 Spectacular |
| Review Date: April 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: esanta, San Jose, CA USA |
This is the absolute best digital jukebox out there, period. As an added bonus, it's flexible, scalable, multizone, wireless... and systems costing twenty times as much do not even come close the ease of use: Sonos currently has the highest Wife Acceptance Factor of any techno-gadget out there, only equaled by TiVo.
Although some amount of technical savvy is required for the initial setup, anybody can pick up the beautiful remote and immediately figure out how to use it (it's a bit like an iPod).
This bundle contains the wireless controller and its charger (but no charging cradle, more on this later), a ZP80 and a ZP100. The main difference between the two zone players is the ZP100 has a built-in amplifier so you can hook up speakers directly to it, whereas the ZP80 doesn't but it offers digital output (coax and optical) which the ZP100 lacks. Both zone players feature an analog input (you could use it for a TV or a satellite radio receiver, for instance) as well as analog line output. It's the perfect starter kit for a two-zone system; you can always add more controllers and zone players later as needed, and seamlessly integrate them into your system.
Sonos has been relentlessly adding features since its initial release: Rhapsody, Pandora, Napster, Sirius Satellite Radio (no antenna needed, you get the feed over the internet). Reliability has been exemplary.
The price may seem a little steep for a music system, but the nearest competitor (Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System) is nowhere near as fully featured (no amplifier, no audio input, no Sirius) and doesn't cost much less for a two zone system. It also seems to be a lot more complicated to setup and use, but I must admit not having any first-hand experience with it.
The only blemish on the Sonos is that they sell the charging cradle separately for a ridiculous amount of money (it's just a dumb piece of plastic) when it's an indispensable part of the system. Considering the fairly high price of the system, I fail to see the rationale behind excluding it from the bundle... It must be the brainchild of some marketing moron. Other than this minor but irritating point... This is just the most enjoyable, reliable, easiest to use system out there.
This NAS box is a perfect complement to your Sonos system and will host the music files so you can turn off your computer and keep the music going: D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure
The infamous cradle (don't forget to order it): Sonos CC100 Charging Cradle for Sonos CR100 Controller
Edit: the Logitech Squeezebox Duet now supports Sirius.
[Edit August 2008] Sonos released new ZonePlayers, ZP90 and ZP120, part of the new BU150 bundle which replaces the BU130. Don't buy the now obsolete BU130 bundle unless you can get it at a significant discount over the BU150. |
Man you gotta get one of these!
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| Review Date: July 12, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Mike J. Hoare, Alps, France |
| Fantastic product. Pipe music wirelessly to every room in your house and when you're finished setting that up, send the tunes out to the garage and to the hot tub. I have 6 amps and plan on adding three more, so as you can see I'm hardly objective about the system. And why? Because it just works, and works perfectly. I have access to my entire hard-disked music library via the color remote and when I'm in the mood can stream music via internet radio or via Rhapsody etc. Let me cut this short by saying if you have the cash, this is the way to go. Easy set up, flawless operation. Couldn't ask for more. |
great product
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| Review Date: July 1, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Douglas R. Wieringa, Normandy Park, WA USA |
| I've had Sonos for two years, and have added two zones to my original two. I'll simply say that I haven't bought a piece of consumer electronics in the last 10 years that has given more enjoyment and caused less frustration than Sonos. If you're serious about multi-room audio this is the way to go. |
Home Run
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| Review Date: June 29, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Tom Gimbel, San Marino, CA United States |
Pros: simplicity, build quality, reliability, flexibility, Pandora
Cons: still expensive, Pandora extra cost
I have been searching for a wireless audio system for my home for years. There have been virtually no choices at the $1000 level. The Sonos founders must have noticed. I am amazed that they got everything right the first time around. I ordered the BU130 bundle plus the Sonos speakers. The setup was simple. Connected one of the two units (either one will do) to my router (using wired connection). The router recognized it immediately and I was in business.
