Dozens of companies offer gadgets to stream the music that’s stored on your computer over a home network so you can hear it in other parts of the house. But most of these products are deficient in some way or another.
But I have been testing a new music-streaming product that handily overcomes every one of the problems and limitations. It’s called the Sonos Digital Music System, and it comes from a startup company, Sonos Inc., in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Sonos can be set up quickly, without any technical knowledge, because it contains its own secure Wi-Fi wireless network, which co-exists with your existing wired or wireless network. It works with both Windows PCs and Apple Computer’s Macintoshes. It has a gorgeous wireless remote control with an embedded color screen. The system works in multiple rooms of a home, allowing you to play different songs, or the same songs, in each room simultaneously.
And each Sonos module, called a ZonePlayer, is a stand-alone audio-playback device, with a built-in amplifier that sounds great. So you don’t need an existing audio system in every room where you want to hear music, and you don’t have to know how to hook up audio gear.
The Sonos system is easily the best music-streaming product I have seen and tested. It’s the Lexus of the category.
Unfortunately, like a Lexus, Sonos is also costly. A starter system with two ZonePlayers and a remote costs $1,199. Each additional ZonePlayer costs $499, and each additional remote control costs $399.
I tested the Sonos starter system with an HP Pavilion computer running Windows XP. The computer is in an upstairs bedroom. At least one Sonos ZonePlayer in any system has to be wired directly to the networking device, called a router, that typically sits atop or next to a cable or DSL modem. So I placed one of my two ZonePlayers on a desk next to the PC and plugged it into my router by wire.
Next, I installed the Sonos software on the PC and followed the directions for connecting the ZonePlayer. This simply required holding down the player’s Volume and Mute buttons simultaneously. In less than a minute, I was done.
Then I set up the second ZonePlayer, with the optional Sonos speakers, downstairs in my dining room. This one would have only a wireless link to the system. Again, I set the software upstairs to connect a new player and held the two buttons on the dining-room player. It worked perfectly.
Finally, I connected the wireless remote to the system by calling up its setup screen and once again holding down buttons on the dining-room player. Again, this process was flawless.
Back upstairs on the PC, the Sonos software had found and indexed all the song files on my computer, and had even located and imported the play lists I had set up in Apple’s iTunes program. Sonos works with all standard music files – MP3, WMA, AAC and WAV. And it can use play lists that have been set up in iTunes, on either Windows or the Mac; Windows Media Player; Musicmatch Jukebox; or WinAmp.
But Sonos can’t stream or play back music files that contain copy-protection encryption. That means it can’t handle files purchased from legal online-download sites, such as Apple’s iTunes music store.
Each ZonePlayer has only two control buttons – mute and volume. But you can control what’s playing on them using the remote or the software on the PC.
The remote control is a thing of beauty. Its bright color screen shows the track title, artist and album of the song that’s playing, along with the album-cover art. It has an iPod-like scroll wheel for navigating through lists of songs, albums, artists and genres. Backlit buttons control volume, play, pause, back, forward and mute.
A built-in rechargeable battery powers the remote. The company estimates it will last about five days in typical use. A wall charger is included.
With either the remote or the PC software, you can control each player, or “Zone,” separately. Or you can group the “Zones,” so several receive the same music simultaneously. And you can mute or pause all the players in a house at once.
The system also can play back music from Internet radio stations. And you can plug any outside music source, such as an iPod, into any one of the ZonePlayers and hear its music throughout the system.
Next month Sonos plans to add another function to the product: the ability to receive streaming music from RealNetworks’ Rhapsody online subscription music service.
If you can afford the price, Sonos is a great choice for those who want to hear computer-based music all over the house.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for the Wall Street Journal.
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