Whole House Audio
I’ve been into the mp3 scene for a while. I had the original SliMP3 from Slim Devices and it was pretty nice, though the 2-line display made choosing music more difficult and managing playlists impossible. Then I traded in for TiVo with the home networking turned on. It works well, though it doesn’t do AAC. It uses your TV for its UI, naturally. This, however, seems strange for music, though at least the background is black. The big downside is that you have to have a TV and amplifier anywhere you want music.
I was thinking about whole house audio solutions. Up to now, the way that’s usually done is to have a fancy (read: expensive) multi-channel amplifier in a central spot that can drive speakers all over the house. Want different music in different places, that’s so expensive you probably can’t afford it. At least, not as installed by professionals.
So that leaves us with DIY solutions. There are a couple of them out there. I read this very good tutorial and was planning to go with its recommended central switchbox unit, “The Zipper”. It would require specialized remotes, but can send different sources to different zones. However, you still require a separate MP3 decoder for each simultaneous zone playing different music.
I went over to Magnolia HiFi yesterday with Ian (what a peach!) and talked to the salesman there about the sorts of systems the pros are installing. He said that while the super-high-end stuff was still available, most techies were going with the Sonos Digital Music System, since it puts an mp3 decoder and integrated amplifier in each zone. All the reviews (Crutchfield, C|Net, and many more) I’ve found have been stellar, and the wireless controllers can control all the zones at once. It looks like an amazingly good fit for what I want. Funny I hadn’t heard of it until now.
Yes, I could go back to the sliMP3 for less (using powered speakers), but I want to use ceiling or wall-mounted speakers, so a traditional amplifier is a better fit for that, and adding even a cheap one in each zone makes the cost a wash, I suspect. Even if still slightly cheaper, I think a uniform, professional look is worth a little extra money.
So, before I put my money down, where am I going wrong? 
I think the Sonos are a great bargain, and the reviews are, like you say, uniformly awesome. If you order from their website directly they have a 30-day no-questions-asked return policy.
My old SlimP3 died long ago. I’ve owned three squeezeboxes since then, and one of those has died as well. I don’t think the SlimDevices stuff, while I love it, it really “built to last.”
As for the cost with a new amp being “a wash” though compared to the Sonos stations, I don’t think that necessarily needs to be so. There is an amazing low-cost tiny amp that sounds awesome (which I use right now with one of my squeezboxes) from Sonic Impact called the T-Amp (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009W44B/). It’s $30 but doesn’t come with a wall adapter (it can be powered by 8 AAs) so adding in the cost of a generic wall adapter from radio shack it’s about $45, which is still very good. And it is very small.
So, there you go. I would still get the Sonos stuff because it looks so FREAKING AWESOME.
ben compton
27 Feb 06 at 2:51 pm
Well you raise a good point, Ben. At least when a Squeezebox goes south, it’s inexpensive to replace. The Sonos have only a 1-year warranty, and they’re so new it’s impossible to know whether or not they’ll require frequent replacement at significantly higher cost.
It *is* sexy, though.
michael
28 Feb 06 at 10:27 am