Hi List, For those who are in the market for a good speaker/boombox, I thought I remind people again about the Sonos multi-room wireless music system. I feel that their offering is superior to most everything else because what they offer is more than a Bluetooth or Airplay speaker. Sonos doesn't natively support Airplay, but one can Airplay enable a Sonos system by hooking an Airport Express up to one of the players via the 3.5mm audio out on the Airport Express. Basically the Airport Express is just a source and if you Airplay to it you can access this from any Sonos player in your house.
Currently Sonos makes 7 different players: 1. Connect: a small box which can be connected to an existing receiver via Optical Digital, Coax Digital or analog RCA. The Connect also has 1 set of RCA inputs which let's you hook up a CD player, portable player like a VictorReader Stream, a laptop etc. Anything that has a 3.5mm or RCA output. 2. Connect Amp: This is similar to a Connect except that it has an integrated 110 Watt Class D amplifier (55 Watts per channel). It also has the RCA input as well as an RCA output for hooking up a conventional powered subwover. Furthermore there are regular speaker terminals like you would find on any receiver or amplifier and with a good set of speakers the Connect Amp sounds fantastic, well, basically as good as your speakers; the amplifier is of very good quality. 3. Play 5: This is their first and top of the line portable boombox type player. It has 5 separate Class D amplifiers and speakers in a traditional boombox style player. 4. Play 3: a smaller version of the Play 5, I don't have one of those so can't say anything about it from my own experience. 5. Play 1: yet a smaller and more economical portable player, once again I only own a Play 5 and a few Connect and Connect Amp players and have no experience with it. I believe both the Play 1 and Play 3 can be used as a pair for stereo. 6. Playbar: A long speaker, actually multiple speakers, designed to sit under a TV for surround sound. This can be used in conjunction with Play 1 or Play 3 units to create a wireless system with front and rear speakers. 7. Sonos Sub: This is a wireless subwover which works seamlessly with the Connect Amp, the Playbar and I think the Play 5. What I like about Sonos is the versatility and the fact that you can expand the system by adding any of the zone players into the mix. The Sonos system requires an internet connection and you can achieve this either by hooking up one of the players to your router (they all have Ethernet network ports) or, if you want the freedom to move the player around, you can get the ZoneBridge for I think $80. It connects to your router and creates the network the Sonos system uses. You can then play any internet radio station you would find in apps like Tune In or Ootunes and Sonos supports just about every music service there is such as Sirius/XM, Spotify, Rhapsody and many many more. Your entire Sonos system can be controlled either from the iPhone app (of course this also works on an iPod Touch and iPad), they have an Android controller as well as controllers for the PC and Mac. The iOS app has recently undergone some major updates and while it was quite accessible and very useable before, it's now near perfect and a joy to use. The desktop controller for the PC works fine with Jaws and I can't speak for Android or the Mac. I am sure there are many good speakers out there but most of them are mostly just that, speakers. Sonos goes beyond that by creating a music system which is more than just a speaker because it works seamlessly across an entire large house if you wish, you could have a dozen of their various players from the portable ones to the Connect or Connect Amp + a Playbar with a few Play 3 players for front and rear speakers and another Sonos Sub for a surround sound system. Yes, I know, this can get pretty expensive, but I just wanted to show that a Sonos system can be as little as $250 or $300 or as much as many thousands depending on how big your house is and whether you want music in every room. You can, of course, play different stuff on each player or put them all in party mode so that every player is synchronized and plays the same. Sonos also continues to release new product and I wouldn't be surprised if one of their next releases would be either a set of high-end headphones which of course would connect to the Sonos system or maybe a small headphone amplifier one could carry around or clip to the belt for use with whichever headphones you want to use. Lastly I want to mention that they have excellent technical support, most of their tech support guys know that there are blind users out there who use their product and they won't ask stupid questions when you tell them you are a Jaws or Voiceover user. Anybody who wants more info can check out www.sonos.com and if I can answer any questions I'd be happy to try, just email me directly at [email protected]. Regards, Sieghard -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. 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