[Al-Khwarizmi]

They seem to be one of the few brands that give good audio quality and modern convenience at the same time.

For example, I was looking for a device that would (1) be placeable on my living room furniture[1], and let me use a couple of trusty Monitor Audio speakers both (2) for playing music (e.g. from my phone, computer or streaming sources like Spotify) and (3) for TV audio, as those speakers sound much better than a modern soundbar. And that (4) could be expandable to surround sound in the future.

I painstakingly examined alternatives in the market. There were many devices that covered the three latter points but the overwhelming majority were AV receivers, which looked great from the audio and flexibility standpoint but were at least 30 cm deep. Not useful for me, as the furniture in my living room is 28 cm deep (wasn't the point of flat screen TVs to no longer need deep furniture taking lots of space in the living room?). I found like 5 or 6 devices that would physically fit. But most of them had no flexibility for surround expansion AND no WiFi, only Bluetooth playback.

Finally, only two devices ticked my boxes and physically fit: HEOS AVR (around €1000, 27.4 cm deep) and Sonos Amp (around €600, 21.69 cm deep) which wasn't even out yet.

Since 27.4 cm deep was still quite dubious for my 28-cm-deep furniture, I finally waited for the Sonos to come out and bought it. Sonos wasn't especially on my radar, as a relatively traditional audio amateur it's not a brand I trusted, but there they were, the only ones offering the product I wanted. And indeed, it works well, it powers my speakers nicely enough and it's very convenient. I'm watching the TV, want to stream something from Spotify: TV audio is automatically muted. I stop listening to Spotify: TV audio comes back.

Why no one else has made a device that can provide good TV audio and good music playback in a shallow form factor still escapes me. I don't think my requirements were so weird, in freaking 2018.

[1] Sorry, I'm missing the specific English word for the specific piece of furniture in the living room where one has a bunch of books, CDs, mixed souvenirs and the TV, so I'll just call it "the living room furniture".

[DarkStar851]

The word you're looking for is "entertainment center", but yeah, weird there aren't more products available for that niche! There are lots of home AV receivers that might fit the bill but they tend to be pretty large units.

[WiseWeasel]

I feel like 30cm max depth is going to be a problem for most audio gear. So-called compact ones seem to optimize for height, with depth around 40cm [1], and the shallower ones [2, 3] seem to be around 31-33cm. Get a deeper console?

[1] https://www.crutchfield.com/S-JPQM9erNVfS/p_642NR1609/Marant...

[2] https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-7-2-ch-with-dolby-atmos-4k...

[3] https://www.crutchfield.com/S-5ZKPlNFrS4r/p_022RXV585/Yamaha...

[Al-Khwarizmi]

So that's precisely my point: convenience. My option was:

- Bend over backwards to buy from other audio brands, by throwing away my perfectly functional and nice designer furniture and replacing it with something deeper, that would take more space, probably be (IMHO) uglier and fit the room worse, and annoy my partner who doesn't care for audio as much as I do.

- Buy the Sonos Amp because it does the job while being small and fitting my existing furniture without further ado.

It was an easy choice...

I understand and respect that in homes where audio is a really high priority, they will plan the room around it and have deep enough furniture. On the other extreme, people who don't care much about audio just are happy buying any of the multiple sound bars in the market that fit anywhere. But if you are in the middle ground, i.e. you want a compromise between good audio quality and convenience, it seems that Sonos is practically the only brand that cares. At least in the case of an amp/receiver, that's the case, as I explained. And I suppose this is an important component of Sonos's success (and what surprises me is that others don't do the same...).

[lostlogin]

> Why no one else has made a device that can provide good TV audio and good music playback in a shallow form factor still escapes me. I don't think my requirements were so weird, in freaking 2018.

Am I right in thinking that Sonos fits your requirements? I've found their speakers to be excellent in a small package. I was after the 5s but someone lent me a One as a test. A pair of them are excellent imho.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Yes, that's what I was saying: that no one else [except Sonos] has made a device that fits my requirements. Sonos did, I bought the Sonos Amp for my speakers.

[timc3]

I cut a hole in the back of my living room furniture so that the AV receiver sticks out the back and seeing as rooms often have skirting boards it gives me the few extra centimeters needed.

Obviously not the route for everyone!