Looking Past Sonos (Premium)

I will never buy another Sonos product again, but I do have some ideas about moving past this platform, most likely in 2025. And it looks like this will be a low-compromise shift that will combine everything that was great about Sonos–broad services support, high quality sound, and whole-house audio capabilities–with none of the reliability and expense-related downsides.

That said, I’m in no rush. Aside from being in Mexico through November 19 and then having to deal with the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holiday season once we get back, the Sonos equipment we still use at home works fine, sounds great, and gets the job done. I’m in no rush to dismantle all that, and while this past year’s app issues were notably bad, I have Apple devices, so I can control those speakers via AirPlay 2 and the music/audio apps I prefer. So I will ride this out for a bit.

But I think about it.

I also think about how I got here. And in the end, I blame Google: If Google hadn’t killed its terrific Chromecast Audio dongle, it’s unlikely I would have moved so decisively into the Sonos ecosystem. But it did. And one year later, after experimenting with a variety of alternatives, I went all-in on Sonos.

Four years and thousands of dollars later, it will take a while to dig myself out of this Sonos-shaped hole. But I know what I’m looking for. Indeed, it’s the same thing I was looking for in 2020, with a caveat tied to a more recent development: I’d also like whatever I do next to support high resolution, lossless, and spatial audio. (Sonos does this now with its most recent speakers, but none of the equipment I own supports any of that.)

Basically, what I’m looking for is a more sophisticated version of the Chromecast Audio, something that sits between the music service(s) to which I subscribe and the speakers that will play back the audio. Those next speakers will be “dumb” speakers, much like the Edifier R1280T powered bookshelf speakers I bought just ahead of our move to Pennsylvania in 2017, the speakers I pushed aside when I moved to Sonos two years later. And that thing that sits between my music service(s) (on my phone) and those speakers is, for a lack of a better term, an audio streamer. It’s a box with inputs, outputs, and a DAC (digital to analog converter).

I see this box, this audio streamer, as replaceable. That is, it should be inexpensive and easy to swap out if something better comes along. But it should do everything I want. So I Google and I read. And I think. And I see a way forward.

My needs are straightforward.

This box needs to support AirPlay 2 and whatever Google Cast is called now so that it works from every music and audio app I may ever use on either smartphone platform, iPhone and Android. No more lock-in. I don’t care if it “natively” supports music services per se–the Sonos app was always the weak link in that ecosystem, even before the recent debacle–with one caveat: This box must also support high resolution, lossless, and spatial audio, and AirPlay 2 does not support any of that. (Not sure about Google Cast.) And that means that if I want to use Apple Music or whatever with this box, it needs to support that natively. I’m not aware of any that do.

This box needs to provide analog out for whatever wired, powered, and dumb speakers I get. It needs to support whole-house audio, via the addition of a second (and third) box, if desired, and other pairs of speakers. I am not interested in the cost or complexity of a receiver/dedicated amp. Or an external DAC, so the box should have a decent DAC. (It will, most likely, if it supports high resolution, lossless, and spatial audio). This box should support modern Wi-Fi (6 or better) and Bluetooth connectivity.

I haven’t found the perfect box yet. But I’ve found something close: The WiiM Pro Plus is about $220, and it delivers most of what I want. A high-quality DAC. Support for AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. High-res audio support. (But, again, not over AirPlay 2.) Whole-house audio (via AirPlay 2 or with additional units and speakers). But there are a few downsides. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are previous-generation, for example. (Wi-Fi 5?)

And I have to figure out speakers. Something like those Edifiers, maybe literally Edifiers. I assume they’ve updated their speakers in the past several years. I will look. I have time.

But it’s something I do think about it. And something I will be doing. Probably in 2025.