Thanks to reader MT (and to Engadget) for
pointing out a flurry of reviews of the Sonos home music networking system. But no
thanks to Sonos for creating this unwieldy and inadequate monster. My impressions come from reading the specs and
reviews; I have not tested a unit myself. I believe the reviewers
(Walt Mossberg and
Alex
Veiga) when they say the remote control is gorgeous and the system is easy to set up. But Sonos is way, way too
expensive, and contains limitations that would be deal-killers in devices half as pricey.
Sonos is a dedicated wireless networker that links together a series of amplifiers to a main home computer, and puts
the whole loop under the control of a hand-held remote. The basic setup, which includes two amps and the remote, costs
1,200 dollars—no speakers included. For that price, why not buy two laptops, pack them into the home's wireless
network, and use them as dedicated music machines? (Plus, they double as full-fledged computers.) Laptops even have
their own speakers, if you can stand the sound.
Sonos suffers from an inexplicable downfall: it does not play copy-protected files. That means tracks purchased from
Napster or iTMS will be killed before reaching the Sonos network. This is unbelievable. Aren't these the very tracks
that the tech/music coalition want us to be buying and playing at home? If someone spends 1,200 dollars on this get-up,
and also pays 99 cents per track to build a music collection, then finds that Sonos chokes on the library, that person
would be well justified in running to the open arms of Bit Torrent for any future acquisitions.
My apologies to everyone writing me saying how great Sonos is. I don't need to see it in action to know that it tilts
the bogus meter in the wrong direction. Far better, cheaper, more flexible options for distributing music in the home
abound.
Sonos (Hey, It Shares Letters with Bogus and Snooze)
Reader Comments
(Page 1)3. "That means tracks purchased from Napster or iTMS will be killed before reaching the Sonos network." Yeah, that's true, but you can subsitute any home player for the word . You make it seem as if it were a Sonos limitation, which it isn't. To call it "inexplicable" is lame and shows little breadth of knowledge in the area. I'm no Sonos advocate... but you're just wrong in calling it "inexplicable." Also, Sonos is incorporating Rhapsody into the system within the next few months (showing it is possible to play DRM'd songs)... the creators and their DMS are the ones halting this ability; nobody has opened up their DRM.
Not because of your comments, but because of your lack of industry understanding do I see the "reliability" meter tilting in the wrong direction for The Digital Music Weblog.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by FootixWC
4. Because you ask the question, why not use two laptops, it is clear to me that you just don't get it.
The niche these guys are filling is multi-zone / whole-house audio at ~$400 per room (plus the cost of a contoller) spread over the number of units you have.
The 50-watt built-in amp means you don't need an existing stereo to complete a wholehouse adudio styetm. A nice pair of bookshelves speakers and a zone player and your set. Or use line-level out, with sub-woofer out, to your home amplifier.
The units include a 4-port 10/100 switch and can be wired to your network. The wireless network is a proprietary network algorthim for the "mesh". Seemless transitions on the remote from one zone to another. Controll any zone from any place. 1 step joining and dropping of zones. Synch'd volumes for all linked zones.
More often than not, I find that the remote control is the weakest part of a product (Audiotron or Slim for example) and make it just fail miserably. The Sonos remote is the best there is, no doubt about it. It finally gives me all the information and control i need in something comfortable to hold and carry. A laptop could never do this. This remote passes the WAF test with high marks.
The 50-watt built-in amp means you don't need an existing stereo to complete a whole-house adudio styetm. A nice pair of bookshelves speakers and a zone player and your set. Up and running in a snap.
Maybe what your starting to understand is that the lesson here is not that you need to support DRM, but that you shouldn't buy protected-music until the DRM Police figure out how to do it right. I wont use iTunes because they impose uncessary restriction on the use of the music I download from them. I won't use an iPod for the same reason.
From my personal experience with the Sonos ZonePlayers (I have two and one controller) I believe your opinion would change should you have the chance to use one.
I have used most types of mp3 device (laptop, pda / laptop, audiotron, slim server and squeeze box, creative labs wireless sound blaster, Play@TV, Microsoft Windows Media Server, iTunes, iPod to name some) and the Sonos v1.0 product is a winner - no doubts about it.
John
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by John Benjamin
5. The cost of the first two rooms is 600 dollars each--then the cost drops to 400 per room ... BUT without speakers. How can you talk about buying one set of speakers for whole-house coverage? So a speaker set in each room adds to the cost. The main functional difference between Sonos and using laptops in all the rooms is the remote control that ties Sonos rooms together. That's not worth a lot to me.
