|  Modern
upscale homes are often coming equipped with distributed audio systems, which
have traditionally relied upon multi-zone electronics driving long cables throughout
the house. There are many offerings available from a variety of well established
companies. However, most of these systems require wall panel controllers and a
central distribution hub. A company called Sonos has introduced their solution
which leverages from standard home networks using CAT5 cables or wireless 802.11b
WiFi connectivity. We first saw the Sonos Digital Music Server demonstrated at
the 2004 Electronic House Expo in Long Beach, California over a year ago. The
system had an impressive wireless handheld controller with a detailed color LCD
display providing feedback to the user. Naturally, we were excited to get our
hands on a system for review. Our patience paid off when we received the long-awaited
Sonos package (specially priced at $1199) that included two ZP100 ZonePlayers
($499 each) and the CR100 Controller ($399). Almost as amazing as the features
offered by Sonos was the ease of setting up the system. It took less than 15 minutes
to get the audio up and running. The user is required to connect at least one
of the ZonePlayers to a wired ethernet connection. The other ZonePlayers (up to
32 in all) have the option of wired or wireless connections. The Sonos system
does not hold the music, but instead accesses the content through the network
connection using a PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage box. We used our existing
file server PC running Windows XP to distribute our music. Sonos supports compressed
MP3, WMA, AAC (MPEG4), Ogg Vorbis, and Flac (lossless) music files as well as
uncompressed WAV and AIFF files. The latest firmware update (Version 1.3) now
offers support for Apple Lossless Codec. Additional enhancements have also made
their way into the latest firmware update including better playback control and
larger cover art.
 Software
Setting up the system is easy and fully supports PC or Mac systems. If neither
is available and the music files are hosted on a network-based hard drive, the
handheld CR100 controller can be used to identify the ZonePlayers. We used our
Sony Vaio laptop to run the Desktop Controller software. It was obvious
to us that Sonos dedicated a lot of time and effort in the development of their
software to make it user friendly. It has been completely stable throughout our
review period (2 months) and is feature rich. Each ZonePlayer location can be
named and later identified in the Zone menu. The Desktop Controller
software gives the user full control of the Sonos system. Playlist files created
with third-party software such as iTunes, WinAmp and Windows Media Player can
be imported.
The
Sonos software also supports protected content using Rhapsody 3.0 from Real.com.
Setting this up requires more effort, but we were able to stream content from
the Rhapsody music site with our trial subscription. Music quality from this site
was reasonably good, but not quite as impressive as music we encoded at higher
bitrates (320kb/s). Navigating
through the Desktop Controller software was intuitive. The left side of
the window displays the zones defined by the user. The center portion of the screen
displays the "Now Playing" music cover art along with artist, album
and track information. Also included is the music queue with the ability for the
user to remove tracks as well as clear or save the queue. The right side of the
user interface displays the library content grouped by Artist, Albums,
Genre, Composers, Tracks and Playlists.  Controller
The CR100 controller is an ergonomically designed unit with an impressive looking
LCD display. Similar music information found on the computer's main software screen
is also provided on the wireless portable controller. A total of nine backlit
buttons and three soft buttons located below the screen are provided. Volume and
mute buttons are located on the left side with standard controls for selecting
and playing tracks on the right. Navigating through the menu system is made easy
with the iPod-like navigation wheel built into the unit with the center select
button. The Zones button selects the zone while the Music button
chooses the audio content by Music Library, Playlists, Internet Radio stations
or Line input. A built-in light sensor automatically illuminates the keys when
low ambient light is detected. The LCD display and button backlight levels can
be adjust through the settings menu. Powered by a rechargeable Li-Ion Polymer,
factory-replaceable battery, the CR100 controller has a battery level indicator
on the top right corner of the screen. When charging the unit, the top right indicator
illuminates orange. Once the unit is fully charged, the indicator illuminates
green.
The
Controller provided excellent two-way communication in every room inside of our
home. Most wireless products run into reception problems at extreme ends of our
single-story house, but the Sonos CR100 communicated with the ZonePlayers without
a problem. In addition, our second CR100 Controller worked seamlessly with the
first, allowing us to have both controllers operating different zones in the house
simultaneously. When viewing the same ZonePlayer on the two different controller
screens, one controller updates accordingly with the other used to control the
music.  Linking
Zones
Using the Link Zone feature, users can link some or all of
the listening zones to a single group. This is particularly useful when having
a party or when one might be moving from one room to another within the house
and would like to hear the same music. At the same time it is possible for one
or more of the other zones to be running fully independent audio streams. The
controller clearly shows which zones are linked and what music is currently playing
on each zone. In addition, the mode (Stop, Play or Pause) is also indicated on
the screen next to each zone grouping. The Drop Zone button is visible
when more than one zone is assigned to a given group. Pressing this button allows
the user to release a zone.
