LOCALS KNOW US as the owners of a Twin Tower in Cashel--two twinned homes constructed as the World Trade Center fell in 9/11. Besides living inside a monumental structure, we have to adjust to dead spots far above the main living area two floors down. I have some listening devices that we will use to monitor a nursery several flights up but I'm looking for a solution (read that as "looking for an excuse") that involves technology unlikely to become obsolete. So when I figured out I could jack my audio gear into a Sonos set-up, I started counting my pennies. This would be an excellent long-term solution for home audio but it means I get a single combination present for Christmas and my birthday.
The Sonos bundle comes with the ZP80 and that means I could wirelessly stream music stored on a last-generation laptop to my home audio equipment. It would connect into our Sony stereo system or jack into Edirol speakers I use for audio editing. All jackable equipment becomes part of the wireless music system. Sonos lets me play the same song in different rooms or different songs in different rooms.
Sonos says I can use of up to 32 ZP80s throughout my home. That's fine. We have 13 spaces in mind inside a house with 25 doors. According to Amazon, "Sonos liberates the digital music that's stored on your PC, Mac or network attached storage (NAS) box and wirelessly streams it to any ZonePlayer in any room. You can access music stored on up to 16 devices on your home network, plus Internet radio, subscriptions to online audio services like Rhapsody and Audible.com, and even music coming from an external audio source, like your favorite CD player."
We're still discovering how to leverage six coax points through the house. They were built into the solid walls. Putting a Sonos controller on top of the coax control box could mean getting audio into places we thought would require a television. The controller pushes 50 watts per channel of power and a guaranteed total harmonic distortion of less than 0.02 percent. That's power without hisses and hums.
I've seen the Sonos software for PCs. It looks simple, using an interface with larger text than iTunes. The wizard makes setup easy and after a few minutes, we could be using the Sonos Digital Bundle to open and play music from dozens of folders we have in a DVD jukebox.
I wish I had this nursery monitor.
Sonos -- "Surround your home with sound"
Customer Reviews giving the Sonos Bundle top rating.
