Google Play Music gets direct streaming support for Sonos systems

[Justin Kahn]

Today, Google and Sonos have announced a partnership that will see the popular home music systems get fully integrated into Google Play Music for Android. Google's Android music service is being updated to include full Sonos support, allowing users to beam content directly to their Sonos systems on the same Wi-Fi network.

"As we continue to invest in the way you experience and control your music at home, curating and managing an array of services across multiple rooms, the benefits of playing your music to Sonos directly from these very services is clear," Sonos said in a blog post regarding the Google Play Music integration.

While Sonos already has a method of doing this via its own controller apps, now a small casting button in the top right corner of Google Play Music gives users a direct option.

While it is a nice feature, there a few reasons why some users will prefer to stick with the Sonos controller apps that already exist and have been recently updated. Google Play Music is also integrated into the Sonos app along with other popular services like Spotify, Pandora, iTunes and Beats Music as well as a number of others.

Unlike the Sonos integration in Play Music, the Sonos controller app is not limited to a single target and will allow users to beam content to multiple speakers (players) at once. Arguably one of the main selling features of the Sonos systems is the ability to have your music playing in multiple rooms in such an elegant fashion, so unless you are a single Sonos system user, the Sonos apps are likely more useful.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56347-google-play-music-gets-direct-streaming-support-for-sonos-systems.html

 

[OliTheG]

I feel like a bit of an old man here. Can somebody please explain the point of wirelessly streaming music to a hifi?

When I went out to get a new hifi system (B&W CM8s, Audiolab 8200CDQ preamp/CD player and 8200P poweramp which are biwired to the speakers, sounding amazing by the way) we got a salesman trying really, really hard to push a £500 Sonos streamer onto us aswell. We asked why, he said "to stream music from wifi over your house." But the damned thing is stupid. It's WIRELESSLY TRANSMITTING AN OUTPUT. So there is a MASSIVE quality drop compared to the source CD. You are basically paying £500 to ruin your hifi.

Surely a better option to do such a thing would be to build a small form factor PC, and then put in a Xonar Essence STX and use the RCE out to interconnect to the amp? £300, can play all forms of music regardless of source, and can be used with spotify, etc.

Why is wireless music streaming supposed to be good, when it massacres sound quality and is bested by the better sounding, more flexible alternative of a small, quiet PC with a soundcard?

Or am I right, and this is one of those "OMG IM SO AUDIOPHILE LEWK AT ME WITH MY iPHONE" type thing, done only by people who don't know what they are talking about?