Sonos is an infectious virus
by Volker Weber
You start with one ZP100, you have to take one apart, then you add one ZP80. Then all your friends get theirs. And start to like it, as the Wife Acceptance Factor kicks in. And before you know it, you end up with 14 Zones.
Plan for growth. Don't buy single components, but always bundles. You will need more than one player. And more than one controller. Unless you live alone. In a single room. But even then, you might need another one in the bathroom ... ;-).
Comments
I absolutely agree! I'm hooked on Sonos. All (relevant) rooms are now equipped with one. Until recently I thought of getting rid of the my Sonos Controller CR100 since the iPhone/iPod touch software does exactly the same and searching for music using the software controller is much more efficient than using the CD100. However, a couple of days ago I started using the physical controller again and I have to say actual (physical) buttons also have their benefit. I'm keeping it. One challange I'm facing as a kind of Sonos advocate is that people don't fully get it until they own one. On paper some competitors look similar but in real life Sonos is hard to beat. What I recommend for the not-so-sure crowd is to get a ZP90 and and iPod touch. If you happen to already own an iPhone/iPod touch you can get started at a fairly low cost 349,00 EUR/249,00 GBP. And as you said, Volker, you can grow your Sonos family from there. Now with Napster, Deezer, last.fm support you don't event need to worry about managing your own music library anymore. For me that alone is a huge benefit and time-saver.
In my experience, I'd only partially agree with the "buy bundles" bit. I do not need nearly as many ZP80's or ZP90's as I do ZP100's or ZP120's. Occasionally I see bundles of a controller with 2 ZP120's - those bundles work best for me. In the end, I bought a number of older ZP100's off of eBayers who wanted the latest and greatest or were selling off the older generation components.
Otherwise, "YES", Sonos is a bit addictive. Most important, it is wife / parents / grand parents friendly - VERY FRIENDLY. My parents who are not electronically inclined needed only 3 minutes of training to use Last.fm and raved about it every day of their last visit.
As soon as they will support other character sets next to "ASCII" I am willing to test it. But we have quite many with e.g. Japanese artists or titles - and like Chinese, Indian, Thai, Korean, ... these are not supported at all. In contrast to any iPod.
The ZP100 is the mother of all ZonePlayers. Safe of the digital output, it has all the features of the ZP80. The ZP120, as much as I like it, misses the analog line out. In the beginning, I preferred the amp-less ZP80/ZP90, but I have since dumped the external stereo amps. They may be more powerful, but you have to either let them run around the clock or switch them on and off separately.
Sonos currently bundles one controller with one ZP90 or one ZP120. My guess is that they need to sell CR100 inventory, now that the iPhone controller is so good. A very long shot, but maybe there is a new one coming. Your guess is as good as mine.
I would like to see bundles without Controller. The Controller is ugly, clumsy and needs to be recharged all the time.
SONOS should stop making an own controller and bundle this with an IPOD Touch. This would be a win win for SONOS and the customer.
My controllers live in their cradle. When I do take them with me, I never run out of juice before putting them back. Without the cradle, this becomes a completely different story. So I would vote to throw the cradle always in, so nobody is too cheap to get one. It makes all the difference.
While I often use the iPhone controller, and most of the times the desktop controller, I think a dedicated controller has its advantages. If only to quickly set the volume or advance a track.
I am also sure that Sonos is very very hard at work to design a new controller. I only see a when and not an if they make a new one. Since I have beta tested two of their offerings, I know they are a sucker for quality. Sonos would throw away a product that already exists as prototypes and go back to the drawing board, if it does not pass final tests.
The current controller has some advantages. It is pretty sturdy and also spash proof. Just two weeks ago I forgot one CR100 on the patio over night. And it safely survived the rain shower.
I fully agree with all you say above and like to add "kid friendly". For particularly being parent/ grand parent and kid friendlyness, the bulky controller is not easy to be replaced. Personally, I also prefer the iphone, but e.g. not in the bath room.
I would be surprised if Sonos would like get into a full dependency of apple - no need to do so.
"Master bedroom"...fantastic! Your minions don't get their own zone then?
No Sonos for Dobby.
