Lazy thread regarding Sonos.

craigmclellan

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Jun 17, 2011
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Boston, Lincolnshire
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Craig
Gents,

I could probably research this myself, but I'm going to annoy you all and ask the question following a rough week with the floods and other goings on. Ha!

I have a HTPC which is always on in my lounge which has 2 external HDDs attached which contain my TV, movies and music. I obviously am able to just use a keyboard/mouse in the form of a Logitech Di Novo to control music playback, but the solution isn't too straight forward for the Mrs who is capable of using the rest of the system.

What Sonos components do I need in order to get audio to the pre amp/DAC and have a decent UI for my Mrs to use? We both have smart phones and she is comfortable with using XBMC for choosing movies, but even I struggle to enjoy the experience XBMC offers for playing back music.

 

Sumdumgi

Interstellar Overdriver
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Jul 4, 2008
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Les
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
You need a Sonos Connect and a Bridge and a digital cable.

There is an excellent app for Android and iOS, very user friendly and the PC/Mac software is very good too. SWMBO is absolutely delighted with our recent step into Sonos as she found my digitised connection very difficult to operate - now she absolutely loves Sonos. Setup is a breeze, tell the Sonos where your music is, that's basically it. You can link it to your Spotify Account if you have one and of course you can use internet radio too. The Sonos CONNECT uses 44.1 Khz, 16 bit Stereo sound with a bitrate of 1411 kbps so if you have lots of 24 bit audio you will have to consider file conversion or indeed another choice. I had a small number of 24 bit files, converted tham and quite honestly cannot tell the difference. There is a very good user forum. http://forums.sonos.com/

 

James Evans

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Oct 26, 2006
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James
A quick question if I may as well. I see the connect is advertised as having a 2 port 10/100 switch on it. Does that mean I can plug our tivo box into a spare network port on the connect and have it available over the sonos wireless network to use the virgin anywhere app? From what I've read that sounds correct, but confirmation from a user doing this would be handy.

 

banjoman

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Jun 5, 2012
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Deba
A quick question if I may as well. I see the connect is advertised as having a 2 port 10/100 switch on it. Does that mean I can plug our tivo box into a spare network port on the connect and have it available over the sonos wireless network to use the virgin anywhere app? From what I've read that sounds correct, but confirmation from a user doing this would be handy.
Yup. That's right. I have used the spare Ethernet port to plug in my Home theatre receiver for streaming

 

Sumdumgi

Interstellar Overdriver
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Jul 4, 2008
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Les
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
A quick question if I may as well. I see the connect is advertised as having a 2 port 10/100 switch on it. Does that mean I can plug our tivo box into a spare network port on the connect and have it available over the sonos wireless network to use the virgin anywhere app? From what I've read that sounds correct, but confirmation from a user doing this would be handy.
The Connect two internet ports provide independant internet connections. You can use them to connect to anything you like. My Connect is using the Sonos wireless method to a Bridge. The Bridge is in the Living Room, the Connect in my music room. The Bridge is plugged into the router and the spare internet port on it is used for my smart TV. My connect has my Oppo and a Playstation 3 attached to the ports.

 

iquadius

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Jul 13, 2011
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Bangor NI
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Mike
Hi Craig, just playing devils advocate here .......

my solution has been ... HTPC for storage/streaming etc, XBMC for movies, Logitech duet/receiver & server, for music, iPeng app et al for control .... dig out from receiver is particularly good. Mike

 

Gizza

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Mar 12, 2011
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Gary
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Just to add, you only need the Sonos Bridge if you're not able to run an ethernet cable into the Sonos Connect.

 

Sumdumgi

Interstellar Overdriver
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Jul 4, 2008
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Durham
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Les
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Just to add, you only need the Sonos Bridge if you're not able to run an ethernet cable into the Sonos Connect.
Yep, that's right :^

 

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