Linking
Volumes
 Controlling
the volume level of all linked zones is easy using the Group Volume control.
The Group Volume control appears as part of the individual volume levels
when multiple zones are linked in a group. The volume for each zone within a group
can be individually set and are globally controlled using the Group Volume.
If the Group Volume level is set to the maximum, all zones are also set
to the maximum levels. When the Group Volume is reduced, all zones are
reduced equally even though the initial values may have been different from one
another. The implementation of the level controls proved to work very well in
our setup.  Charging
Cradle (CC100)
One thing became apparent when we used the handheld controller.
We did not like having to connect and disconnect the power plug to the unit each
time we wanted to charge it. Luckily, Sonos recently introduced the much anticipated
Charging Cradle (CC100), designed specifically for the CR100 controller. The CC100
is simply a docking station that uses the controller's existing AC adapter to
power two metal contacts at the base of the unit. The power jack attaches to the
bottom of the unit as seen here. Once set up,
the user can place the CR100 controller in the cradle and the unit charges through
these contacts. The cradle is also a convenient way of holding the controller
for easy viewing. The $49.99 price tag seems steep for a piece of plastic, but
is an essential part of the system. The CC100 package also includes a bracket
with anchors and screws for wall mounting the unit. Not only does the new cradle
look good, but it makes using the controller simple with easy docking. We chose
to use the cradle on our table without mounting it to a wall.
 Installation
The ZonePlayer is a compact design measuring 10.2" wide, 8.2" deep (including
speaker terminals) and 4.4" tall. Our setup included a pair of Klipsch RB-15
compact bookshelf speakers for our initial testing. ZonePlayers can go anywhere
AC power is available and connect wirelessly when a wired Ethernet connection
is not available. Our setup used a wired connection for each of our ZonePlayers.
Each ZonePlayer is identified by pressing the Mute and Volume Up
buttons simultaneously. This lets the Desktop Controller software identify
the location of each of the ZonePlayers during the setup process. Both our Controller
and ZonePlayers required a firmware update that was automatically detected by
the software. We were prompted to proceed with the update and the latest data
code was transferred from the Sonos website.
The front panel has a white indicator when the unit is online. This light can
be disabled if it causes a distraction in environments such as home theaters.
The green Mute light will illuminate on the front panel when the user activates
mute on the ZonePlayer. Both
the Controller (CR100) and the ZonePlayers (ZP100) are Linux-based products based
on a 2.4 version of the kernel. Using the Sonosnet™ system, each of the ZonePlayers
form a self-configuring secure peer-to-peer wireless mesh. This allows different
audio streams to flow to and from each zone. Each ZonePlayer also serves as an
access point for the handheld controller.  Connections
The rear panel of the ZonePlayer has a detachable power cord with an input voltage
selector switch (115VAC/230VAC). A pair of speaker outputs designed to provide
50W minimum RMS per channel into 8 ohms and a pair of line level outputs are also
provided. A line-level subwoofer output is also provided for powered subwoofers
and can be especially important when using main speakers that lack low frequency
response. This autosensing output automatically applies an 80 Hertz crossover
to the main and subwoofer outputs. The latest firmware update (Version 1.3) allows
the line level outputs to be fixed or variable using the Sonos volume control.
The
rear panel also includes a 4-port ethernet switch which allows other wired ethernet
products to use the same network drop. An autosensing pair of analog inputs is
detected by the ZonePlayer and can be used as an audio source for any of the other
ZonePlayers. We connected our multi-zone Antex SRX-3 TriplePlay SIRIUS® receiver
to supply programming to other zones in the Sonos network. Users have access to
Internet radio stations preprogrammed into the Sonos offering a variety of music. Conclusion
We have seen many distributed audio systems over the years and some have had impressive
features. The main drawback of the more sophisticated products is the complexity
and/or the price. In addition, the vast majority require custom installation to
maximize their capabilities and are not always available directly to the consumer.
The Sonos Digital Music system is designed for anyone who wants to set up and
stream music to multiple locations in their home or office using wired ethernet
or wireless 802.11b (WiFi). The clever design includes a wireless handheld controller
with an attractive color display completely capable of showing the cover art of
your CDs. The system is very intuitive and we had the system up and running in
less than 30-minutes with minimal use of the manuals. Mac users can rejoice because
Sonos is completely compatible with both PCs and Macs. The
bundled package priced at $1,199.00 includes a single handheld wireless Controller,
and two ZonePlayers offering customers a savings of $200.00 compared to purchasing
the components separately. Having seen so many options for distributing audio
in today's homes, I can't think of a better all-around product than the Sonos
Digital Music System. The product is not only well-engineered with excellent build
quality, but it offers customers the sonic performance and features the set it
apart from anything else we have seen. Finally a product that both you and your
spouse can enjoy. -
Kevin Nakano | 
