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The Sonos system has been a favourite at Stuff HQ for years: this wirelessly distributed multiroom music system works seamlessly and, with half-decent source material, it sounds great, too.
It’s not even that expensive, as you don’t have to pay through the nose for an integrated hard drive. Instead, it connects up to your router and pulls your music – MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, whatever – from your computer or NAS (network-attached storage) device.
Millions of tracks available
The Sonos’s appeal has increased thanks to its ability to access online music services, including Deezer, Last.FM and Napster – the last of which costs £10 per month, but gives unlimited access to millions of tracks.
The hardware’s been refined over time, too, with smaller and cleverer ‘ZonePlayers’ – the music hubs you use to distribute music around the house.
The system we tested here includes one of each type: an unamplified ZP90, which you connect to your existing system, plus a ZP120. This is essentially a local mini system, with its own power amplification – just add speakers.
But this new version puts these hardware tweaks in the shade, with the biggest change to hit the Sonos system since it first launched: the arrival of the CR200 controller.
Review continues after the break...
In essence, it’s pretty similar to an iPod Touch – and it’s a timely development, for last year the company issued an app that lets Apple users operate their Sonos systems with a Touch or iPhone.
Why get a CR200, not a Touch?
You might be raising your eyebrows and asking why it’s worth upgrading from a CR100 to a CR200, when you could simply buy an iPod Touch instead and pocket the change.
All we’d say is that the Sonos version feels nicer in the hand, is faster to use, and appears sharper and brighter than its Apple rival.
And this new handset only adds lustre to an already polished performer. Sonically, the Sonos is still top-class. And with lossless files, it’s as close to hi-fi as Wi-Fi gets.
Comments
sonosauthorised...
2 years ago
The new CR200 touchscreen controller really has enhanced the Sonos multi-room music system!.
From unpacking your newly delivered Sonos BU250 bundle you can be up and running with 2 rooms of music within 10 minutes. The quick set-up guides included in the boxes really are great and you dont have to be remotely technical to set up your own Sonos system. Free desktop controller software ships with every Zoneplayer, be sure to load this onto your computer first. The reason for this is that to add the newly released CR200 controller to your Sonos system for wireless handheld control of your two music zoneplayers, you need to be running Sonos version 3.0 software across your Sonos system. Catch 22 - you cant do an automatic update to v3.0 from the CR200 controller if you cant add the controller in the first place!.....but you can do the software update from your desktop controller software. Once done your CR200 can then be added easily for full wireless handheld control of all of your zoneplayers.
We have had our CR200 on demo now for two weeks. One of our favourite new features is the information button in the bottom right hand corner when using the CR200 with Last.fm - get 'scrobbling' folks!. This will tell you all about the artist and even tell you about upcoming events and gigs that artist is doing in the near future.
Aside from that the CR200 touchscreen looks and works great and has faster menu navigation than the older CR100 controller. Searching for a song on Napster has also been speeded up with intuitive searching - enter the first few characters of the artist, album or track name and options will appear below without having to type out the name in full. The scroll wheel on the CR100 could be tedious at times.
Multi-room music with full wireless control at its best.
To really show off your Sonos music system add a wireless outdoor speaker to your ZP90 zoneplayer (like the fantastic 'Outcast', a portable weatherproof wireless tubular speaker) for a ready made outdoor music solution.
Garry. Multi Room Systems
www.multi-roomsystems.co.uk