All about the new Sonos Wireless Multiroom Music System at Totally Wired
Do you want to listen to your music in more than one room? Do you want a system that is simple to use, easy to set up and cost effective? That is well made and looks as good as it sounds? And can be easily upgraded at any time? Well really, who wouldn’t!
Sonos is our answer to all these requests.
While the whole multi-room and digital music arena is full of products and brands, there are very few that actually stand out and manage to cover all the bases. We’'ve had plenty of experience with multiroom, from the original Linn Knekt systems over a decade ago, through many others. And things have got very, very complicated. We needed an antidote and when Sonos first came to us, we hoped it would live up to this promise.
Six months down the track with Sonos, we're thrilled with how well it works. And we want to show you just how good, affordable and easy Sonos is. But first we'd better explain exactly what it is and what it will do for you.
On the simplest level, Sonos is a very easy way to get music from A to B. Wirelessly. With just two pieces that together cost less than $1300, you can have a functioning system, including speakers, allowing you to listen to all your CD collection, downloads, internet radio and streaming services as well as things you’d like to plug in such as an iPod. You could think of this system as a very smart, high performance alternative to the piddly little speakers some people connect to their computer. But there is much more to Sonos that that.
Sonos is all about easy.
One room, or ten rooms, it makes little difference. You don't need to be a computer whizz to make Sonos work (although if you are you'll revel in all the customization you can do to your system and appreciate the free updates and applications). If you have an iPod (or any music stored on a computer) in the house, and a functioning internet connection you'll be ready to go. Unlike anything else to do with computers, you also have one big advantage with Sonos - us. We are more than happy to come out and set things up for you and are always on hand to answer your questions.
How Sonos works
Here's a great little video for you to watch which explains everything.
Sonos have just released their new and greatly improved touchscreen, there is a free iPad, iPhone and Touch application that works the system in exactly the same way and all the system software has been highly refined to make it a robust, comprehensively featured yet remarkably simple whole home system. Based in Santa Barbara, Sonos has grown mightily over the last few years but whether by accident or design, Sonos systems haven't been represented in Otago. Now they are.
Wireless is just what we need in existing homes
It's too complicated and too expensive to try and run cables when there is a simple and better way of doing things. Sonos is Wireless. Not just for the transmission of music - the remote control is part of the system is too and will work in any room in the house. The new touchscreen is clear, crisp and blindingly fast. With new homes, the costs of construction are continuing to spiral - any system that is simpler, requires less inbuilt cables, keypad and installation costs has got to be a winner.
Sonos is broadly compatible
Sonos will work with both Macs and PCs, and caters for almost every format of digital music storage. Sonos will work with existing audio systems and speakers. Let’s face it - the iPod is the most successful audio product ever and if you have an iPod, you have iTunes - Sonos can access iTunes seamlessly. And after that, any other system is a doodle. As we’ve said, you can use an Touch or iPhone to control your system.
Sonos really is simple.
Just one small box per room and one remote control for the house is all that it required. So you can start small and built up, room by room. Remember it is wireless, so just needs power. Each box becomes part of a
Sonos sounds really good.
When using high quality formats such as AppleLossLess, Sonos will send crisp & clear uncompressed music all around your house. You can use high quality speakers with it as the amplifiers are capable and powerful. It features both analogue preamplifier and digital outputs allowing you to also choose to run it with existing amplifiers or even active speaker systems. Or run into the digital inputs of a surround sound system or high quality DAC such as the Cambridge Audio DACmagic. And you can also run a CD or Ipod into the system in any room. And have the sound from that available to any other rooms.
While simple is good, Sonos doesn't skimp on features. Internet radio is part of the package and you also get access to the new generation of streaming services. Easy set alarm functions, playlists and full setup options both the system and other sources. The new touch-panel is a thing of beauty, displaying cover art and allowing to all the options in terms of selecting songs, albums and playlists, controlling any or all rooms from any location and much more.
Sonos is unique among consumer electronics products because it keeps getting better even after you buy it. That's because they offer free software updates with new features, music offers and more. And updating couldn’t be easier - Whenever an update is available, Sonos will automatically notify you on your Controller - just click ‘OK’ and it’s done. Not only that but there is also a nice control program for both Mac and PC to compliment the iPhone application and they all carry the happy ‘Free’ word.
