Sonos

Jason is blind and wants to route the audio from his TIVO to his Sonos speakers, so he can hear all over the house. Leo says that electronics "age out," and Sonos deprecated a lot of gear in a recent update. So there has to be a third-party workaround. If your Sonos has a line in, you could hardwire it. That's the way to go. But the Roam Bluetooth speaker doesn't. There is a raspberry pi way to do it using a Pi-Sonos server. It's cheap too at $35 for the Pi.

Lott came across a set of SYMFONISK WiFi Speakers at IKEA and wants to know if he can get sound from his computer to play on them. Leo says that IKEA has a partnership with SONOS and Amazon to create wireless speakers. You need to use SONOS software to add your music collection and play it. It uses a variant of DNLA and in theory, the SONOS software can scan your PC and play it.

Ed wants to get a wireless AV receiver for his home, that'll also work with the TV. Leo says that he uses Sonos... but nowadays, he can do the same thing Sonos does for less money. Leo says that he can get a pretty good AV receiver from Onkyo or Denon for around $400 that will stream as well, and then choose his own speakers.  It really comes down to what's most important - sound quality or price point. Leo says that he can get better if he wants to pay for it. ELAC speakers will do that. 

Jim says he's a bit of a luddite, but he's discovered the Sonos Amp with Klipsh speakers, and it's just plain nice. Leo says the nice thing about the Sonos is that you can control it with your phone and stream from any music service. So you can listen to just about anything ever recorded. 

Jeffrey got a mesh router and he's having issues with his Sonos home theater system. Leo says that it's always a challenge to use Sonos with mesh, but he can get it done. Keeping the Sonos in Boost mode and updating his firmware will help. Leo has a few links to read up on:

Mike would like to be able to control multiple speakers in an open house with his iPhone. Is that doable? Leo says that the key is keeping all the speakers in sync. Sonos was the first to do it right with multi-room sound. All speakers are completely wireless and can be put into party mode, where all are playing the same music in sync. Sonos isn't cheap though.

Ricky has Sonos, and after a recent update, he can't get his Sonos speakers to play in party mode. Leo says that may be due to it choosing a speaker to act as the main portal. Leo has had similar issues, and he solved it with a boosted Wi-Fi device. A recent update was supposed to fix all that. The more likely issue, though, could be plain old congestion. Everything has Wi-Fi now, and as a result, it causes rush hour. Leo recommends un-pairing everything.

Should he use LastPass on his phone? Does he need the app? Leo says that the app is just a convenience, but it's not really necessary. Android will autofill apps with LastPass, iOS not so much.

Manny also wants to know if Sonos will adopt Dolby Atmos at Home as a standard. Leo says they haven't. Atmos has that upward firing speaker design for the home, but so far, Sonos hasn't adopted it.

(Disclaimer: LastPass is a sponsor)

Peter has a Sonos wireless home theater and he's having some interference issues. Leo says that Sonos uses its own spectrum, and he can select standard WiFi instead. But chances are, he's running into plain old congestion as other home theater and Wi-Fi units are taking up the bandwidth. If he can, he should move it over to the 5GHz channel instead. He'll have to re-pair them, but it'll be worth it. It could also be an issue with Sonos' new 8.1 firmware update. Both Leo and Doctor Mom are experiencing the same thing, so there's something going on.

Doctor Mom has managed to add her Sonos to the Amazon Echo by installing the Sonos Skill and letting it discover them in the devices section. It does have limitations, though. It can't play Spotify or Audible. The Echo will also immediately turn off all the speakers when it wakes up. The Sonos skill isn't really ready for prime time just yet. That's why she recommends getting the Vaux External Speaker for the Echo Dot, because you can drop the Dot right into it.