Sonos, Apple Homepod...or ??? For wireless listening in bedroom?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by xj32, Mar 4, 2018.

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  1. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    My wife, who is a professional interior decorator is creating a reading/siting area in our bedroom and of course wants us to be able to listen to music. Of course I have no complaint with this. Like many of us I have a huge digital library mainly managed by iTunes (3.9tb) most of it is lossless. I of course want to be able to access/stream it in said space.

    I know it will not be the same quality as in my office-music space where I use a Prism Sound Calia DAC into Focal Shape 65 studio monitors, but I also don't want it to suck :)

    So my question is:

    A. How do I stream it from iTunes or Swinsian?
    B. What speaker setup sounds decent and will achieve my goals: Apple Homepod, Sonos Play:1 or ???

    Thanks for any and all advice.
     
  2. rockin_since_58

    rockin_since_58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Simi Valley, CA
    I use a Sonos Play 1 for the bedroom and it is more than adequate. Apple Music is fully supported in the Sonos app. The Play 3 would sound better and is not a whole lot more money. Maybe listen to both at an Apple store.
     
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  3. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    Where I am most torn is most reviews say the new Homepod sounds better and is completely integrated with the "apple-verse", but I also like that I can get two Play 1's and have stereo for the price of a single Homepod. The only thing I wonder is I do not do any streaming services and would use the music from my hard drive through Swinsian or iTunes.
     
  4. Nephrodoc

    Nephrodoc Forum Resident

    Promo right now, 2 sonos 1 for $350. They sound great in a stereo pair if your bedroom is big.
     
  5. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    I just saw that...finger dar near on the buy button :)

    Can anyone confirm that I can access my iTunes library with a Sonos device?
     
  6. glide

    glide Forum Resident

    Location:
    NH, USA
    Yes you can.

    I have both and if sound quality is your main concern AND you are invested in the Apple Universe w/Apple Music then go with HomePod.

    If you want many, many service options, go with Sonos.
     
    gabbleratchet7 and xj32 like this.
  7. Talisman954

    Talisman954 Forum Resident


    HomePod sounds quite a bit better than the Sonos.
     
    Freebird and xj32 like this.
  8. gov

    gov Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC Metro
    Sonos and apple HomePod stream lossless?

    If I had 3.9tb of lossless audio and wanted to stream it I would be checking out the bluesound pulse 2. Grab it from crutchfield and you can try it for 60 days if you can’t find one loca to try.

    I have a vault and I’m beyond pleased. Haven’t heard the pulse but it streams lossless and the bluesound app is nice too.
     
    rodentdog likes this.
  9. glide

    glide Forum Resident

    Location:
    NH, USA
    Yes. Both do.
     
    gov likes this.
  10. gov

    gov Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC Metro
    Cool. Feel like when I last looked at sonos (while back), it didn’t stream lossless.
     
  11. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    So for those who have heard both...the sound of one single Homepod or a stereo set of Sonos??? since they are the some price
     
  12. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    They stream lossless but not hi rez.
     
    gd0 likes this.
  13. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Sonos is the only non-Apple speaker that has Apple Music built in, but the interface with the service is not as clean as what you see when opening the Apple Music app on an iPhone oe iPad.

    For example the weekly Chill or Favorites playlists don’t appear in Sonos. Nor do the suggested playlists and albums that the app changes daily. If this is important to you then HomePod warrants a closer look. I’ve never heard one so I can’t comment on the sound.
     
    coffeetime likes this.
  14. glide

    glide Forum Resident

    Location:
    NH, USA
    I prefer the HomePod room correction-on-the-fly or whatever voodoo they are doing.

    Sonos TruePlay is also good but I like being able to pick the speaker up and move it from the kitchen, to the bedroom, to the living room without having to perform the setup each time.

    You should be able to audition Sonos for 30 days and Apple for 14(?) days and see which you like best.
     
  15. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    Thanks, good to know
     
  16. roboss38

    roboss38 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clovis, CA U.S.A.
    Riva Festival or Arena. Best wireless speaker I’ve heard.
     
  17. coffeetime

    coffeetime Senior Member

    Location:
    Lancs, UK
    Sonos yes; I use mine in conjunction with all of my music stored on a NAS drive under the stairs. Sonos will stream lossless audio up to 48Khz/16bit. Above that it;ll need downcoverting Supported Audio Formats

    Homepod: No. You can AirPlay music from an iOS device or iTunes on a computer, but control is from those devices, not the speaker. Homepod can only control music coming from Apple Music/iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match or iTunes Store purchases. No support for NAS drives or using Siri to control anything that doesn’t originate from Apple’s servers.

    Existing Sonos Play1 (bedroom), Play3 (kitchen) & Connect (main lounge rig) user here with the system configured for my music library from NAS, BBC radio via TuneIn and Apple Music/iCloud Music Library.

    Unless you plan on copying and merging your own music with a paid for iTunes Match or Apple Music subscription, I’d not consider the Homepod as you’d need to be leaving the room ever time you needed to change tracks/albums etc.

