Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Pros: beautiful sound, nice looking Cons: expensive, interface is limited and updates are not a priority. Terrible choice for podcasts and audiobooks When I first got these I loved them. The sound was pure. The hardware is amazing. The big drawback with this system is that everything must be done through the Sonos app. You can't set them up in the operating system as a general output. It sounds like a little thing but it means you can't use apps like Audible or podcast managers directly. I had to use my computer to manage the podcasts and the app lumped the audio books into chapterless lumps that were impossible to navigate in. The results were so bad I eventually bought an iPad which I use more and more. The app was so counterintuitive I had to call the help line to coordinate moving from room to room. I waited about 30 minutes to speak to some one. I mentioned integrating the speaker into the op system and they replied that was "too complicated". I wondered about that response since designing an app to be all things to all people would be difficult indeed. Now I know that they have no intention of building anything but a plain vanilla app that streams music but does little else well. That call was in January. I recently began using Amazon Prime Music. I went to their site to see what statement they made regarding support. Instead they were still playing the game "Post on the forums and we will look at your ideas." (Expletive deleted). They charge this much for a product and can't give a simple statement on whether they are going to support a major streaming source? Beyond lame. Update 09/03/2014: This company is about selling, selling, and more selling. The latest big upgrade? It now does not require a bridge. Great news if you are a brand new customer, there is one less piece of equipment to buy. If you are an existing customer who paid for a bridge, well, you were a paying beta-tester. And who can afford to staff the help desk adequately when there is that Superbowl commercial that's still being paid for? You remember, the one where the model drifts through a impeccably decorated modern house with the speakers and the lights telepathically obeying every whim? But that's not the main issue. Every company want to sell more every quarter. The issue is that Sonos continues to misrepresent what this product can do and what kind of support existing customers will get. I was passing through Target and the electronics department just got a Sonos display, and side by side, a Bose display. As I stood there I realized something. Neither system was forthcoming about how it is configured but I suspect the Bose was the usual output from the device setup. But Sonos was all silence, not a word that this was a streaming service that locked you to their app for eternity. Or that if you wanted to do something other than stream Pandora from a non-Chromebook device you were in for a world of hurt. I listen to my Sonos system for less than an hour a month. They were a terrible fit for me. I studied the website and even called customer support before I bought these. They lied and said "oh yes we support Audible" and after I bought them they said "well you need to download the books to your iTunes library and use your computer as a server." So not the same thing. And as far as you can get from telepathic ease. Advice for people considering this system: Read the one and two star reviews. Then go to the Sonos forums and do searches on the streaming services and hardware you want to use, ESPECIALLY, if you have a Chromebook. If everything checks out, great you will have a good experience. But if anything is off DON'T depend on these people for an update. This is a one trick pony from a lame company. Update 12/8/2015 Crazy town is following me. I made up my mind to "let it go" and move on with my life. Even with all the flaws the two Plays weren't a catastrophic experience just a profoundly annoying one. But now things are being to get weird. Remember I complained how audiobooks had to downloaded to my computer and played from there? They took that away. Said: were so sorry, we meant to update this, but we didn't and now it is in the way of something new so, tough luck, though if your speaker has a line in jack you can use that (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!). I thought I could avoid this by refusing the app update. But a week later the app could not see the Audible files on the iMac. I was dumbfounded. The files on the Mac hadn't changed, the app hadn't changed so...how? Then I remembered a forum I ran across comparing Bose to Sonos. Apparently Bose loves proprietary hardware and Sonos loves obtrusive software. And somebody claimed every single thing the app did had to run through the Sonos servers. I didn't think this concerned me since my source was generally my own computer. I think I was wrong. The translation was happening on the company server not the app. That's one way the system could "forget" how to recognize these files. This crazy thing was running things to the company that should have stayed entirely on my LAN. It might be listening to everything on my network. The is also another little thing where Amazon says Sonos plays Prime Music and Sonos says "no, you have be a recognized beta tester to play Prime Music." I'll pass. I don't want to play "Mother May I" with these people. There is also this gem on the Sonos website: The Sonos Beta program is where music lovers like you get to try out new software and music services before they're officially available on Sonos. You are at the forefront of the global streaming revolution, making Sonos' vision to stream all the music on earth in every room a reality. Yup, were all servants to Sonos' dream here. If any of you other servants have packet sniffer skills I would love to know if the bridge is passing information to the mothership while the system is supposed to off. Before you call me cray-cray please reflect on the software code embedded into Volkswagen diesels to turn off emissions equipment except when conditions suggested a test was in process. Thanks.