezer offer for him. Left the speaker with him for a week.