SONOS: THE Expandable Sound System

by Roberta Murphy 

It is with blushing embarrassment that I admit to still listening to a vintage Sony Jukebox which holds 100 CD’s, and that I bought my own personal i-POD less than two years ago. (Are these confessions allowed in a luxury home blog?) There is hope, though, for audinosaurs such as this writer.

 A couple of week’s ago The Tomato’s Jim Cronin suggested I take a look at the Sonos Digital Music System. He is positively in love with his little Sonos, which can provide the same or different music for each room in his home—and has the capability of expanding to meet his needs.

Aha! A small and superb sound system that can expand from one fortunate room to a Donald Trump manse is worthy of further research. I headed over to CNET Reviews, and discovered spectacular reviews from users who love the  Sonos ZP80 bundle.  They rave about its sexy design, ease of set-up, and the wireless color screen remote which allows the owner full control of music from any room in the home. Moreover, the highly popular and subscription-based Rhapsody is seamlessly integrated into the Sonos system. No PC required! (update: Sonos now supports both i-Tune and Napster subscriptions).This means you can tap into thousands and thousands of songs the moment you turn on your Sonos—whether from your own music files or that of the Rhapsody service.

San Diego luxury home owners will love the petite size of the Zone Player, which measures just 2.0 by 5.4 inches square and weighs just 1.5 pounds. They will also love the ease of installation: Just plug one Zone Player into an ethernet port somewhere on the home network (can also be integrated with wireless systems).and hook into speakers or existing sound systems. You can then expand at will.  For large homes (up to 32 rooms), there is probably no better $1000 solution for a digital music system that has the expansion capability to distribute music throughout the entire home without expensive and invasive new wiring.

For the budget-conscious who don’t care to pay for their music, Sonos comes pre-set to play almost 90 free internet radio stations—or can be configured to play in both MP3 and WMA streaming formats. And finally, the system can support as many as 50,000 tracks in your sound library and will automatically index Podcasts, audio books and new music that is added to your library. I am still wrapping my brain around the capabilities of this little music powerhouse—and am considering the liberation of all the music stored on the PC’s and lone i-MAC in our home. Could a device such as this, with its storage capabilities, possibly change the processing speed of music-laden computers? Just a thought….    

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