Comments on: Mobile Tech Minutes: SONOS Multi-Room Music System

By: Sumocat

Sumocat — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:58:00 +0000

@Boca: There was a lengthy exchange on Lifehacker about Sonos a few months back where I pointed out those Apple options. I broke it down the same basic way as you have, with price going to Apple and options going to Sonos.

Another factor, however, is electricity use. I didn’t run the specs, but once hard drives get involved, power consumption goes up, giving an edge to Sonos.

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:13:09 +0000

Sonos is so much better now that iTunes are DRM free. I’m waiting for them to make a boombox-esque or nightstand speaker system before biting the bullet.

By: Boca

Boca — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:09:43 +0000

If you are willing to give up the Pandora integration, then Apple’s own ‘Remote’ app coupled with an airport express device is excellent.

I have a $99 Airport Express with air tunes plugged into a Bose portable speaker system and using the Remote app I can browse, stream and play all the music in iTunes.

Bonus feature if you own an Apple TV, is that when the computer is switched off, you can choose to use the Apple TV’s hard drive as source for music to stream wirelessly to the Airport express.

Adding another zone means buying another Airport Express, but with the Apple TV in one room, my computer in another and the Airport Express in a third, all connected to speakers, it means that I can control three zones using my iPod Touch.