The death of Sonos has been predicted for years. But it’s still alive and prospering. It does what it does very well. Apple was supposed to a Sonos killer. Then Google. Now Amazon. I wouldn’t bet against them just yet.
What apps can you use with Amazon audio devices? Not just Amazon’s streaming service right?
True, but this is the most direct threat yet: very similar products, and not coming from a niche company like BlueSound, but friggin’ Amazon. Also doubly painful since Sonos added Alexa voice control to their Sonos One pretty recently.
Time will tell, I suppose I don’t see how Sonos’ recent addition of Alexa worsens the “painful”. I doubt Amazon is going to take that away. Sonos is also about to add Google voice control. And it has recently added AirPlay.
So far, others have had difficulty making multiroom work as well as Sonos. Amazon needs to do it right. And it will have to open its doors to competing music services (Apple and Google included) to make it work.
I don’t think the threat to Sonos products such as the Connect is that big of a deal, since that’s the weakest link in the Sonos chain. I also expect Sonos will up its game.
I own a few Sonos products for around-the house-listening (1s, 5s, a Beam and a Connect) and am very happy with them. If something better comes along, so be it. But I have a feeling I’ll be in the Sonos ecosystem for a while. It’s not my “serious listening” choice, and never will be. But it’s handy and decent for the price.
1 Like
I started with Sonos prior to being able to get the better musical reproduction equipment that I have now. I still love what they offer. Nothing. NOTHING works as well out of the box as Sonos does. And it sounds pretty damn good in general IMHO even though I have better stuff. It’s not the cheapest and it’s not the “best” but it’s the best balance out there as far as I’m concerned.
2 Likes
I don’t think they will. What I meant is that Sonos is already partnering with Amazon, so this feels like a bit of a betrayal.
As for other services: Amazon isn’t even selling Google devices, so they certainly won’t support their services. And they don’t have to, a huge number of people is probably happy with Amazon Music. We’re not talking about the niche of people hanging out on this forum, but the millions of users Amazon has. Amazon Music is free if you’re a Prime subscriber and it works with Alexa – what’s not to like about that?
Unfortunately, not everyone gets Amazon Music with Prime. For example, Canadians (of which I am one) get a watered-down version with 1/40th of the library. So there’s no great appeal there, particularly if Amazon isn’t open to competing music services.
Personally, I prefer higher resolution streams, so Amazon won’t cut it for me. The difference isn’t all that great on Sonos, but I want one provider to meet all my needs, including serious headphone listening. So I get both “CD quality” with Sonos and better quality through DACs and headphones with Tidal hi-fi Deezer hi-fi etc. I still think consumers want choice. Amazon would be wise to give it to them.
I’m not saying Amazon won’t succeed with this project. It might, and I hope it does. But if it does, I’m not assuming it will kill Sonos. That’s like saying there’s room for only one car company in this world. So I’m still not buying your “Amazon is about to murder Sonos” assumption.
Lol, I have corrected my original “it might, and I hope it dies” to “I hope it does”. That was a rather unfortunate typo.
1 Like
at least in the US, via Alexa/Echo, Amazon offers Spotify, Pandora, iheat, tunein, Deezer, and Sirius XM. Tidal was recently announced as well.