How the other half lives

[raysablade]

I've been going out with and then married to my wife since we were 19, that's 31 years.

In all that time I've bought every bit of audio equipment we've listened to, apart from one and soon three.

Initially it was me who fancied a Sonos for casual listening in the kitchen and so I bought one. I put the app on her Ipad just in case she wanted to use it too and thought I could forget about it. Since then a she's asked for, and paid for, a Sonos connect for the front room, which is plugged into my Naim System and she is now planning to buy a Sonos 3 for the Bedroom and another for the room where she does her work.

Illustrates a lesson I learned a long time ago at work, that for 95% of people good technology all about the user interface.

It also shows that that if your focus is on music rather than sound, an infinite jukebox, via Spotify, is a wonderful and valuable thing.

Its interesting that whilst all this stuff has been available on her mac and her later Ipad for years she was happy to stick to her radio. I guess the Sonos trick is to make some a hideously complex technology look like a radio and then build the UI into the Ipad, the one piece of technology she understands completely and loves.

 

[overprint]

I've never actually had any female partner who has shown any serious interest in music. Not just the eclectic stuff I love but music generally. They've all been happy just to have the radio burbling away in the background, on some commercial station like Heart or Capital, being force fed whatever is in the charts that week but as actual music-buying individuals with music collections of whatever size, then no, I've never witnessed it.

One said to me once, "men have hobbies, women have housework".
Perhaps she was right?

 

[Rowan]

I've never actually had any female partner who has shown any serious interest in music. Not just the eclectic stuff I love but music generally. They've all been happy just to have the radio burbling away in the background, on some commercial station like Heart or Capital, being force fed whatever is in the charts that week but as actual music-buying individuals with music collections of whatever size, then no, I've never witnessed it.

One said to me once, "men have hobbies, women have housework".
Perhaps she was right?

Glad I'm a man then.

Hang on, I'm single. Which means I have to do my own bloody housework.

 

[Steven Toy]

My wife is not into hi-fi but she is into music and regularly goes to concerts with her friends. She enjoys music more through the hi-fi though since the MDAC upgrade and in some cases she even now prefers the hi-fi to the live performance for its greater presence and intimacy.

 

[Guest432]

I'm single and don't do the housework, I'm currently trying to train the spiders to clean up but isn't going that well.

My ex GF was really into music and liked the pixies and we used to go to gigs all the time, some good and some weird. Luckily she didn't mind the flaming lips so I didn't have to go along as nobody in my family or friends can stand them. Even after splitting up last year she still went with me to the lips concert in London.

Sonos is a great bit of kit and I've had a few of them on and off since they came out. It's just a shame that the upgrades for them are so bloody expensive otherwise I'd still have one.

 

[Bigbobby666]

People are fundamentally lazy, i work in TV and the figures for time shifted TV viewing on Sky + proves this: i think it was around 96% of viewing done by owners of sky + boxes was live TV!

When people want to watch TV or listen to music the vast majority of people want the collation done for them, other wise they get overwhelmed by the huge library of choice: some good research done on the paradox of choice

That said: Spotify and Sonos (and pandora/lastFM) have done a great job of instilling the virtues of a good UI/software experience by helping guide users to choices simply.

That said tho - As a UI / UX designer Sonos could be so much better imho.

 

[stevec67]

I had a female friend years ago who was into music. At the time she was mid 20s, had a big record/CD collection and played it constantly through a halfway decent but by no means hifi midi system. Remember them?

I'm currently seeing someone who's a musician, she's not into hifi but listens to a lot of music, typically classical and folk. She enjoys my hifi but not the space it takes up. Rather like me, to be fair.

 

[raysablade]

I think the Sonos clincher, for her, is the "last played" list. She can get to the radio in two clicks, but seeing something she likes in that list diverts her and whilst she listens to it inspires a search. Over the last month, things she hasn't listened to your years have started to appear in that list. Gregory Isaacs, Dusty Springfield and the Jesus and Mary Chain to name a few.

