Sonos - Ikea

TechCrunch

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Speakers look nice, lamp looks ... different. I think I will wait to see what the reviews are for the sound.

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I'm not crying over the lack of microphone . . .

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From the article:

"If you wanted to add a Sonos speaker in your bathroom but didn’t want to spend $200 on a Sonos One, you could consider a bookshelf speaker to hide in a corner. It might not be as powerful as a Sonos One, but customers will benefit from more options."

When did the Sonos One start costing $200? I've gotten all of mine for $179/each. The Sonos Play-1 is now down to $149 pretty much everywhere I've seen.

$99 for a Sonos compatible speaker doesn't seem like that great of a deal to me.

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The Play:1 speakers also show up from time-to-time on the Sonos refurbished products page for $119 as I recall.

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I never, EVER buy Sonos refurbs. I've gotten burned on 3 of them over the years. So, now I just wait for them to go on sale if I ever need one.

That's good to know. I've only bought new ones. The shelf speaker does seem to have some interesting mounting options. I do like the regular Play:1's compactness , "humidity resistance" and great sound though.

For the $50 price difference you are probably right, not as good a deal as I thought originally.

That's what I'm thinking and we all know how much I love Ikea's electronics. :wink:

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Thanks for the tip, I haven't bought any refurbs but was considering it to add Sonos to a couple of lesser-used bedrooms. With the price difference so small, it's probably not worth taking a risk.

The first refurb I got (this was about 2 years ago maybe?) died in the first 48 hours. Sonos then took 4 weeks to get me a replacement. The second one had it's WiFi chip burned out in about 2 weeks, again, a 4 week turn around for a new unit. The 3rd one was DOA on arrival and rather than wait another month, I just got a refund on that.

So, yeah, I've just bought new and figured the "extra" cost was for better QC. LOL

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I'm thinking $99 each for some dedicated TTS speakers without any microphones or Alexa/Google/Siri integrations is pretty great, but since I'm anti-voice control, I realize I'm in the minority here!

Sonos quality sound, cheaper than Play:1 units, wihtout waiting for a SONOS "sale", or having to buy a multi-pack to get a decent price? Count me in for several. I'll use the $50/spkr savings to buy another PLAY:5 at a later date.

Scott

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I'm waiting on a review for that. If they are on par with the Play-1s, I might pick up a couple to augment a couple of areas in the house.

In all honesty, I just want a couple for TTS...probably 3 actually. One for each floor, solely for announcements...doors, alerts, etc.

So, as long as they sound at least OK...I'll probably like them just fine.

Funny thing is, I loathe IKEA generally, but I'll make an exception for Sonos speakers...the lamp speakers....ummmm...no. But the Speakers? Yup.

Scott

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It’s nice that they have airplay 2 built in as well. I currently use that around my house. I may grab one to play with.

I got the email today that these will be up for sale next month for me. Def grabbing one for TTS duties.

Yeah, I'm hoping these don't have a budget api, such that they aren't the full featured versions that Sonos sells directly...

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Indeed. I got a Sonos Email yesterday that played up the Corporate synergies...blah blah blah. But it seems to me that Sonos has been very careful not to water down their brand with compromises...

I'm optomistic that these will be Sonos in Ikea clothing, but we'll see.

From the few reviews I just read it seems that the price reduction was accomplished by changing the quality of the (audio) drivers, not the electronics.
So this bodes well for reasonably priced tts devices, which they should have no issue rendering.

No one who's serious about audio would consider these, or even the sonos play or play:1 for primary or even secondary music production...

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True enough.

On the other hand, casually streaming music from the Interwebs can't really be considered "music production"...:grinning:

I use mine for background music. Often enough, it's acoustic and low key, which doesn't stress even the Sonos Play 1, although admittedly the Play 5 sounds dramatically better!

The thing about Sonos, is they sound "good enough", and they just work. Always. No hassle. No "casting", just streaming music. I can honestly say I don't know what I'd replace them with for the niche they fill.

BUT. They certainly aren't as great as my long lost JBL L100T stereo speakers from 1987. I miss those things. LOL

I have two sonos connects and a sonos amp that I use with tidal for the serious spaces...