Update : Best Buy is now sell the ZP80 for $ 200 — while supply last . I fuck Sonos , the super synchronise - up wireless music home system , but have always been a little freak out out by the price , about $ 750 to start , including the increasingly old - school - looking $ 400 curl - wheel Controller . When I project theSonos iPhone Wi - Fi app — complimentary if you ’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch — I realized that the Controller was in conclusion a matter of the past tense . Couple the app with aclearance - price ZP80 ZonePlayer , and you’re able to start your own Sonos rig for $ 300 . After playing around with the late ironware and software , I can safely say that ’s a hell of a deal .
https://gizmodo.com/sonos-audio-system-brings-controller-app-to-iphone-fir-5069681
I say “ you’re able to start ” your rig because one of the Sonos ’ main marketing point is its ability to wirelessly coordinate ZonePlayers all throughout the house for cleanly synchronize euphony playback . The idea is that you spend $ 300 on the ZP80 ( or$350 on a ZP90if you miss out on the headway inventory ) and then by and by on , when times are n’t so tough , you may add more ZonePlayers as you go .
What ’s with child about the one ZonePlayer is that you immediately get the AirPort Express - same ability to grab music from your Mac or PC , plus the iTunes Remote app ’s ability to control it from a small handheld , but that ’s just the beginning . The ZonePlayer come with the ability to dish up vane wireless , Rhapsody , Napster , Pandora , Last.fm and Best Buy Music , all without a reckoner .
In my household , it all encounter out rather well :
When my laptop is awake and on the meshing , the ZonePlayer I have connect straight to my router ( via Ethernet ) and a stereo system of rules can access all of my non - DRM track . I can sort through all those path via the Sonos Desktop Controller , which lick on both Macs and PCs and whose setup was ridiculously well-heeled .
But I can take the air away from the laptop ( depart it on ) and instead pick up an iTouch lying on the umber table , which have me view the same exact course , and just as tight .
Say I close or power down my laptop computer , or my wife want to get on the Sonos while I am away , laptop in tow . There are so many sources of music available via the Sonos Controller app , she may not really even notice that my vast library is gone . ( I could , obviously , load the Sonos control condition on her laptop computer so that it would help her music , too , but based on what I ’m enjoin you , that has so far proven irrelevant . )
My wife loves Fresh Air with Terry Gross . By searching for the show in the Radio section , she can not only find out when it ’s on next , but can listen to recent show in full , at a much well sound tone than those damn Audible downloads , for zero money . She can also search for different radio station and add them to favorites — we have both our favorite NYC and Seattle radio side by side . You ca n’t yet bookmark literal radio shows , a la Fresh Air , in Favorites , but I ’m hoping that ’s something that will be worked out presently .
You probably now that Sonos offer free 30 - day no - credit rating - card - required trials of Rhapsody , Napster and Sirius — the key , I think , is to try out all three in a row , make you fundamentally 60 day of free on - requirement medicine sampling , and a month of decent satellite radio , before you take one , if any .
Controlling the system over Wi - Fi is well-fixed , too . You kinda have to get used to the queue concept that goes back to desktop music nickelodeon of olde — once you add songs to the waiting line , they ’re there until you clear them , even after they ’ve played . But you could tally many Song and radio shows of differ sources to the same queue , making for a extremely programmable audio experience : I can heed to the new - ish Coldplay , conform to by Terry Gross ’s consultation with Seth Meyers , followed by a classic mix playlist I devised in iTunes ( automatically recognized by Sonos ) , all queue up up in just a few minutes . The loudness restraint is funny — on the iTouch , you have to tap to the left over or right hand of the Pseudemys scripta to make it go up or down , but once I figured that out , it was quiet sailing .
After the super - syncability and the multiple sources of medicine , the third best thing about Sonos is the fact that it is always being elevate . So even though there are some technical advantages to the newer hardware ( wireless - N is the big one ) , the basic functionality is the same , meaning purchasing at clearance should n’t be a problem .
What do n’t I like ? I feel like this new setup has answered my grown historical gripes with the system ; though it would be nice for it to play iTunes DRM tracks , and it would be commodious for the first ZonePlayer to connect wirelessly and not via hard Ethernet ( it does this so that it can make its own super - stable Wi - Fi web ) , the thing is getting better and gimcrack at the same time—$300 for clearance ZP80s , potentially even less on eBay . If that is n’t good intelligence in these tumultuous times , I do n’t know what is . [ Sonos ]
Related : Gizmodo ’s all important Iphone Apps
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