SONOS Review- Wireless Whole House Music

by Lori Cunningham

Congratulations to Chris Lewis of DadofDivas, Alexander Liss, and Jackie Harper for winning a copy of System Mechanic, the software that helps you tame your computer and keep it running at it’s best.

Wouldn’t be nice to hear music while you cook, do the laundry, play games with the kids in the family room, or while in your bedroom reading a book?  How about outside on the patio or in the garage?    Is your music collection on your computer, but you only get to hear it in the room where your computer is?  Whole house audio is all the rage but it can be quite costly to open walls to add wiring and speakers to every room.

SONOS products give you the flexibility to add music throughout the house without having to add wires and in-ceiling speakers.  Sonos “liberates…music from your computer so you can enjoy it.” 1

SONOS products consist of  ZonePlayers, a ZoneBridge (needed to make system wireless), and a remote control – either the Controller CR200, software on your Mac or PC, and/or a SONOS app on your iPhone.

My SONOS Experience

With much anticipation I opened the boxes of the SONOS ZonePlayer S5, ZoneBridge 100, and Controller CR200.  I was eager  because I had read so much about SONOS and how easy it is to play music from your computer around the house.

Set-up was a breeze, I was most impressed.  It took less than 5 minutes to connect the ZonePlayer to my router, plug it in, load the software, and have the SONOS software recognize the ZonePlayer.   Next I pointed the SONOS software to the ”My Music” shared folders on my two computers.  As music was being “directed” to the SONOS software, I was already able to listen to music.  Pointers to all of my music from both computers were being processed – including all genres, artists, albums, and playlists!  Wow!

I decided to set up SONOS in my office, so hooking it up to my router and utilizing the software was extremely easy, since my router is located in the office.  The music coming from my computer never sounded so good booming from SONOS’ five dedicated amps inside the ZonePlayer S5.  After a while, I moved the ZonePlayer from the office to my family room.  That way I could listen to my music from the kitchen while I cook.  For the first month, all I did was listen to music streaming from my computer.  This was great initially, but then I started getting bored of my music, as I often listened to the same genre.

The real fun and variety came once I logged into Pandora and Last.fm using the SONOS CR200 Controller.  Now I could hear my favorite Lady Antebellum, Black Eyed Peas, and local radio stations.  Wow!  I love listening to Pandora; before it was only on my computer.  Now I can hear Pandora anywhere!

I can even carry the SONOS player to different rooms in the house and easily set it up to hear my music.  I can take it outside, in the garage, upstairs, you name it.  I love the idea of taking it to the backyard to listen to music during a BBQ.

Setup Configuration

If you don’t hook up the SONOS ZonePlayer S5 in the same room as your router, you’ll need a ZoneBridge 100 which requires an electrical plug and an Ethernet connection to connect to your network.  If you place your ZonePlayers in rooms that can be connected to your router via Ethernet or CAT5 connect, you will not need a ZoneBridge 100.  As most homes are not Ethernet enabled throughout the house, it is most likely that you’ll need to buy a ZoneBridge to enable your ZonePlayers to work.  All ZonePlayers and ZoneBridges need to plug into an outlet.

Other Zone Players:

The ZonePlayer 120 includes an amplifier and can be connected to existing speakers in a room.

Use the ZonePlayer 90 (without amplification) to connect to your receiver, TV, powered speakers, and more.

You don’t need to buy the Controller CR200 if you don’t mind controlling your SONOS from your computer or from the SONOS app on your iPhone.  However, using the Controller CR200 is ideal since it’s only function is to control your music.  With your iPhone, you’d have to open the app to control your music when you want to use it.

