For what?  That piece says "unavailable"

I've had Bluesound in my mix of sources for along time.  Higher res support and better DAC but if I can't run Spotify directly through it, forget it!

You guys are still pushing that overpriced cheap Chinese plastic crap?

A few years in and we have yet to have issues with MusicCast (knock on wood).

Its relatively new. Shows available for me.


While they offer it for sale online, they dont inundate clients with ads on their interface or spam them with email. They are perfectly happy to let the dealers make the sales.

Bluesound margin is solid.

They have Full Integration with Control4, Elan, Crestron, and many other popular IP based control systems. Their Driver development is in-house and they are super responsive to issues that pop up.

The Vault is a unique and awesome piece. Anyone that has a CD collection will love it. I haven't seen any other streamers with Built in CD Ripper and Hard Drives.


Dont know why its unavailable for you.

They support Spotify Connect like the vast majority of streamers today. I dont understand why people are so hung up on spotify with Sonos... Deezer, Tidal, an Qobuz sound so much better.

Actually, how about an IR receiver? The Sonos amp has it and can learn codes. Old school, I know, but I'm not on board with a control protocol that can get fragged with an update that I have no control over.

That's good to know (no issues). How has your experience been when they are connected WiFi? We've had some issues with MusicCast with the app not wanting to work when the receivers are connected WiFi and our local distributor said they saw issues as well.

They did say that when the units are hard-wired...no problems. We've got it in place in our office and their WXA unit sounds better than the Sonos AMP and works great.

For us, we've got 100s of Sonos units in the field and when you know it inside and out, it's hard to make the switch when you don't know what you might run into. After dealing with a 50% failure rate on Def Tech units years ago, we were scared off from trying another line.

If you move to Bluesound, you won't regret it. They are the same company as NAD, so NAD has some BluOS pieces like a 4 zone 1U rack mount streamer. With high quallity DACs and hi-res streaming services like Amazon HD, Roon, etc
And the Vault is pretty sweet.

[Link: nadelectronics.com]

This [Link: nadelectronics.com] with this [Link: nadelectronics.com]
will give you 6 powered zones in a rack mount chassis

If a product is 'dropping off WiFi' then there's something up with the network in the install.
I don't see Yamaha AVR's dropping off the WiFi at all... and they share the same MusicCast network chipset (there have been 2 generations, one with 2.4Ghz WiFi, the other with 2.4 + 5Ghz AC).

Like all systems, they take some getting used to in order to learn the advanced side of the product (Extend Network / wireless rear speaker setup / lipsync options etc). But it's not exactly rocket science and the presets make it super easy for end users.

We hardwire 99% of our streaming components and almost everything is new construction so we can plan it that way. Have a couple wifi WXAs and RX-A AVRs with no problems(except when Comcast craps out)

So, I noticed that HEOS wasn't mentioned yet. I haven't used their product line in about two years so I'm not sure how it ranks compared to the others listed. Any opinions?

I will add a +1 for Yamaha MusicCast. I like that I can add AVR's, speakerbars etc to the mix to create a whole house music system, even in rooms where I may not have wired speakers. Plus there is some margin to work with. And it's Yamaha, so they sound decent enough.

we use a combo of Marantz with HEOS built in, and HEOS amps.  I've been happy with it.  The URC Total control 2 way module works great to control them.

I'll do you one better....

[Link: bluesound.com]

Every gen 2 and up player has IR receiver built in and they have an IR remote available with preset recall even.

I wonder what they told him when he called them.

Some integrators love Musiccast and HEOS because they sound better and are more profitable, or they integrate better with control system. Problem is, 99% of customers will not care that they sound better when they realize they have to fumble through multiple apps when they control multiple rooms. Trust me, if you switch a customer with a multi-room HEOS or MusicCast to Sonos, they will feel like a miracle just happened. If my customer has five rooms turned on, he can control Spotify or Apple Music and room volumes within the same app. Cant really do that with anything else. Closest thing is Airplay 2 and no one mentions that simple solution. It's got it's problems too that can make Sonos a better system.

If you try Bluesound, you'll won't go back to Sonos. Very similar app with control over all zones, volumes, eq, etc.
Bluseound has Airplay 2, Spotify Connect and more streaming serviced than Sonos including hi-res ones.
Since Sonos raised the prices when they introduced the new devices, Bluesound isn't that much more and they sound a whole lot better including the Soundbar. And the soundbar looks better too.