Sonos / Sonance Outdoor Music Streaming System

   

When I purchased my home a few years ago one of the things I really wanted to do was install some speakers outside on my deck.  I started purchasing Sonos speakers and components and really loved their platform so my hope was that Sonos had plans to add a wireless outdoor speaker to their lineup.  Unfortunately as I did more research I came to the realization that Sonos has no plans to add an outdoor wireless speaker.  I think the components inside a Sonos speaker are just to sensitive for outdoor use.  As a workaround we have been bringing one of our Sonos Play:1 speakers outside or putting it in the window to get our music outside.  This has been an Ok temporary workaround but not a great long-term solution.

Sonos' solution to outdoor speakers is their Connect Amp product and aftermarket outdoor speakers.  The Connect Amp has been around for a while.  It allows you to connect a turntable or CD player and you connect to any speakers you have.   The Amp, obviously is not meant for outdoor use but if you connect it to a good pair of outdoor speakers you are good to go.  The reason most people buy Sonos speakers is because it is so easy to setup and is wireless.  So putting wired speakers on a Sonos product seems a bit silly but if it gets my music outside it works for me.

When I was researching options for my outdoor music solution I was really unaware of who made good outdoor speakers and was really not interested in some of the rock speakers that were popular a few years back.  Eventually I cam across the Sonos / Sonance outdoor music streaming system.  The system is comprised of:

• Sonos Connect Amp
• 2 Sonos MAG06 Outdoor speakers
  
• Xpress Audio Keypad

The system is sold on Amazon and BestBuy and retails for $1,200.  It does frequently go on sale and I have seen it sell for as low as $600 which is what I paid.  The Amp and speakers will run you well over $1,000 separately so if you can get in on sale it is a great deal.  Speaker wire is not included by the way.  When reading reviews some people were complaining that speaker wire was not installed but I think it makes sense not to include speaker wire as some installations will need longer runs and different wire gauges.

Sonos recently released a new Amp product that has twice the power as the Connect Amp as well as HDMI ARC inputs.  I was considering this new product but it is quite a bit more expensive and the HDMI ARC would be useless as I am using the speakers outside.  The new Sonos Amp is rated at 250 watts versus the old Connect Amp at 110 watts.  Based on reviews I have read the power is sufficient for driving a pair of speakers.  If you are planning to drive more than a pair the new Amp is probably a better choice.

My electrician was out last week and snaked the speaker wire through the wall and I am now up and running with the new system.  I am pretty happy for the price I paid.  The speakers are pretty large and seem to be high quality.  I am a little concerned about how they are going to hold up through a new England winter but we will see how it goes.  The sound is good and they work like just another pair of Sonos speakers.  They are not going to blow my neighbors away but get sufficiently loud.  The only odd thing I notices is that I need to have the volume in the Sonos app up to at least 50% to hear anything from the speakers.  Once over 50% the volume gets exponentially louder and there is no need to turn it up to 100%.  I was thinking the issue may be some setting in the app but I couldn't find anything.  I searched through the Sonos community forums and found quite a few people reporting the same issue.  It appears to be just how the amp performs with these speakers.  As I mentioned before they get pretty load so it is not really an issue for me.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the Xpress Audio Keypad Remote that came with the system.  It is kind of a redundant piece of hardware as I usually have my phone with me when I am outside listening to music, this keypad does less than the app does.  I initially thought I would just sell it on Craigslist but it is kind of an obscure product and figured it would not get a whole lot of interest.  So installed it and will use it going forward to see if it adds any value.  It does provide the following functionality.

• play/pause
• track skip
• favorites
• volume up/down

The back is magnetic and you can mount it to your wall with provided double sided tape or in a Decora faceplate.  It sets up as a wireless device, the process was a little convoluted but I was able to get through it in 10 or so minutes.  The only issue I have had is if I put the keypad in my pocket I have accidentally turned the music on without knowing it only to find out hours later when I went outside.  Unfortunately it only pairs to one Sonos/speaker device and there is no screen on it so you can't see which song or favorite station is playing.  Might be more useful if I could toggle through all my Sonos speakers.

Overall I am really liking the system as a whole.  Time will tell how well it hold up but I am going to really enjoy music on my deck for the rest of the season this year. 

MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener

I was looking forward picking up a couple smart home products for this past Amazon Prime day.  I area in my home that I have not automated yet is my garage doors.  There have been a few times where I have forgot to close my garage door and it has stayed open all night.  I have read a lot of mixed reviews of the MyQ smart garage door opener but at the end of the day it seems to be the best, most cost effective choice in the category.

I have two garage doors so I needed to purchase the add-on sensor to control my second door.  Interestingly the add-on sensor cost more than the hub and primary sensor due to the Prime day deal that I got.  I ended up paying just over $60 for both items.

The product consists of a hub that installs in your garage, is connected to wifi and needs to be paired with your garage door opener as well as a sensor that installs on your garage door to determine if your garage door is open or closed.  The MyQ hub is manufactured by Chamberlain, one of the biggest garage door manufacturers and they claim they the MyQ hub works with most garage door openers manufactured after 1993.  I have 2 identical Chamberlain garage door openers manufactured in 2016 so no problem, or so I thought.

