We’ve reviewed a lot of home audio solutions, and they all offer different benefits and drawbacks. The big trend is “music everywhere”, whether through powerline networking or wirelessly. Most of these products require a specific music source to feed into the system. Sonos brings something rather more complete to the goal of “music everywhere”. Read on for the complete review of the Sonos solution.
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Those of you with Sonos equipment already filling your abode with the sweet tunes of your music library and an iPhone or iPod Touch should promptly hit up Apple’s App Store and download their free app now. It may or may not be available right this second, but it should make its way to the App Store sometime today. There are two other Sonos apps currently available but they want you to pay $15 for each.

Having seen the app in person I can say that it’s very intuitive and easy to use. You will also be prompted to update your Sonos’ firmware to 2.7 today so that it is compatible with the software. So if you bought Sonos equipment in 2005 and you own an iPhone then you’re sittin’ pretty. A demo of the app in action and other screen shots are available after the jump.

But that’s not the only announcement Sonos has for today. Read More

I think what they’re trying to say in this video is that the new Sonos CR100 remote is completely water proof which means you can can leave it by the pool next to that bottle of Jack Daniels without worrying that your “house guests” might drop it into the deep end. Note: you can probably stop watching this at about the 2 minute mark.

Sonos just announced smaller receivers and players. The ZP120 - with amp - is 43 percent smaller and the ZP50 - without amp - is a standard receiver. Both use MIMO for increased range and link quality. If you’re familiar with the current Sonos line-up you’ll be doubly impressed by the size of these little buggers.

The entire kit, along with the LCD-based remote, connects to PCs and Macs and can stream audio to multiple rooms or zones. The real draw of the Sonos system is the zone system which allows you to play different music in different rooms. For example, my living room could be the drum and bass room while the basement could be the chill out room. The bathroom could be full of whale-song.

Pricing is still unannounced for the U.S.

UPDATE - All of the releases appear below.

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Sonos, makers of everybody’s favorite way to stream music throughout your house, has announced a partnership with Sirius. The deal: Beginning today, if you’ve got Sonos’ Zoneplayer hardware, you can download software that lets you stream 80 channels of the satellite stuff–including Howard Stern and the NFL. It’ll be free for 30 days, after which point it’ll ring up to $12.95 per month for new Sirius customers, or $2.99 if you’re already a subscriber.

Of course, Sonos already streams content from Rhapsody and Pandora, meaning that this is just one more step in their every-increasing web of alliances that could make them the daddy of streaming services. Not bad for a company that doesn’t even approach the name recognition or size of the CE giants. And still no telling what effect, if any, an XM-Sirius merger would have on this deal.

On the same note: Sirius is set to announce a bunch of new recievers later today, so stay tuned for what’s in store.
[via BusinessWeek]

This week: Computers, set-top boxes (like AppleTV), and AV
receivers are battling to be your household hub, streaming music and
movies back and forth across your pad until you become sterile and
glow in the dark. All this gear is versatile, but it’s hard to know
which one to pick — especially when hefty sums of money are involved.
Sonos and now Denon seem to have the most promising solutions, but
life is passing their equipment by while gadgets like the iPhone and
Archos’s 605 WiFi threaten to swoop in and take all.

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Sonos is busy this week. After announcing Phil Abram as its new president and COO, the Santa Barbara based company has announced an arrangement to offer its wireless music boxes in Best Buy stores.

The Sonos BU130 is available today in more than 440 stores and will be featured in more than 600 stores by the end of 2007. It will be showcased with a live, interactive multi-zone display.

Depressingly, however, the wider availability does not signal a price drop for the excellent, but expensive, device — it will maintain its $999 price tag. Nevertheless, the greater visibility afforded by a prominent Best Buy display is certain to augment Sonos’ sales greatly and increase awareness of the company.

Sonos
Best Buy

Sonos has announced the installation of Phil Abram as its new president and chief operating officer. He comes fresh off an 11 year stint at Sony where he held a number of strategic management roles, the most recent being vice president and senior general manager of television products.

The move could signal a significant strengthening of the core for Sonos, who, to date, has released superb products, but only managed to cater to a mostly niche market. As of now, however, it remains unclear what sort of impact this hire will have on the company. We’ll continue to monitor the goings-on at Camp Sonos and keep you all posted on whatever gels.

Sonos today announced the availability of the $999 Bundle 130 (BU130). The bundle includes one Sonos ZonePlayer 80 (ZP80), one ZonePlayer 100 (ZP100) and one Controller 100 (CR100). The package will allow users to wirelessly stream music to two rooms and control it remotely using the awesome controller.

Users can also opt to include a Loudspeaker 100, bringing the package total to $1,149. Previous bundles will be discontinued. Sonos’ complete new pricing scheme follows the drop.

Sonos also announced today that a 30-day trial of Pandora would be included with all new devices. How much effect this will have on either company is uncertain, but it is, at least, good for users.

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Pandora, the U.S.’s favorite streaming music service, just launched two new products, Pandora for Sprint and Pandora for Sonos.
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The word “audiophile” gets bandied about so much that it seems in danger of losing its true meaning as a descriptor for a grade of products that is of such high quality that most of us can’t hope to afford then. But this year saw quite a few items blurring the line between audiophile and consumer audio, as higher-end components are finding their ways into almost-affordable products. The eight deliciously designed audio toys below are my favorites of 2006, and while they’re not exactly cheap, you don’t have to be Paris Hilton to get one in your holiday stocking this year.

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SanDisk, makers of the Sansa players, and RealNetworks, makers of the Rhapsody music store, are teaming up together to ensure their hardware and content work seamlessly together. Before now, the only player to work bundled with a single music store was the Apple iPod. It was this synergy, among various other things, that allows the iPod to become the de-facto champ of portable music players and online music stores.

By combining Sansa and Rhapsody, SanDisk and Real are trying to make sure their customers get a complete “experience” to rival the iPod/iTunes “experience”. This is a similar tactic that Microsoft is taking with its Zune players, making it not play protected music. At first we thought the Zune’s non-support for PlaysForSure was a typo, but they are most likely going to bundle their Zunes only with their Zune Marketplace music content, ensuring the 1-to-1 relationship that iPod and iTunes has.

In addition, Rhapsody has also partnered with Sonos, allowing them to provide an integrated music solution for the living room as well.

We’ll see if RealNetwork’s reversal of their old tactic of universal playability will have any effect on the iPod + iTunes tsunami.

IPod, TheyPod: Rivals Imitate Apple’s Success [WSJ]

Streaming music and video could finally invade the living rooms of mainstream America next year. With Apple’s iTV vaporware device coming to light early, it sort of sets the stage for all kinds of digital fun.
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