So I initially thought that in order to beta test we had to post on this thread with specs, and that we'd then be contacted with info on how to beta test (seem to have missed Sindre's post with the download link). But I quickly realized that all that is required now is to download the latest beta version of subsonic (5.2.beta1) and then follow the ridiculously easy steps listed here:
http://www.subsonic.org/pages/sonos.jspBeen waiting so long for a way to access my subsonic playlists on sonos and get around the library size limit (this is a big issue for many sonos users and this is far and away the best solution I've seen). This new feature was so simple and works so well, I could hardly believe it.
So far in my testing I've noticed only two issues, but the first is a rather big one.
1) Sound quality. As other posters here have noted this mechanism streams music to sonos in mp3 format (one person claimed 128kbps -- not sure how they knew that). I've been ripping to flac for many years now and even my old mp3s are encoded at high bitrates. I definitely notice a large difference in my a-b testing, playing the same track in sonos directly from my networked server, and through the subsonic sonos app. So I am delighted to have seen that Sindre is planning to accommodate streaming quality equivalent to what sonos allows. I eagerly await that upgrade.
2) Search. Search basically works great with just one caveat. For some reason subsonic search results are not sorted by relevance. For example, when I search my library in subsonic for "The Kooks", the exact match, "The Kooks" is the fifth of nine results I get. Not really even sure why the other eight even appear. This has nothing to do with the sonos interface, it is just the way subsonic works wherever the search is performed. But since sonos only lists the top three results, I have to hit the "more" button to see the correct match. This is a minor quibble. Not such a big deal to hit "more". But I mention this in an effort to be a diligent beta tester.
Overall, I'm delighted to finally have this solution available. I'll post back here if I encounter any other issues.
UPDATE: Feel I should comment here on the sound quality issue noted above as that issue has now been COMPLETELY resolved. After following the steps now posted on
http://www.subsonic.org/pages/sonos.jsp (under advanced -> lossless audio)
I now get equivalent (to my ears) sound quality streaming my flac files directly from my server through sonos and streaming the same files through the subsonic interface in sonos. I did extensive A-B testing and both of these approaches sound dramatically better than when playing mp3 versions of the same songs. I can't overstate how happy I am about this. Thanks Sindre!
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