To get started on installation you need to first get the MyQ app and set up a user id and password.  Then you plug in and power up the hub, scan the serial number, connect to wifi and pair the hub and sensor to the device.  Should be pretty straight forward given that I have Chamberlain garage door openers manufactured in 2016.  The process went off the rails for me when attempting to pair the hub with my garage door opener.  No matter how many times I tried I just could not get the hub to pair.  I went through the process a couple times and was finally directed to contact technical support.  Unfortunately this was the 2nd day of Prime day so I knew I was in for a long wait.  After getting disconnected for chat support about a dozed times I decided to just call in.  I only had to wait about a half hour to speak to a person.  The friendly tech support rep had me go through the pairing process again using my phone, then again using the web portal and still no luck.  She put me on hold for  a few minutes and had me pair the hub as a light through the setup process and that seemed to do the trick.  So after an hour on the phone with tech support I had a working smart garage door opener.  I was able to repeat the process for my 2nd opener and the rest of the process was fairly pain free.  Except for the next day when my wife came home and the remote openers in my car not longer worked.  Although I think that may have been my own fault as I may have held the program button down too long one time and wiped out the codes for my remotes.  We were pretty easily able to reprogram the remotes but it just added to the my frustration with the process.

I usually don't expect much from apps created by non technology companies but the MyQ app isn't too bad.  The main status screen shows you and icon of your garage door or doors and how long they have been open.  You can click on the doors to open or close them.  This works fairly quickly the only aggravation is the LED flashing and beeping that comes from the hub when you close the door from the app.  This is a safety feature as if someone is in the garage you could unknowingly close the door on them.  I thought that is why all garage doors not have the safety laser but over not that big of a deal.

The next important screen is the settings screen where you can access History, Device Management, myQ Guests, Works with myQ, Alerts and schedules.

 The History screen is pretty useful as it shows a log of when each door was opened.  The myQ Guests allows you to invite people to have access to open and close the garage doors, I was able to invite my wife using this feature. I have an Alert set if my garage door is opened for more than two hours to notify me, probably the most useful feature for me at this point.  There is also a schedule screen where you can schedule your garage doors to close at a certain time every day.

The works with myQ screen allows you link the hub with other smart home services like Google Assistant, IFTTT, and Apple Homekit.  The Apple Homekit integration requires an additional bridge that you need to purchase.  Interestingly no integrations with Alexa.  I think there was at one point but they were removed for security reasons.  One of the big complaints I have heard about the Google Assistant and IFTTT integrations is there is a monthly fee to use them.   This is pretty much unheard of with other Smart Home manufacturers.  IFTTT has geofencing functionality where you can set your garage door to open when you get close to home.   This would be a nice feature but I am not going to pay for it.  Hopefully Chamberlain will see the error of their ways and eliminate the monthly fees.  But I think this is something you sometimes see when I non tech company gets into technology.  They just don't see the value of providing these services as part of the product.

Pros:

Inexpensive 

Easy to physically Install

Functionally does what is supposed to do

Cons:

Setup process can be a headache

Charge for IFTTT and Google Home integrations

No Amazon Alexa Integration

Overall Pretty happy with my myQ opener after he frustrations with getting it setup.  The one additional integration that I have not decided whether I want to use yet is Amazon Key.  This is Amazon's service that allows the delivery driver to unlock your door or open your garage to deliver your package inside so it doesn't get stolen.  They sell a kit that comes with an Amazon Cloud Cam so you can watch deliveries but it did not go on sale for Prime Day so I opted just for the hub.  Apparently you can turn Amazon key on without a camera but I am not sure I am comfortable with that, I also don't want to have yet another app to view videos from.  Since I already own Arlo cameras I am considering getting an Arlo Q camera for my garage and trying out the Key Service.  I will report back my experience here if I do.

Echo Show 5

I have been wanting to replace the 1990s era clock radio in my bedroom with an echo device since the Echo Spot was released.  The issue was my wife refused to allow a device with a camera in the bedroom. So we have been holding off hoping that Amazon would release something new that would work for us.

Then a couple weeks ago Amazon released the new Echo Show 5 which seems to check most of the boxes that were preventing me from upgrading in the past.  I pulled the trigger and purchased the Echo 5 the day it was released.  Below are my thoughts after using the device for a couple days.

Price - For $89 this is a pretty good deal compared to the Echo Spot ($130) and Echo Show($230). 

Sound - Obviously this isn't going to compare with a Sonos speaker but for a clock radio to wake up to it is sufficent

Size - This is a small device, about the size of a standard smartphone.  But the form factor is much better than the Spot especially when viewing video which were cropped way down to be basically unusable.  Not that I am going to be watching movies on the device but the larger size will be useful when streaming video from my security camera's 

Privacy -  This is the big addition that I think will make people who were hesitant to bring an Echo Show device in their bedroom consider it.   The new Echo Show 5 does have a camera but also has a little shutter switch which will cover the camera when not in use.  This definitely alleviated some of the fears that my wife had about using a spot as a clock radio.

Functionality -  Think of this as a smaller version of the Echo Show.  It looks very similar and has most of the same functionality just in a smaller form factor.

Clock Radio - One of the issues that I has with my existing clock radio was that the blue background of the led screen was too bright and I would have to turn it away from me while I slept.  The Echo Show senses the brightness in the room and adjusts the display accordingly.   When all the lights in my room are out the numbers turn an orange like color and is almost too hard to read but I think I just need to get used to it.  I am on vacation this week so I have not used the alarm yet bit I have to assume it woks just fine as teh other echo devices do.

What's Missing - The Echo Show 5 checks almost all the boxes for me the only feature missing in my opinion is a battery backup.  This is a standard feature on most clock radios.  It is especially useful here in New England as we lose power a couple times a year, a battery backup would allow the alarm to still wake me up in the event of a power loss.

Overall I think this is a great device for the price.  Amazon definitely listens to their customers and releases products that fix the problems in the previous models.  Looking forward to getting to know this little device better over the next couple months.