Sonos is one of the biggest players in the smart home industry. What makes Sonos preferable for homeowners trying to switch to smart homes is that its smart devices are easily integrated into other smart home systems.
The days requiring lots of wiring to set up a multi-room music system are long gone.
Nowadays, with smart speakers from brands such as Sonos, there is little to no wiring required to get your multi-room sound system up and running.
Although Sonos systems might require a little wiring, its control system is entirely wireless.
To a control Sonos smart speaker, you only require the Sonos app or a digital voice assistant.
Here is a detailed breakdown of how you can build a Sonos smart home.
Which Sonos Speakers Should I Get For My Smart Home?
Almost all Sonos speakers sell at a premium price, with the cheapest ones going for over $100. However, the benefits and the comfort you get from these speakers are unmatched.
There are plenty of Sonos speakers to choose from, but in this article, we’ll highlight the best for each category.
The Best Overall Sonos Speaker (Sonos One)
Not only is it the smallest speaker on the list, but it also has enough sound depth to cover all the rooms in your home. The Sonos One comes with Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant as the digital voice assistants.
With these voice assistants, Sonos One becomes a lot more versatile and they are responsive to all voice commands that you say to them. With Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa fitted in this speaker; you can control how you play music; pause, repeat or play any song of your choice.
With the help of voice assistants, Sonos One can tell you the day’s weather while also fetching specific recipes for you.
The Best Sonos Speaker to Fill Out Your Room (Sonos and IKEA Symfonisk Bookshelf Speaker)
If you’re looking to create a network of Sonos speakers in different rooms of your home, these are your go-to speakers. The collaboration between Sonos and IKEA gave birth to some of the most affordable Sonos speakers you can get in the market.
The best thing about these speakers is that they are fitted with physical buttons for control while also having almost the same sound depth found in the Sonos One speakers.
Although this Sonos speaker isn’t fitted with a microphone, you can get the Alexa speaker and control it from there. The Symfonisk bookshelf speaker can also be mounted anywhere in your home, or you can place it on your shelves as it can stand upright.
The Best Portable Sonos speaker (Sonos Move)
This is one of the few Sonos speakers that come with Bluetooth. If you’re looking to purchase a battery powered Sonos speaker you can carry with you to anywhere, this is the best choice for you.
Sonos Move is easily adaptable to any environment you place while also giving you more powerful sound than the Sonos One. The best thing about the Sonos Move speaker is that it is both water-resistant and has a battery life of over 11 hours when it’s active.
The speaker can be used over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, making it one of the most versatile smart speakers out there.
The Best Sonos Soundbar (Sonos Beam)
This is the most convenient Sonos soundbar you can get in the market. Not only does it cost half the price of most soundbars, but also it has great sound and some epic smart features.
The Best Sonos Speaker For Home Theaters (Sonos Arc)
If you’re looking to buy a Sonos speaker that will bring you that Cinema or theater experience to your home, this is perfect for you.
Fitted with three tweeters and eight woofers, you’re guaranteed to get the best bass and sound depth in your home.
How Does Sonos Work?
Although the Sonos Move speaker is fitted with Bluetooth, every Sonos speaker uses Wi-Fi to stream music from any streaming platform of your choice.
Sonos speakers incorporate over 100 streaming services to include the most popular ones such as Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, and Tidal. These speakers can also be used to access free radio, audiobooks, and podcasts.
For Sonos speakers to function to your standards, all is required is a power source and Wi-Fi or an Ethernet internet connection. When all that is set up, the rest is performed by the Sonos app. Through the app, you can control what songs or podcasts you want to play over your speakers.
It’s important to note that there are no monthly charges associated with Sonos speaker aside from the fees you’ll pay for the streaming services.
When you operate your Sonos speakers over Wi-Fi, you can group all your speakers to play the same audio all over, or you can have each one of them playing a different sound.
Since all the speakers have a specific room name assigned to them, you can control all of them a bit more easily. In your home, you can assemble some of the Sonos speakers to play a movie while the rest could be playing music in other rooms.
How to Set Up Your Sonos Speakers
After you’ve plugged in your Sonos speakers, the first step is to download the Sonos app either in the Appstore or Playstore for the Android users. The essence of the Sonos app is that it acts as the remote control to your Sonos speakers.
Through the Sonos app, you can select the music to play, adjust the volume and incorporate any additional music accounts you might have. Once the app is up and running, you’re required to connect to the Wi-Fi network.
On average, Sonos speakers take about 5-10 minutes to set up and connect to your home network. After you’ve connected the speakers, you can now assign rooms to them for easier access and control.
What Music Services Do Sonos Speakers Support?
The great thing about Sonos speakers is that they incorporate many streaming and music platforms for all users to choose from. If you have any streaming service in mind, Sonos speakers support it.
Whether you want to play music from Apple Music (Excellent if you want to play itunes on Sonos), Sonos Spotify, Audiomack, Pandora, Tidal, or any other popular streaming platform, they are all supported by Sonos speakers. Nowadays, Sonos has advanced on how their users can control the music they play.
Sonos now enables Native app control. This means you can control the music playing over your Sonos speakers by using the streaming service’s control system.
This new Native app control has already been incorporated in music platforms such as Deezer, Audiobooks, Spotify, Tidal, and the plan is already in place to roll the service to even more music platforms.
Sonos enables its users to listen to the Radio stations of their choice by using the inbuilt TuneIn radio app and support the iTunes library’s importation.
Do Sonos speakers Enable TV Audio?
The answer is yes. Using the Sonos Beam and Arc, you can connect your smart TV to your Smart Sonos speakers for even greater sound. However, if you want to carry out this connection in a small or midsized room, the most suitable Sonos speaker to use is the Sonos Beam.
The speaker comes with both voice control and AirPlay 2. This ensures both a great balance of the sound and even a smarter way to control how the speakers play what is on the TV.
If you’re looking for a more powerful Sonos speaker to connect to the TV in your theater room or the living room, the Sonos Arc is perfect for that. This Sonos speaker ideal for huge rooms and provides cinema-quality sound for an even better cinema experience.
If you have a TV which is over 49 inches, the Sonos Arc will provide the exact service you have in mind. To connect these speakers with your TVs, you’ll only need to plug them into the HDMI Arc, which is fitted in most TVs.
Which Smart Devices Are Compatible With Sonos?
What makes Sonos the ideal sound system for your home is that it can be easily integrated with other smart devices from different brands without the need for an additional hub.
Sometimes you want the smart devices you own or plan on purchasing to work with your sound systems for better efficiency in your home. Sonos understands this and is ever working to incorporate even more smart devices into its systems.
Some of the brands that work easily with Sonos include;
- Lutron
- Schneider Electric
- Tunesmap
- Alarm.com
- IKEA home smart
- Integra
- Wink
- URC
- Yonomi
- ABB
- Onkyo
- Rako
- Niko
- Wonderwall
- Elite
- Senic
- IFTTT
Final Thoughts
If you love music and sound systems that provide both balanced and great sound, Sonos is bound to cater to your needs. With Sonos, there are many ways you can get the perfect and most convenient sound system for your home.
It all depends on how you want to integrate, separate, and control your speakers. From the above breakdown, you now have a better understanding of how to create the ideal Sonos-powered smart home.