 

[auric]

I think the Sonos clincher, for her, is the "last played" list. She can get to the radio in two clicks, but seeing something she likes in that list diverts her and whilst she listens to it inspires a search. Over the last month, things she hasn't listened to your years have started to appear in that list. Gregory Isaacs, Dusty Springfield and the Jesus and Mary Chain to name a few.

Snooping on her last played list? Creepy

 

[raysablade]

You don't need to look at the play list to tell that she has rediscovered the Cool Ruler

 

[banjoman]

I'm single and don't do the housework, I'm currently trying to train the spiders to clean up but isn't going that well.

My ex GF was really into music and liked the pixies and we used to go to gigs all the time, some good and some weird. Luckily she didn't mind the flaming lips so I didn't have to go along as nobody in my family or friends can stand them. Even after splitting up last year she still went with me to the lips concert in London.

Sonos is a great bit of kit and I've had a few of them on and off since they came out. It's just a shame that the upgrades for them are so bloody expensive otherwise I'd still have one.

Was that the Lips concert in The Roundhouse this year? If so, it was such a terrible concert (and I am a Lips fan), I would have expected the trauma to bring you and the ex back together!

 

[adamdea]

I've never actually had any female partner who has shown any serious interest in music.
One said to me once, "men have hobbies, women have housework".
Perhaps she was right?

I think this may be true about collecting music media or taking pride in the means of playing them, but I'm not sure it's true about music itself

My experience has been that women I know are if anything more likely to play an instrument, sing in a choir or attend concerts. I stumbled across this -which appears to bear out that women may be more likely to do so (see tables 1236-7.)
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/11statab/arts.pdf

Frustratingly the participation in classical music is broken down by gender but playing instruments generally is not. Maybe rock music is different. Come to think of it I can't remember any women I knew sitting on their beds playing stairway to heaven

 

[Guest432]

Yeah the one that was cancelled the week before, we actually left before the end and went for a drink near the train station instead.

 

[Whaleblue]

I'm single and don't do the housework, I'm currently trying to train the spiders to clean up but isn't going that well.

LOL

Sonos is a great bit of kit and I've had a few of them on and off since they came out. It's just a shame that the upgrades for them are so bloody expensive otherwise I'd still have one.

Not sure I understand - I've had four of these for around 7-8 years - two ZP80s (source only for HiFi) and two ZP100s (with amps for kitchen and bathroom). What needs upgrading?

 

[Guest432]

Replacing the power supplies and clocks etc with higher spec lower jitter ones etc. can't remember the name of the company at the moment but they offer 3 levels of upgrade the most expensive being around £1000

 

[Derek Wright]

What about using the Arcam Sonlink DAC to create the analog frm the Sonos Connect?

 

[Cheese]

Replacing the power supplies and clocks etc with higher spec lower jitter ones etc. can't remember the name of the company at the moment but they offer 3 levels of upgrade the most expensive being around £1000

Well those audiofools who desperately want to squander £1000 enable Sonos to sell their regular kit at more or less civilised prices. Good on them.

 

[Whaleblue]

Replacing the power supplies and clocks etc with higher spec lower jitter ones etc. can't remember the name of the company at the moment but they offer 3 levels of upgrade the most expensive being around £1000

Oh, I see, yes. I quite like the sound I get streaming Spotify over my Sonos as it is. I certainly wouldn't not have Sonos because upgrades are available.

 

[Whaleblue]

I should add I use the digital out from my Sonos ZP80s into the DACs in my SuperUniti and n-Vi (in two separate rooms).

 

[Guest432]

I have heard a mod'd ZP90 and it does sound a lot better but nowhere near £1000 better. As soon as they release an update to support 24/96 I'll buy one again. The hardware in the newer Connects does support 24/96 it's just the firmware that doesn't and apparently Sonos say that their users aren't audiophile enough to really need 24/96 so they haven't got any short term plans to support it.