The bundle comes with the 100 (amplifier included) and the 80 (no amplifier). The speakers turned out to be weak - would not get those again. If I had a choice, I would not get the 100 again because I don't need the amplifier. But, the package includes it and the package is cheaper than buying two 80s and a controller. You might find the four 10/100 etherports on the 100 useful (I didn't).
I connected my media system to the 80's line input and I now can pipe that sound all over the house (no wires). I just bought another bundle to add more rooms.
This system is just crazy rich. Besides the obvious flexibility of line-in from any of the units, Sonos includes 30-day trials of Pandora and Rhapsody. If you've ever tried Rhapsody, you may find it hard to go back to radio (broadcast or Internet). Unfortunately, you'll have to pay for it after the 30 day trial. Pandora is basically like satellite radio. I'm not hooked, yet. Sonos also delivers a broad selection of Internet radio genres. All of this is selected from the fantastic remote. Be sure to spend the extra $40 for the cradle.
One last comment. When I first set the system up, I was concerned that the range would be limited. I've had it all over my house, in every room and closet and upstairs far, from the server. No problem. |
Spectacular way to fill home with iTunes, radio, etc.
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| Review Date: February 22, 2008 |
| Reviewer: MJC, Chicago |
Please know that Amazon had an amazing deal on Sonos in which it offered the BU130 bundle for $999 but also threw in a charging cradle (model CC100) and a pair of Polk Audio R150 Two-Way Bookshelf Loudspeakers at no additional cost. I bought 2 of those bundles because it was a great deal, but only bought two because we hadn't used Sonos yet. Now, I wish I had bought more. We love Sonos.
It was easy to setup the software to find my iTunes collection, which is stored on an external drive connected to a Mac mini. It found all the MP3s and lossless encoded songs. However, Sonos is not able to play the purchased iTunes songs with DRM protection. (Apple now sells some songs without DRM and some with DRM). From what I've read, nothing other than iTunes can play those songs. Some people have found work arounds, but 99% of my music was ripped into a lossless or MP3 format directly from CD, so that limitation is minor to me. People with large collections of DRM protected songs might see this as a deal breaker though.
The physical setup was very easy, too. To get things started, I connected the ZP80 from the bundle (1) to my home theater stereo and (2) to my router / computer. That allowed the software setup described above. Already, that unit could play my iTunes collection and the Internet radios via the Sonos remote control. Then, I plugged the ZP100 into a power outlet in a different room and connected some speakers to it. After telling the software package to add the ZP100 and giving it a name I had to press and hold some flashing lights for a few seconds. It took less than one minute to add the second zone. Then, I could listen to my music collection in that room, too.
I've since purchased a few extra ZP100's and have seven zones in the home. We can play the same song in all seven zones (perfectly synchronized between rooms) or we can send different songs to different rooms.
The remote control is very easy and intuitive. It operates A LOT like an iPod, but with a bigger screen and some extra buttons that come in handy. Although, after playing with some friends' iPhones, we look forward to a day when the Sonos controller is just a touch screen... Still, it's very easy to use and very powerful allowing the user to send whatever music to whatever location at the same or varying volume levels. Linking / unlinking two or more zones is easy.
Sound quality is audiophile grade and perform very well through our Dynaudio speakers.
The free music trials are an unexpected benefit. Rhapsody was great and give instant access to 2,000,000 on demand songs for less than the cost of one CD per month. Napster was much less impressive.
A few other feature are nice, too. (1) Each zone can also transmit an extra audio source to all the other zones. For example, I'll connect a turntable to one of them, then share the LP sounds throughout the entire house. (2) The ZP100's and ZP80 can be either hardwired with ethernet cable or they connect wirelessly, automatically as described above. I noticed that the ZP100 actually works as a router allowing it to share a single internet connection with several other devices you might have in that room. (3) These devices are reasonably small and can be hidden. (4) Album art is displayed on the controller, and the controller has "power scroll" is a nice way to move quickly through large music collections. Just zip down to artists starting with "X", then scroll to Xavier Rudd. (5) ZP100 has an separate subwoofer connection and automatically detects is a subwoofer cable is connected. That's an easy way to make small, less expensive speakers sound better, like the free R150's Amazon gave me. |
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