Sonos - April 10 and the ZP80 is already here
by Volker Weber
I had no idea what the UPS guy was bringing. Another box from Sonos. Speakers? No. Another ZP100? Wrong. The spanking new ZP80. That was quick. I was expecting the ZP80 in May, or in late April earliest.
Unpack the beast. Small. Incredibly small. Smaller than a stack of CDs. Compare it to the iPod Mk. V 60 GB above. I quickly shot a few photos and then hooked it up. As expected, installation was a breeze. It was up and running in 3 minutes. Take a look at the back:
The subwoofer out and two Ethernet ports are gone. As are the speaker terminals, since the ZP80 does not have an amplifier. But it packs digital outs, both optical and coax.
Sonos is announcing the new player in London today. A single player sells for 399 €, and there is also a bundle with two players and one controller for 1149 € which saves you 108 €. I'd advise to spend these savings on the ridiculously priced cradle and a good cable to connect to your amplifier. Here is the complete price sheet:
What I have here is a seed unit. The new ZP80 will be shipping to Europe at the end of April.
Sonos - first impressions
Sonos - second look
Sonos - the controller
Sonos - music from the iTunes Music Store
Sonos - now we are talking
Sonos - getting into the zone
Sonos - the mesh network
Sonos - inside the ZonePlayer
Sonos - April 10 and the ZP80 is already here
Sonos - the Wife Acceptance Factor
Comments
How does the weight compare to the iPod? I know the ZP80 is VERY light.
It's about 0.7 kg, but it does not really fit well in a shirt pocket. Also, it would need a very long power cable if you wanted to lug it around. And another cable to connect to the amplifier which you left behind.
I should rather compare it to the ZP100, which is 4.5 kg.
I just bought a SlimDevice which does about the same as the Sonos system apart from looking iPod like. I find the Sonos system way too expensive and like the openSource part of the SlimServer software. There is a lot of nice features like RSS reading, podcasting and lots of plugins for the SlimServer.
I've installed the SlimServer software on my Synology NAS so I can control the SlimDevice via the wireless network in my house :)
Klaus, I thought the same thing. Until I tried Sonos.