Sources of music you can choose from:

• your computer’s music files
• 100,000 free Internet radio stations, shows and podcasts
• Pandora
• iTunes
• Last.fm
• Heartradio
• Napster
• Siruis
• Rhapsody
• Wolfgang’s Vault
• even your TV, CD player, VCR, radio, or other mp3 player

I loved the ease it took to set up and enjoy listening to my music.  The sound quality is great and with the SONOS system, I listen to music much more frequently than before.  I can definitely say that SONOS has “liberated” my music collection from my computer.  Here are some of the pros and cons I found with using SONOS:

Pros

• excellent sound
• wireless (with exception of connection to router and electricity)
• iPhone or iPad control enabled (free)
• built-in 50 watt channel in players (including 2 tweeters, 2 mid-range, and a sub-woofer)
• expandable to 32 zones
• can connect to other sources (TV’s, receivers, CD Player, etc.)
• same music can play in all rooms or different music in different rooms
• ZonePlayers are portable- move to another room easily
• can play the music “trapped” in your computer
• can play Pandora, Last.fm, Napster, Rhapsody, 100,000+ radio and Internet radio stations + more
• incorporates innate features such as thumbs up and down from Pandora
• ability to hook up to existing speakers
• all controls sync SONOS with each other (iPhone, Controller CR200, computer software)
• includes an alarm – wake up to music
• includes a sleep timer
• easy set-up

Cons

• not completely wireless – still need a ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge tethered to router via Ethernet
• cost
• Black and white are the only colors available
• limited written instructions if you encounter a problem in setting up a zone
• sometimes a zone “drops” so you have to re-initialize a ZonePlayer to the controller or software
• music must be on your PC, you can’t stream it from your iPod, iPad, or iPhone

Pricing

As you can see from the pricing chart, prices range from $99 for the Zone Bridge 100 (you will need this if you don’t have Ethernet or CAT5 throughout the house) to $999 for a bundled package that assumes you have speakers to connect to the ZonePlayer.  Most likely you’ll need to buy one ZoneBridge 100 and several ZonePlayer S5′s to get started.  However, if you already have speakers, you can purchase the ZonePlayer 120 with included amplifier to tap into your existing system.   SONOS products can be purchased through SONOS.com, Best Buy Magnolia Home Theater stores, and others.  See the SONOS Where to Buy page to find a store near you.

A Mom‘s Perspective

It’s amazing how technology changes.  With Internet radio and a player, such as the Sonos ZonePlayer, you no longer need a radio tuner as a part of your stereo system.  You can still hear music from Pandora or your computer without SONOS using an Internet-ready receiver or TV.  The downfall of going this route is that you can’t easily sync or control your music throughout the house nor have a nice graphical remote control to help you more easily choose your music.  SONOS provides a thorough multi-room audio package to cover these needs.

A majority of homes do not have built-in speakers and wiring.  A solution like SONOS allows anyone living in an apartment to a large home – to easily listen to their music throughout the house.  Setup is easy – even a non-techie can do it.  The directions include pictures and are very simplified.

As my young kids grow older, I can see them wanting their own music system in their rooms.  What I like about the SONOS system is that they can access their own music but we can keep it in one centralized area – so the music can be backed-up — and reviewed by us – the parents.  I also like the idea of  using the controller to turn down the music down in their bedrooms or whichever area of the house they’re in if I deem it too loud.

In the same vein, if you left the music playing outside and you wanted to turn it off, use your remote or use the remote software on your PC to turn it off.  No need to go all the way outside to turn off the music.

Would I recommend SONOS?  Yes.  It’s a great way to listen to your music and control it from the palm of your hand.  The sound quality is great and I love it’s flexibility.  That being said, the only major downfall I see of the system – is its cost.  With a ZonesPlayer S5 costing $399, it becomes pretty pricey to create a whole house audio solution.  But the beauty of the SONOS system is that you don’t have to buy players for all the rooms of your house at once.  You can start off with 1-2 ZonePlayers and expand as you’d like to.

If you have SONOS, let me know what you think.  If you have a different system or great improvisation for whole house audio, leave a comment, I’d love to hear about it.

1.  http://sonos.com/music/Default.aspx?rdr=true&LangType=1033