Anyone else got this stuff?

Damn it's addictive

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A yellow loltus

Do they need a PC running? I thought you could buy a base unit and plug a USB drive into it and that was it. It's quite different to the Squeezeboxes in that respect. As it is in price...

I'm not interested in it to be honest. Proprietary system is fine because it really is plug and play; it's the limitations of using it with an existing stereo which get to me. That and the price. My g/f's brother in law is coveting a system because his best mate (who works for Apple) has bought one and goes on about it.

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[OO=[|]=OO]

Nas does not require a pc to be on

But yeah wi-fi music player basically, have iPhone and iPad so remotes are excellent, all sorts of options, pure players- plug into existing audio kit, amplified players- add speakers, all in one units similar to the Bose sound wave.

The tagline is it will revolutionize the way you listen to music, and it actually does

I whacked across 720gb of music onto the nas (took circa 36 hours FFS old laptop ftl)

Can get almost unlimited Internet radio and also subscribe to spottily/ napster to listen to whatever you want really.

Very very impressive!

Updated October 22, 2010 at 7:25 PM

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A yellow loltus

Assuming you already have an amp and speakers then your £279 to get you started, additional costs rack up if you can't get the router next to the amp, as the first zone player needs to get hardwired to the router, or it's a zone bridge which costs another £80.

If you were buying the full lot with literally nothing then yeah it ain't cheap, iPhone/iPad negate the sonos controller which ant cheap..

Also a nas is at least £100 or so..

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A yellow loltus

It's an expensive Squeezebox, isn't it?

Mind you, since they dumped the Classic, Squeezebox has become an expensive Squeezebox

But, yes, centralized streamed music is great.

I could never work out what it offered over a Squeezebox, I must admit. Or indeed any other (now available) wireless streaming device, apart from the interface.

PugRallye said...

My friend seems to like hers very much - they have several of these things around there house - either the standalone boxes with speakers in, or connected to their very expensive hifi.

And yet, the "feed" it with crappy MP3s - something I've raised before but it still strikes me as odd that people pay lots of money for high quality audio gear and then use shoddy, compressed files with it.

They seem to understand "hifi" from a "it costs lots therefore must be good" point with physical things, but have no understanding of the various file formats, bit rates and such like they're using.

I'm pretty sure if they used a lossless format, they'd appreciate the difference, and it would make the money they've spent on kit even more worthwhile.

Anyway....

Maybe they've got other, more pressing issues in their lives, hobbies, friends, place lower on the autistic spectrum etc....

PugRallye said...

Maybe they've got other, more pressing issues in their lives, hobbies, friends, place lower on the autistic spectrum etc....

Not really got anything to do with being a geek or whatever, that's to totally to miss the point.

I didn't miss the point at all, I know that higher bit rate MP3s would sound better on my reference monitors but I value my spare time too much to re-encode or download higher bitrate versions of the music I own. I also have the ability to listen to lower bitrate music without going all OCD/stabbing myself in the eyes.

PugRallye said...

I also have the ability to listen to lower bitrate music without going all OCD/stabbing myself in the eyes.

As do I.

However, for pleasure, I'd rather listen to something of a decent quality. And seeing as how Sonos a) expensive b) marketed on its quality and c) a home system where space/bandwidth is of no concern, it just strikes me as odd that one wouldn't want to make the most of it.

People spend small fortunes on A/V setups and bang on about HD video all the time, and yet MP3 is very "standard definition" by comparison. People seem happy to accept this, where they maybe wouldn't accept a poor video feed.

Sonos + MP3 is akin to expensive A/V setup and some crappy 600MB AVI "screener" instead of a proper HD video source.

That's all...

I'll make the point again that re-encoding or downloading a fair size music collection would take up spare time that a lot of people don't have.

That's all....

PugRallye said...

re-encoding or downloading a fair size music collection

So from now on, you'll rip in a lossless format and make the most of your Sonos equipment then?!

That was my point, I do use lossless now but I can't ever see myself taking time to get higher bit rate versions of my existing collection!

And less of the Sonos, I listen to my music on reference monitors to allow me to hear every artifact on my older music files.

Thinking about getting some Sonos gear myself now, anyone else got anything to add?

I also have a Spotify Premium account so would love to hear from anyone with experience of using them together!

Bump

Anyone on here got anything to add?

Pretty much covered most there is to know, house parties and spotify are awesumz!

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A yellow loltus

I just bought The Gift of Music for myself. I'm really enjoying it. Soon it will be connected to my home server for the music. The interface is lovely. Adding new speakers is very easy. It's pretty expensive, but to be honest, i dont really know what's good with regards to Hi-Fis, didn't have the time to go out and try loads, so went with a popular/respected name.

I had a little look for other Sonos-like products, but didn't really find myc else other than Squeezebox, which i believe is getting dropped by Logitech?

Anyway, i'm very happy with my purchase, and am looking forward to adding more speakers for different rooms in the future.

SONOS has just released this

I think I need it in my life. Just need to save up a few £s first.