How to get started.
The first thing is to come and see (and hear) Sonos in action for yourself - we’ve got it all set up in the shop and we are sure that once you’ve played around with it there will be no going back. While setting Sonos up is as easy as it gets, there are a few tricks involved and having us do the initial set up for you will mean you are up and running much faster. After that however it’s all plain sailing and if you want to add pieces or rooms, it can all be done with literally the touch of a button.
The new S5 wireless speaker system makes it really easy to get into Sonos. You just need this and a little base station - the Zone Bridge at $275 - which connects to your existing wireless modem The S5 is a self contained and powerful compact stereo speaker with 5 drivers, each with an individual amplifier giving both remarkable quality and room filling dispersion. It communicates wirelessly with the Zone Bridge so can be used in any location in the house. Just click here to see the neat little video on how the S5 works.
There is also the Sonos Bundle - this is another very cost effective option for 2 rooms with connection to an existing system. It includes their cool little remote control and two Zone Player amplifiers for just $2500. It’s the perfect start for larger systems and can be scaled up to any level. Talk to find out which option is best for you.
Sonos Controller for your iPhone, Touch and now iPad.
It’s free! Just go to the Apple Aps store and download the Sonos Controller in seconds. It turns your iPhone, iPod or iPad into a fully fledged Sonos remote control. You simply touch the screen to pick a room, point and flick to pick a song, and then hit play. Grouping zones and searching tracks is super easy. In fact there’s nothing that you can’t do with your system. How cool is that?
Another thing we really like about Sonos is the fact that they can do pretty much everything we want with a range comprising of just 3 boxes and a single remote control. So rather than pages of prices and parts numbers we can summerize the whole system in a few lines.
The new CR200 touchscreen controller is the nicest looking and fastest remote control on the planet at $900
The Zone Player 120 connects directly to speakers and makes Sonos work in any room $1260
The Zone Player 90 connects to any system in a room and is $900
The package for all of the above, including cabling, software disc and manuals is just $2500
NEW - the Sonos S5 is an integrated single box solution for any room with 5 built in speakers powered by 5 digital amps - at $1000 it is a hugely cost effective option requiring no cabling at all outside of power to make it go. The joys of wireless!
The Zone Bridge is only needed in systems where you have your modem in a room that cannot connect to the Sonos system via an ethernet cable. At $275, it’s the perfect problem solver.
And that is it - we told you it was simple, didn’t we?
So come in and see us now. Setting up a music system in more than one room has never been so easy, so much fun, so cost effective. And we have just the system to help you do this...
Wireless that works like magic.
The key to designing a music system that plays music all over the house is having a wireless network that works all over the house. That’s why Sonos created a wireless mesh network called SonosNet to deliver the range and performance required of a multi-room music system. When you need to stream music wirelessly, the network you use really matters. When a network is overloaded or stretched to its limits, you hear echoes and delays from room to room, and your Internet speed can be sluggish. Not so with Sonos. Sonos chose a mesh network because a traditional network with a central hub relaying all the traffic didn’t provide the house-wide coverage we wanted. What’s more, access point networks were plagued by performance issues. SonosNet changes all that — providing the extensive range and superior performance you need to enjoy music in every room without requiring a massive wiring remodel.
More here.
Is Wireless safe?
We take our clients well-being seriously and have looked carefully at the Sonos Wireless system. This is what we can tell you - The Radio Frequency emissions from the Sonos system are much lower than many other household items - for instance cellphones. The range (and hence signal strength) are only as much as they need to be - the mesh network relies on a number of small units talking to each other over a tightly constrained bandwidth rather than a single hub blasting out to all parts. A cellphone has to be able to talk to a distant cell tower so sends at a much greater level of power. And things like TV transmitters that beam into every town are also running at considerably higher levels. With Sonos, you do have the option of using a wired network via CAT5 cable. Many homes now feature this as ‘future proofing’ Which means the future is here. There is no reason not to utilize CAT5 if it is in place or easy to run as it is a very reliable safe option. CAT5 has excellent resistance to interference and works even over long distances.