    I’m leaning towards getting a Homepod for the dining room for AirPlay from my phone/to see how it stacks up against Sonos. I’m already neck deep in the Apple ecosystem including Apple Music/iCloud Music Library so makes sense. Without Apple Music/iCloud Music Library though, Sonos is a no brainier for ‘good enough’ music (your own and any services you might ever consider using) around the house away from your main rig,
     
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  18. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    With the HomePod, you will need an Apple iOS device to set it up, so I assume you have an iOS device. If that is the case, the iPhone has a Remote app that will access your iTunes library running on a computer and allow you to send the Airplay stream to the HomePod. Airplay also opens the HomePod up to any audio stream from an iPhone or any computer running Airfoil.

    As for voice control of your home library, I am not aware that either device can do this with voice commands. If you want to use voice with your home library, I would recommend using J River Media, Airfoil, and buying an Amazon Dot. Once you have J River setup, you can flip the Airfoil output to the HomePod and use the Dot to tell J River what to play. There is also a similar method using Plex running on an AppleTV. The main issue with this is that if you use the HomePod for anything else and it uses its own speaker to answer, Airfoil will disconnect. Airfoil also has an app called Satellite that runs on the iPhone where you can assign your computer's output back to HomePod, though.

    All that being said, the new Sonos is supposedly going to get Airplay 2 when it is available, so you won't be limited to Sonos limited list of apps like you are with the older Sonos devices.

    When it comes to sound quality, I am not aware of any reviewer that has preferred the Sonos One to the HomePod. I am not sure that adding a second inferior speaker will automatically make it sound better or get deeper bass (for example). It will just give you stereo sound if you are sitting in the sweet spot and more volume.
     
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  19. rockin_since_58

    rockin_since_58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Simi Valley, CA
    I can confirm that you MUST have an Apple Music subscription to access iTunes on Sonos. I cancelled my Apple Music and can no loner get iTunes on my Sonos.
     
    DML71 likes this.
  20. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Apple Music and iTunes are two separate things. If you have an iTunes library on your hard drive, Sonos should be able to point to the directory on the drive (PC or Mac). Once you do an initial synchronization of your library, Sonos should find the files through "Library" rather than "Apple Music".
     
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  21. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    I am about to try a Mu-So QB
     
  22. rockin_since_58

    rockin_since_58 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Simi Valley, CA
    Thanks for pointing that out! I browsed around and found out where to add the directory and it works fine.
     
    xj32 likes this.
  23. Darwin1984

    Darwin1984 Active Member

    Location:
    Carlsbad, Ca.
    You can control Pandora etc with Siri once you start playing via Airplay. So it is not accurate that you can't control anything but Apple Music. You can skip tracks, raise volume etc. once you initiate with Airplay. I pay for subs for Apple Music, Tidal and Pandora and have used all of them this way.
    I am also really enjoying Roon/Tidal to both HomePods which are in different rooms but grouped together
    I have two Sonos Ones and two Play 5's and two HomePods. My main living room speakers are Kef LS50W's.
    Alexa works so poorly on the Sonos One right now that a lot of people aren't even using them for that and linking an echo to the Sonos One instead.
    The Homepod sounds quite a bit better than the Sonos One and equal to the Play 5 which is $150 more. Sonos users are often Apple users too because of demographics (Apple users spend more) and also because Trueplay only works on Apple Devices. I find Sonos' home theater gear to be vey dated and HomePod will easily replace multi-room and stereo paired Sonos for me so once that is native to the HomePod the Sonos gear will be gone. I'm actually putting the Play 5 on CL now.
    The 360 sound is really nice and not to be underestimated, it makes you very aware of how regular speakers have a sweet spot and require careful room placement. The HomePod eliminates that as a consideration.
    I switched everything from Alexa to Homekit already and Homekit works great but also doesn't have the privacy issues of Alexa.
    It's pretty annoying stereo pairing isn't working on the HomePods yet but when it does I will buy two more.
    There are multiple ways to do multi-room right now with HomePods. iTunes, Rogue Amoeba Airfoil, and Roon plus I think a few more.
    I do find the HomePod to be a little too bassy and would like to be able to control that. You can with Apple Music EQ but nothing else from what I have seen.
    I am pretty big on stereo separation and the Hompod doesn't sound particularly mono but I really want stereo pairing.
     
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  24. xj32

    xj32 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Racine, WI
    As I mentiomed I have a Naim Mu-So QB on demo right now and am bringing home a HomePod tomorrow.

    So far 1:1 AirPlay from iTunes works great, but I hate the fact that I cannot listen to onething on iTunes in my office, while my wife listens to something different from my iTunes library on the Mu-So with airplay :-(

    With 4-6 TB of music I really do not want/need to pay for any streaming subscription.

    I also cannot figure out how to set up my hard drive on my Mac as UPiP. Grrr

    My goal is to access my music on my computer in different rooms at the same time without affecting the other. Maybe this is not possible with any of these devices.
     
  25. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I don’t think there is a way to AirPlay different songs from iTunes from a computer simultaneously. However, if you have the Music app on an iPhone or iPad, you could access your iTunes library with Home Sharing and send different music from one library to two sources by AirPlaying from computer to source 1 and AirPlaying from the Music app to source 2. When AirPlay 2 is released on iOS, it may be possible to send different audio to two devices from Control Center, but I am not sure when that will be available. They had AirPlay 2 in prior public betas, but it has been removed.
     
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