Sonos has transformed my house!

I must admit, I don't really like iTunes tho I'm forced to use it.  I was thinking that the ripping was separate from the management - once ripped I could point iTunes to it to get the music on my I devices but also point my sonos at it.

Thamks for the info - will look at the other application mentioned and also just seen media monkey so will look at that.  Which nas is another question entirely!

Thanks all

Just bought a couple of Play3's and a sub today.  Sub not in stock so picking it all up in the week  (actually probably next weekend).

As I currently don't have a NAS, I thought I'd use spotify.  I changed my mind when I found out that to use Spotify you must have a facebook account, which I don't have.

Guess I'll need to buy a NAS more soon thatn I anticipated.

Shame there don't seem to be any comprehensive CD rippers on the Mac, so I'll need to rip on my PC then migrate to the NAS.

Rgds

Just remember that for iTunes, and presumably other ripping software, you should be able to configure the file destination as the NAS at the beginning of the ripping process (assuming the ripping device is connected to the same network as the NAS) and then your rip goes directly to the NAS and no further migration of files will be needed.

Obviously, any music you have already ripped which is not on the NAS will have to be moved or copied over.

Steve

Thanks Steve.

Do you know about the metadata associated with an iTunes (or I guess otherwise) ripped album/track such as album art?  Is it like images which have exif data which would be convenient if inefficient in terms of space used or is there and additional repository? 

Thanks

If you use iTunes to rip straight to Apple lossless on the NAS, and have iTunes manage your music, the the sonos will pick things, including the track names, artist and album from the folder/file names used. However, sonos won't pick up the artwork from iTunes. You need to add the artwork yourself. You can do this manually, or extract the artwork and add it to the ripped tracks using a utility. There's one on the sonos forums - don't have the link to hand.

Thanks Scene.  I found the link: https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/688/related/1/

I still don't understand where where the art goes but I will look into it more if it starts to bother me that much!

Spent a couple of hours looking at both dbPowerAmp and MediaMonkey.  Seemingly both have their faults.  dbpowerAmp doesn't seem to actively manage your library (so if the format changes, it won't rearrange the structure on disk, but Media monkey is crippleware and couldn't identify the composer of Beethoven's 9th (which dbPowerAmp did, seemingly from the same source).

Guess I'll continue to look for now.

Picked up my stuff (2xPlay3, 1xbridge, 1xsub) yesterday and had it working an hour later.

Played radio fine.  Used wifes PC laptop to play music and hed frequent breakups due to network bandwidth.  Seems this is a regular problem with Sonos when using grouped devices.  Could be an issue with PC of course.

Current house is timber framed (so walls are basically a token gesture) - wondering how (if?) it will perform when I move house in a weeks time (house built in 1928, very solid).

When it does work, it's wonderful!

Presumably you mean playing music stored on your wife's PC? Is the PC connected to your router wirelessly? If it is then you're running an unsupported configuration, Sonos will insist you wire the music source (the PC). This is why most people end up buying a NAS to store the music on. Alternatively you may be experiencing wireless interference, have you checked which channels your router and Sonos are using, they need to be different channels, either 1, 6 or 11, also turn off any wide-band or "turbo" modes on your router as they use multiple channels.

Shouldn't really be an issue, I use it in a stone walled house, as long as you place the components carefully it works fine, I never have any issues streaming multiple streams to different ZPs.

Yes, we were playing music wirelessly.  As she was using the client on the same PC, I thought that wouldn't be an issue.  Having said that, it is only until I get some storage plugged into the router (either using USB, or long term a NAS).

The Sonos is using 6, I think the router is using something different (maybe 13).  I'll also dig out the app for testing wireless signal strength.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Rgds

It's not a client as such, it's just controller software, so the amount of data being sent to the ZPs is far less than streaming music requires. Easy way to find out, run a temporary ethernet cable from the PC to the router, turn off the laptop's wireless and see if the issue still persists. Is it a particularly old laptop?

Whether the USB works depends on the capability of the router, some people have no issues with it, others find their router doesn't have the grunt to pass the data from the drive fast enough to keep Sonos happy, if you already have a USB drive it'll be easy enough to test that of course.

You can log onto the router to check the wireless channels hopefully? Worth checking what your neighbours are using as well, there's plenty of apps for checking that sort of thing, I've got one on my phone.

Oh I forgot to ask, how do you find the Play:3/SUB combination?

Thanks for all the great info.

I will have a play with Inssider sometime over the weekend to see if there is much contention with the wireless.  

The router (WNDR3700) seems to be ok with a SATA drive in a caddy so I'm going to start ripping to that - once I've got a NAS (stuck on QNap (better in terms of features and grunt, questionable support) or Synology (much more polished, less sturdy build quality, organised support) right now!) I can just transfer it over.

On to the sub...

I went in to Sevenoaks HiFi and had a little listen. I originally put Beethoven's 7th on but frankly the sub was not noticable in the opening movement (I only started with that because I'd been listening to it earlier in the day but as soon as it started I thought that it wasn't a good option).  I then asked to hear Adele (a modern pop phenomonon, very popular with my wife) and that was very good indeed.  Listening for about 30 seconds then turning the sub off was a huge contrast.  My wife who never seems interested in such things remarked on the contrast and said "well that's a no brainer".

So in summary, for certain types of music it's very good indeed, other types probably less so.

Are you considering getting one?  I would recommend one.

Rgds 

I've just discovered an issue (that I've reported to Sonos) when it comes to the music library.

I ripped a load of my DVDs, each to their own folder.

I imported the music into the Sonos app (from my iPad).

When I go to the library and view by Album, I get to see Greatest Hits by Queen.

If I select this album so that I see the tracks, I also see tracks from The Jam - I also ripped their Greatest Hits album.

The music is stored in separate folders, it looks just like an indexing issue to me

Rgds

Check the Artist and AlbumArtist tags in a tag editor, you can tell Sonos which of the two tags to use when sorting by artist.

I've ripped a lot of my CDs now (and discovered that I have a lot of junk!).

I have a bridge, 2xPlay:3, 1xSubwoofer; the bridge is in the study (along with the router and an attached hard disk - adequate until I buy a NAS), the remaining equipment is in the living room.  I love it, my wite loves it and so do her friends - they pick up the ipad or my phone, addsongs to the queue etc, all without any explanation  - exactly what we were looking for.

I saw that my local JL had the Play:5 for £299 and I needed to buy 2 of them.  I didn't buy them there and then and when I went back in there a couple of days later, they'd gone up to their normal retail price.  Bummer.

I wonder if Sonos are going to do any deals over Crimbo on the Play:5.  I see the Play:3 is now sold with a bridge and Spotify account but neither are of any use to me as I already have them.  If I see the Play:5 at a bargain price again, I'll buy them there and then!