You should give the line a serious look. It's the real deal...

To be fair, Napster is gone now...
Airplay is missing still, with the lack of Apple Music it's not 100%.
But having said that, BluSound, MusicCast, Heos etc actually seem to want to do business, while Sonos would like everyone to go direct with them, from you to your customers.

The thing is, the opposition to Sonos are a simple software update from greatness, it keeps Sonos innovating, which is good for consumers. However, if Sonos moves too far away from the industry that made them, it won't have any support for when the opposition does pass them... We all do business with people we like, it's part of the human condition.

Does that fact that Heos is not looking too good in their patent lawsuit with Sonos not concern you guys?

My disty gave me a heos link to try for a few months. The first one he gave me was aweful, kept kicking up, required constant reboots and didn't integrate quite right. He then gave me a version two and all those issues went away. Integration with C4 is almost identical to how Sonos used to be. I integrated it with my Alexa and was able to turn music on (via Bluetooth) when I was in the other room, my fiancée loved that feature actually!

Overall if you are going todo heos and integrate it with C4 or other platforms I think it's a viable option as long as your clients don't use Spotify (which most of mine do)

However, as a standalone system the app is horrendous, the setup is goofy and took me 2-3 tries on each of the links I had to get it to take my information. Again my statement still stands that after almost 15-20 years that Sonos has been in business we still do not have a viable alternative option that gives us source options and an app that is seriously one of the best apps....

Can you expound on this?

[Link: whathifi.com]

[Link: strata-gee.com]

[Link: strata-gee.com]

[Link: strata-gee.com]

Actually, there's a LOT of coverage on the strata-gee website, best just search Sonos and do the reading. It's not looking great for Heos at this point... some of the original Heos marketing approach did smack of 'copy not innovate'. Others have come at the multi-room angle from a different perspective, only now are Denon / Marantz doing something different by integrating into their AVR's.
Although, that could be viewed as copying Yamaha's MusicCast system.

Kind of a tangent thought - Maybe sonos is reposition itself considering the major talks of Apple releasing a Siri speaker next month.

I see two scenarios - if the Siri speaker becomes a competitor to sonos, it makes sense that sonos is cutting back. Maybe sonos hopes that direct dealers will carry them thru with voice control and integrate with sonos via third party control systems(Crestron, c4, rti) and bring in Alexa for voice control.

Scenario two- sonos and Apple have teamed up like never before (again), and plan to have seamless integration with the Siri speaker and the sonos line. Then your Apple Store specialist becomes your rep! 🤣🤣🤣. Please no. HA!

Maybe it's different in the States but many of my Canadian customers subscribe to Apple Music. Without this a Sonos-like system is useless. What about Spotify on Heos - can it be controlled within the app or does it have to be Spotify Connect? If so that makes it even more useless and anyone who doesn't think so is out of their mind.

Got an email with the new Sonos tiers. They seem pretty reasonable.

Pretty good jump from Silver to Gold and then Gold to Platinum. I am not really sure what they were like before to compare though.

"The court ruled that the patents did not cover "abstract ideas" and were eligible for patent protection.
Read more at [Link: whathifi.com]"

They don't have a patent on these aspects and the court ruled in their favor? That's a load of crap.

I find it a real benefit as well that you don't have to get involved with the customers wireless network if you don't want to. For one-off Sonos only systems it's a real benefit. Throw a boost in and set up the players and it's done. If there's a dead spot add another boost. Managing it this way just side steps so much of the wifi crap that can crop up later. Especially when you get the call from the average customer that goes and gets a new Gateway from Comcast. No service call needed as it's solved just with a reboot.

I'm assuming this is not the case with Heos?



I do wish the soundbar sounded better, especially with music. The simplicity of the soundbar is great as well. It makes a stand alone soundbar so easy for the customer.

Speaking of which, for a one room system with no control, can you set up a Heos soundbar to automatically come on with the TV audio without having to worry about power control and input selection?

No. They did have a patent on these ideas/aspects. What the court said was that since what their ideas/aspects were NOT abstract that they are covered for patent protection.

> I would not be surprised that in the coming months the changes to the dealer program mean you have todo over 50k in product and have a showroom to be direct. The writing is on the wall.

I have always had that fear too but if that was their plan why not do it now? Anyone who has seen the tier levels knows that entry level isnt very hard to reach. If they wanted to stomp out the smaller guys they could have easily pushed that number higher.

They also recently hosted a road show event in my area that 1) I have never seen them before 2) had a good amount of resources and $$$ put into 3) definetely wasnt put on for the big box store types.