Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

I was about to buy some Sonos stuff but asked if I needed to go online to activate them (I claimed I did not have internet), and sure enough, an internet connection is a requirement. So sorry Sonos, I am buying an appliance which I expect to function independent of your company for years to come. If that can not be guaranteed then my money will stay in my pocket and I will continue to use my open-source cobbled together solution even if it is slightly less polished and convenient.

View on HN

I get what you’re saying, but Sonos works differently than a normal speaker. It is playing the music, not your other device. The app is a control. So if you turn on music and leave with your phone, the music keeps going. When other people connect, they see your music and services, not theirs. It’s its own thing - not just a speaker.

That said, your point about, “will it continue to work if sonos, the company, is shut down?” Is a valid one.

I'm not sure why any of the things you describe require a Sonos operated service.

An app on the smartphone should be able to communicate directly with your Sonos via Bluetooth or local WiFi. The Sonos can then (over the local protocol) inform the app of what services and media are available on that Sonos unit.

A not-so charitable guess would be that Sonos keeps close tabs on what you listen to.

All you described is local network, no need to involve the internet.

It works by streaming the music from the internet. If it's just on a local network, it has no source of music.

You don't have music on your local network?

No, I don't. All of my music is on the cloud.

Sonos is intentionally making the internet requirement more onerous.

About a year ago, they started requiring you to create an account to add new speakers. Now, the app is displaying threats to remotely disable my $2800 speaker setup if I don’t create an account.

The funny thing is that I plan to more than double the system, and they’ve severely pissed me off (if they’re now willing to pull basic functionality, what do they plan in the future?)

Anyway, it occurred to me that, with the right software, you can probably get comparable audio quality for much less of a markup with a raspberry pi, and maybe an external DAC.

I don’t have time to write the software, but maybe someone else does.

(And, no, amazon/google/apple’s competitive offerings aren’t an attractive option for me)

I’m bearish on the 12 months post-IPO because they’re intentionally creating a user revolt to juice the pre-IPO finances.

Here is a link to a thread with people that have better reasons to be annoyed than me: https://en.community.sonos.com/controllers-software-228995/w...

Snapcast works like Sonos. Open source and runs on a raspberry pi (but probably best to run the server on something beefier). I put a Chromecast Audio on external USB line-in for compatibility with Spotify etc, and mopidy for local audio.

https://github.com/badaix/snapcast

Take a look at Libratone [0]. I love my Zipps. Bonus is the inbuilt battery; so you can take it anywhere. Appears as an audio output on all Apple devices, so can be used for anything. Also works standalone with internet radio stations. Nice bit of kit. Should be better known.

[0] https://www.libratone.com/

Your approach definitely isn't a bad one; a few weeks ago I had trouble connecting to Sonos's network, so I couldn't stream anything from Spotify/Amazon/etc, even though they worked on my network for me. It's worrying how easily these (expensive) speakers could become bricked.

I still love them, mind you, I would just be hesitant to invest in them further.

"I was about to buy some Sonos stuff but asked if I needed to go online to activate them (I claimed I did not have internet), and sure enough, an internet connection is a requirement."

My own experience, having owned a sonos system since 2006, is that the system will work just fine with disabled Internet but it flails badly if your network connection has a lot of packet loss. >50% packet loss, it seems, is not a failure mode they have tested.

I have not added a new speaker in a few years, though - is it really true they will require a login/profile ? I wonder what value my Fakey McFakefake profile will add to their IPO ...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com