The Best Gets Better

Sonos Improvements Announced
New equipment ebbs and flows into a reviewer’s hands with such frequency that I have rarely purchased any such products—always expecting that a better device is just around the corner. The whole-house wireless music system developed by Sonos is one of those rare exceptions; after testing the product I actually bought a system with my own hard-earned money. I can truthfully tell you that when it comes to distributed audio throughout the house, Sonos is the best.

For those of you unfamiliar with Sonos, it is a simple, yet sophisticated and relatively inexpensive family of products designed to wirelessly broadcast your music throughout your home. It is so simple and easy to use that the complete installation of a Sonos system can be finished in less than an hour. Using an elegant, iPod-like wireless remote you have complete control over the music you want to hear and the rooms in which it will be played.

There is much more to the Sonos system than we have room to cover here, but the reason for today’s story is because Sonos has just made the best even better. The company just released two new and improved receivers (or ZonePlayers in their parlance) that 1) offer a much larger “broadcasting” range, along with 2) a new, highly efficient amplifier that is more powerful than the original model. These two new products are completely compatible with all existing Sonos gear and are offered at the same price as their predecessor models. The complete Sonos “starter package” is available both through custom installers as well as major electronic retailers like Best Buy for under a thousand dollars.

I got hooked (along with the vast majority of Sonos users) and rapidly added additional units and now listen to music at home much more frequently than before. Even more telling, the company has sold over 350,000 units in the last two years, despite both a declining audio market and very little publicity. Most sales have come by “word of mouth” among friends. Consumers are usually able to figure out what is “Best” and tend to vote with their pocketbooks. This has proven to be the case with Sonos. Check out www.sonos.com for “the rest of the story”.

John Lentz