Sonos: I Was Late to This Party

I'm a music lover. I like to listen to music all of the time. Walking around the lake, driving in my car or just sitting in my office, I've got music going.

I do a lot of reading and writing, so my taste in ambient music is primarily instrumental. That way it does not interfere with the task at hand. It's in the background and contributes to a nice, relaxing atmosphere.

As I go from room to room in our house, I like having the music move with me. So I had the house set up old school...with a receiver and speakers in every room. That ended up being a lot of electronics and hardware spread all over the house. Throw in a few subwoofers and we are talking about that stuff taking up a lot of space. A lot of space...seven receivers...fourteen speakers...three subs.

So I just exited 1973 and stepped firmly into 2012 with the addition of a Sonos system in our house. The amp you see pictured above is $499. It is the brain of the world's slickest music streaming system. You can use it to access your iTunes music collection, Pandora, Rhapsody, Napster, Spotify or several thousand Internet radio stations. Any type of music you want on the Internet can be accessed through this little beauty.

The system is wireless...it works over your home WiFi network. As I go from room to room, I use my iPhone to turn the system on and off and select the music I want to hear. I can be in the kitchen listening to The Brandenburg Concertos while Sean is down it the workout room listening to Rack City by Tyga.

If a room doesn't have a speaker system, you can add Sonos ZonePlayer speaker system. You just plug it into an electrical socket and synch it up with your WiFi network and you are good to go. The big speaker, pictured below is $399. A smaller speaker is available for $299.

I really was late to this party...but I could not be happier that I finally arrived. I was able to get rid of a lot of hardware and put in a whole-home system for not very much money. It's a remarkable system, so clean and elegant and simple you'd swear that Steve Jobs designed it. I don't think there is any higher praise than that. Check it out here:  http://www.sonos.com/