Sonos S1 Controller Software

Update: Changed my rating from 2 stars for v. 8 to 4 stars for v. 8.3.1. Especially impressed by your response to user feedback. There is zero chance of my buying a HomePod or whatever it’s called now. Archive this: Disappointing update people. I cannot understand how you’re getting 5 star reviews from anyone who’s used the controller for any length of time. First, and forgetting the UI’s appearance for a second, the move to privilege songs over albums is misguided. Choosing an album now gives me a mountain of icons for individual songs to choose from that album. It’s unclear how to just play an album or add an album to the queue with one click or a hard press as in prior versions. Also, the Rooms navigation is awful. There used to be immediate access at the top of the screen to individual rooms. Navigating to the list now, even with the button on the bottom is aggravating. It should always be available on screen. You have complicated the controller in many ways under the guise of simplifying the look of the interface. The interface is cleaner, yes, and I don’t mind the white as others do. What bugs me is that the cleanliness of the look destroyed the ease of use that was there up to now. I don’t want to fumble around relearning how to use the controller effectively. I just want to listen to music quickly and easily. I especially want to be able to play albums quickly and easily. Looking forward to version 9.

Okay... we had a 10 year old Sony 46” Bravia TV and Bose Acoustimass 15 home theater speakers run through a Sony amp. So we decided to move up to a LG 65” c8 television. Love it, but that’s another review. The Bose was great for music but was always problematic trying to get it working properly for surround sound. The Sony and Bose never really jived with each other. So as a result we seldom used it. Anyway, friends told me about Sonos speakers and since we had the new TV I decided to purchase the Beam sound bar, the sub woofer and two play 1 speakers to make a surround system for the new LG. Man it sounds great. We are very please with the system and the ease of setup and use. It is pricey when it comes to the sub woofer. However the sub really completes the system so I would say if you can swing it $$$, go for it. We chose the Beam over the larger Sonos sound bar because the Beam has a HDMI hook up with “ARC” and Alexa built in if that’s important to you. I just didn’t want a optical connection that the bigger Sonos bar only comes with. However I would guess the larger sound bar probably sounds better.??? However don’t let the size of the Sonos Beam fool you, it's impressive. Anyway I can’t wait to add more speakers to our house later on. Very satisfied customer.

Revised 10/14 on new version. I hate the new layout. I do not find it intuitive and still struggle to figure out how to pick music to play in a particular room. Also, My favorites used to scroll vertically, making them easy to sort through as I could see many of them on the screen at the same time. Now they scroll horizontally and have huge icons, meaning I can only see one station at a time. This app used to be 5star worth and set it apart from the crowd. Original review: I seem to keep finding reasons to expand my system, it gets pretty addictive. I mostly use Pandora or other internet radio type stations. Streaming music to a speaker via Bluetooth is not the same! The speakers are more like today's smart TV's, with apps built in that run autonomously, the phone is just a remote control. Software navigation is incredibly easy and the speakers all sound amazing! I have a Play 1 in both my bedroom and home office, a Play 5 in my living room, a Playbar/Sub/Play1 surround system hooked to my Sony Bravia TV in the family room, and am waiting on a connect amp to arrive for my outdoor speakers. They can all play different stations, or group them together as needed during house parties.