6. The inability to play iTunes purchased music is a deal killer. It's driving my absolutely insane. Is there any product out there - - ANY!!! - - that can do what Sonos' promises and also handle iTunes purchased music? If I had only been smart enough to see that Apple would encrypt its files to totallys screw my ability to play my music "anywhere" in my house "anytime" (like Sonos delivers), I'd have NEVER started down the iTunes path. I wonder if Apple realize the degree of enmity it's created by this b.s.
Am I missing something? Is there a product that solves this problem. (AirTunes does not, so don't bother mentioning it.)
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Andrew McGaan
7. Brad: This is an old posting, but I have to say that you just don't get it. Have you ever looked at a whole-house distributed audio system? The Sonos is much cheaper than anything with even a similar feature set, and the Sonos is the most full-featured of anything in the category. You can complain that it won't play songs purchased from the iTunes music store, but guess what, nothing without a fruit logo on it will. If you buy iTunes protected content, that's your own fault. Complain to Apple. Microsoft "plays for sure" suppong, now that is something they need to add.
BTW, laptops in different rooms. . . how are you going to sync playback for the whole house? How are you going to control different rooms with one remote? How are you going to stand the terrible sound from the tiny laptop speakers? I'm surprised that you didn't recommend running speaker wire across the floor to each and every room, because integration and useability obviously don't have any value to you.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Carlton Bale
8. Your opinions are BS.
You obviously have no idea what a good multi room audio server system costs if you think this is expensive.
So mayb e you should just stick to your IPOD, or is that too expensive as well
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jim Showing
9. Your opinions are BS.
You obviously have no idea what a good multi room audio server system costs if you think this is expensive.
So mayb e you should just stick to your IPOD, or is that too expensive as well
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Jim Showing
10. So, have you tried it yet, ye of cluelessness?
I think a demo--and a walk through an audio shop selling old-world distributed audio solutions--would clear your head quite quickly. Ask 'em how much for a 2 or 3 room system with similar zone sync, sources, and control. Assume the speakers are a wash for both systems, b/c if you are going to listen over your laptop speakers, well, maybe you shouldn't be writing about audio.
Opinions are cheap, like a__holes, everybody's got one...but informed commentary, that requires just a little effort.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by G Monet
11. I agree with most of the things that people have said in response to your story - you are a jacka$$ and should not be writing anything about products you have never used. Having said that, there are a few things that I want to clarify - firstly, there is NOTHING that sync's music like Sonos. You can link zones and have the same song playing at the same millisecond in every room - try doing that with laptops all over your house. Second - you can play any song you want (even different songs) in every zone at different or the same volume. Another feature that no other system has. You can add line-in (buffered or unbuffered), use metadata, and the support staff at this company is amazing. If you have a question, you usually wait less than a minute - and if the problem is with your home network rather than their system, they fix it for you anyway. Re: Microsoft Plays for Sure - they can't support it. Or rather, Microsoft can't support them. Plays for Sure is an "open" DRM, but it is not set up for multiroom use. There are a lot of issues with this DRM and once they get worked out, I'm sure Sonos will support it. For the time being, you can always get a Rhapsody subscription for $10 per month and stream unlimited albums (they have over 1 million to choose from) like they were ripped onto your computer. I would say this is a pretty simple solution. As far as everyone who buys iTunes music - you should know better. The DRM is not licensed to ANYONE - haven't you ever noticed you can't play that music in Winamp/RealPlayer/Windows Media Player etc? Nothing but Apple. They make you completely dependent on their players and make you pay 99 cents for terrible quality MP3s to boot. And as far as it not living up to other systems in its category - the Sonos system is the best system out there. Period. Crestron costs literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up and it's so confusing it's almost impossible to use because of how many features it has - it's overwhelming and you can't possible remember all of it. And it breaks - then you have to have some guy come fix it cuz there's no way you're fixing it yourself. Sonos just plugs in and works. It doesn't break. And if there's a problem, you can usually just fix it yourself. But if you can't they have the previously mentioned fantastic support staff. Basically, the moral of the story is: If you don't have Sonos - get it. And if you purchase music from iTunes - stop. And if you haven't used a product and know nothing about whole house multiroom audio - don't write your opinion publicly so that everyone can see how uneducated you are.
Posted at 8:50AM on Dec 24th 2005 by GetDigital
1. As you said " you have never tried it". Maybe before you write a " review" you should do your research.
Posted at 5:58AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Sancha