Sony Music Center – Do you want to fully enjoy music

Sony Music Center app by Sony Corporation

App Description :

The center for all music lovers

Do you want to fully enjoy music whether at home or out and about?
Then this Sony app is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.
The Sony l Music Center app will singlehandedly enable you
to listen to Hi-Res sound sources in the excellent audio quality.
You can also connect to other Sony audio devices to play music in the
best possible sound field, with the settings optimized for each individual device.

To use the control function of audio devices, an audio device compatible with Sony | Music Center is required.
Please check if your audio products are compatible with Sony | Music Center from our support site.
Devices that were compatible with SongPal are compatible with Sony | Music Center as well.

App Features :

You can playback music including Hi-Res tracks on your smartphone.
Play the music contents from CD, USB, and Smartphone.
Access music by browsing or searching music folders stored on your computer or NAS drive thru network(DLNA)*.
You can set Multi-room, Surround, Stereo wirelessly with multiple speakers.*
Change the setting on the audio device, such as Equalizer, Sleep Timer, Network* and so on.
Limited to compatible devices.

This application supports VoiceOver.

Note
Some features may not be supported by certain devices.
With the update to ver.5.2, Music Center will no longer be compatible with STR-DN850/STR-DN1050/ICF-CS20BT/XDR-DS21BT.
Some functions and services may not be supported in certain regions/countries.
Please make sure to update Sony | Music Center to the latest version.

Additional Information :

• Age Rating 17+
• Size 181.1 MB
• Requires iOS 11.0 or later.

User Reviews :

Does the job

This app does everything that it should. My problems are with the layout and how clunky the operation is. For example, I run an STR-DN1080 and often run zone 2 speakers. I hate how hard it is to get to control the volume for that zone. I have to open my phone, open the app, select the zone then adjust the volume. The zone 2 options should be right up front with everything else. Also don’t like that there isn’t an EQ for zone 2, but this probably has more to do with the stereo. It’s also odd how the settings are at the bottom of the page when this is an item selected more than the source.

In the end this app holds the monopoly on Sony connectivity, does everything it needs to do but is clunky to use. It’s creation is certainly only to serve the app market but didn’t have much thought out into it. This app is definitely not a selling point of their products.

Just annoying…

I just bought the srs xb31 for $150, I love the speaker but you must have the app running and Bluetoothed in order to use any extra features…. ok that’s ok if it actually would work 1/4 if the time. It’s always losing its sync and goes to default. There’s a party mode where you can bang on the speaker to play drums and stuff and I love it! Gives you something to tap while listening to music but half 75% of the time the app doesn’t recognize the device even when I’m still playing music, so I have to close the app, turn bt off and on, reconnect because it doesn’t try to automatically, then go into the app crossing my fingers, and half the time it shows 3 extra speakers saying “need to be setup” but still doesn’t connect to mine…. so repeat. Finally have it working and your settings ready to go!? Well have fun when you lock your phone and go back into the app because it’s unsynced again… and just a helpful tip, don’t lock your phone while in the app, eventually you’ll have to restart your phone to even get it to work because it bugs out…. the quality of the speaker is what I expected with Sony but the app really ruins their reputation with me if I see “extra features in app”. Recommend the speaker if you just want good sound and bass, but don’t recommend it if you was wanting to use the extra features of the speaker and if that’s you deciding factor between $150 and another good speaker with as good quality for $60…

Getting better

I have an STR-DN106 A/V receiver that I bought a number of years ago and didn’t even know there was an app I could use until a little over a year ago. At first the app was useless, would consistently drop connection when it would connect which was only about 1/4 of the time. I started using it recently again and it has been a lot better. The receiver controls sound in multiple rooms and sits in a cabinet so it’s nice to have such easy access to the controls. I would have been much more frustrated if the app was required for the options. It’s come a long way but there’s still room for improvement. This app has the potential to be a great value added to Sony products but only if they’re able to improve its quality.

App is the perfect 20th century solution to a 21st century problem

The speakers are great. Sony knows sound, no doubt.

But the app is absurdly complex and full of friction points.

-why can’t I name a speaker group (maybe like: yard party)? Or an individual speaker (like Dan’s XG-300)? We were left with 4 identical speakers that we could not tell apart in the app.

-If the speakers don’t belong to the grouping app owner and software updates are needed, the whole process grinds down until the speaker owner updates that speaker? C’mon, we are just grouping already functioning speakers for cryin’ out loud.

-Party Connect process is just as clumsy. Spent an hour trying to calibrate (must control individual speaker sound on the speaker itself?) and add other Sony speakers brought to my house by friends. It seriously felt like working with 2001 software, complete with ungraceful actions that provided little or no accurate feedback as we worked through the app. Like software written by folks who never even tried it for themselves before inflicting it on us.

The four of us (an engineer, a product designer and two quality process managers) wasted far too much time on what should have been simple, quick and frictionless.

With Bluetooth 5, there is no excuse for all the clunkiness,Sony. Do better!

Get Sony Music Center from App Store

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