If you ’re aSonosowner , I have intercourse that correctly now you ’re credibly less interested in talking aboutstreaming inspection and repair , and a mickle more concerned about when ( or if ) the company willever finis fixingits “ young ” fluid app . I like I had something convinced to partake on that front , but alas , like you , I ’m also waiting for the solar day when I can once again reliably set the bulk on my speakers .
I ’m confident that 24-hour interval will ( eventually ) come , and I have n’t thrown the towel in on Sonos despite the torment of the past eight month . In the meantime , I need to speak a doubt I ’ve been asked several meter : What ’s the full hi - atomic number 75 cyclosis table service for Sonos owner ?
As is so often the case , the answer is ( drear ) , it depends .
As of 2025 , there are only four medicine rain cats and dogs services that brook better - than - standard candle - qualityhi - ray audioandhave birdcall catalogs that are warrant to cover a important routine of creative person from a broad variety of genres . They are : Amazon Music , Apple Music , Qobuz , andTidal . All four are compatible with Sonos , which means you may add them to the Sonos app , but that does n’t mean they ’re all treated the same way by Sonos . Here ’s what you need to experience .
Price
In terms of terms , if you ’re an Amazon Prime member , Amazon Music is the least expensive selection : Even with itsrecent price wage hike announcement , Prime members can get an individual architectural plan for $ 10 per calendar month . If you are n’t a Prime member , Amazon Music , Apple Music , and Tidal all cost the same at $ 11 per calendar month , while Qobuz remains the priciest option at $ 13 per month .
Catalog size
In the early days of streaming , catalogue sizing could vary a mint between services . Today , they ’re fundamentally at conservation of parity , with each overhaul promising the same “ more than 100 million tracks ” to pick from , with the elision of Tidal , which specifically calls out its more than110 milliontracks on itshomepage .
Will Tidal ’s superfluous 10 million track make a difference to you ? It ’s arduous to say . None of the services provide a elaborate look at their compendium , so there ’s no way to do a mealy comparison by creative person , musical style , or any other criteria .
What might make a divergence is Apple Music ’s importation function . you’re able to use it to upload any digital music you own . If the track already exists in the Apple Music catalog , that ’s the version you ’ll have access to . If it does n’t exist , you ’ll rain cats and dogs your uploaded copy . Unfortunately , implication are limited to CD - quality , so this is n’t a way to thrive your hi - res catalog .
Sonos app integration
With the exclusion of Tidal , which allow you choose Sonos talker directly from its mobile app , the only fashion to listen to these services at their maximum quality on a Sonos speaker is via the Sonos app itself . AirPlay 2and Bluetooth may be more convenient , but they ’re both lossy engineering .
I make for this up because Sonos ’ integration of medicine services can motley wildly in terms of exploiter experience . For instance , in the regular Apple Music app , you may see for an artist and then start stream their top caterpillar tread . In Sonos , you’re able to see a leaning of their top tracks , but if you want to play them consecutive or randomly , you ’d demand to add each one to your play queue manually .
Amazon and Tidal fare well within the Sonos app — each gives you access to an artist ’s top path just as you ’d get in their standalone peregrine app . Qobuz ’s integrating is arguably the worst . Going to an artist page within Sonos gives you a list of their albums by default , no top tracks anywhere in passel .
Sonos compatibility
Most Sonos users have become habitual to the fact that their speakers work with just about every streaming serving you could think of . And while that ’s true , not all of these streaming services are treated alike .
From a how-do-you-do - res point of view , Sonos loudspeaker presently support a maximal lossless quality of 24 - bit/48kHz . That ’s far lower than the maximal hullo - res preferences of the four services we ’ve been discussing , and yet only Apple Music , Amazon Music , and Qobuz are compatible with this spec . Tidal , for reasons the company would n’t disclose , can only pelt to Sonos at CD quality ( 16 - bit/44.1kHz ) .
Spatial audio
I do n’t want to confuse you : spatial audioandhi - rhenium audioare unlike thing . Hi - Re refer to a bit - profoundness and sample rate for digital music that is high than candela tone , while spacial audio is a 3D , immersive sound data formatting . They are n’t mutually sole : you’re able to get spatial audio in hello - res quality ( though so far , no streaming services volunteer this ) .
So why am I bringing it up ? Several Sonos speakers are compatible with both spacial audio and hi - ray audio , specifically the Beam Gen 2 , Arc , Arc Ultra , and Era 300 . If you own any of these intersection , or can see yourself adding them to your system in the future , you may desire to consider a music religious service that hasbothhi - Re and spatial audio .
Technically , Amazon Music , Apple Music , and Tidal qualify . However , Tidal is once again the left over humanity out — you ca n’t rain buckets spatial audio tracks in Dolby Atmos Music from Tidal to Sonos at the here and now . Only Amazon Music and Apple Music can do that .
On-the-go
On that note , a gravid part of select any music overhaul is your satisfaction with the non - listening feature article . E.g. how does it handle music discovery ? How easy is it to create , plowshare , and join forces on playlists ? Is it light to retrieve what you ’re seem for using the interface ? How about thing like lyric and videos ?
Does hi-res on Sonos matter?
This is go to seem exceedingly unearthly apply that the whole point in time of this article has been around pick out a music serve with hi - res sound recording , but hear me out .
Unlike spatial sound recording , which most people can immediately detect as being different from stereo when they hear it , hi - res sound recording is a different fauna .
It ’s plan to offer greater horizontal surface of detail than you’re able to get from lossless CD - quality , which is great in possibility — but can you hear it ?
If you ’ve got an audiophile - grade setup , with a high - endnetwork medicine banner , amplifier , andspeakers , or if you ’ve got the equivalent setup for headphones , perhaps you will take heed the difference hi - Ra audio frequency can make . Many people claim they can .
But if we ’re being perfectly frank , as great as Sonos ’ verbaliser are , they ’re barely of the surplus - no - expense - in - the - pursuit - of - audio - sinlessness variety . Which is to say , it ’s perfectly worth listen to compact disc - quality music on these systems ( instead of the lossy compressed sound you ’ll get fromSpotifyor your older MP3s ) … you just might not get much of an appreciable bump by go hi - res .
Try before you buy
Here ’s my suggestion for this conundrum : Take reward of the free test period tender by each of the four hi - res divine service ( include Tidal ) , and tot them all to your Sonos system .
Spend the next few Clarence Day doing your own A / B ( or A / B / C / D ) comparisons . It can be tricky knowing which tracks are hi - res as opposed to simply atomic number 48 quality , so here ’s a cheat piece of paper :
I say “ in theory ” because Sonos wo n’t always act a hi - res rails in hi - res . I ’m still looking into it , but some hi - res raceway appear to be getting downsampled to candle character . I ’ve check it come about frequently on Apple Music and Qobuz , and on Amazon Music too , though of the three it ’s the most authentic so far .
I ’ll update this post once I learn more .
