Multi-Room query - What do you think of Sonos

windyboy

Hi Guys,

I am at the first fix stage, electrician fits Russound on a regular basis and has quoted me for wiring for 6 zone.

Whats the verdict on the Sonos? How does it compare to Russsound and Nuvo.


What are the pros and cons?

Thanks in advance.
Windyboy

The Ritz

Windyboy,

I've given your query a thread of its own - you posted it on a very old thread, ressurecting them is not advised, no problem with making a new query of your own.

I can't offer any advice, multi-room is not my area of interest, but lots of peeps into it here, someone will help you out.


Ritz.

MediaTank

SONOS is state of the art in terms of build quality, ease of use and install. I've a three zone setup wirelessly connected to a NAS where I store my music. The SONOS system is very flexible in that it can operate either wired to the network or wirelessly. A big advantage is the support for almost every sound CODEC and the fact that it can be controlled from anywhere via the hand held controller or an iPhone/iTouch.

It also allows access to hunderds of internet radio stations and internet music distrbution.

MT

windyboy

Hi,

I am building a new house at the moment and we are starting first fix electrical next week.

My electrician has quoted me for multi-room audio and home cinema for the following:

1. Cable installation only (1st fix) for 6 zones + 2 sub zones of multiroom audio.
2. 1st Fix of two home cinema rooms and all associated cabling.
3. 13 No. Twin RJ45 points
4. 06no. Twin RG6 outlets with twin RJ45 outlets (for high definition tv viewing & future proofing)
5. Supply and fit comms cabinet in central area.

If I go with the Sonus system will I require installing the above or will there be less.

He was going to wire for ceiling speakers, would wall speakers be better?
Thanks,

Windyboy

986s

Hi,

Another vote for the Sonos here. Its been one of the best additions I've put into my new build house. As I have a CAT5e network I connected each sonos unit into the wired network and its absolutely perfect. For this you would need one CAT5/6 cable/outlet back to your comms room/node zero. A couple of things to bear in mind would be that you actually gain a couple of eternet ports doing it this way- I know the older ZP120 units have four ethernet ports at the back so I'd connect one to my wired network which left me 3 remaining to hook up a Ps3, Blue ray player, laptop etc which then would have access to the internet .

Another tip would be that for a large room i.e kitchen/diner etc you can connect 4 speakers (depending on the impedance) to the one sonos unit. This is something I wish I had thought about beforehand as I could have ran speaker cable to a further two postions in a large area.

I also have a ZP90 connected to my amplifier in my living room which streams high quality FLAC music through a 5.1 system which is also fantastic.

Also you have the option to add a S5 unit to rooms where you have not ran any speaker cable to accomodate distant speakers.

In short I cant comment on any of the other systems you have mentioned as I've no experience of them but I would definately recommend a sonos system. In fact I've never seen a bad review of sonos from a user.

Hope this helps

Shane732

I currently have a squeezebox and am currently thinking about switching over to Sonos.

From what I've heard and seen Sonos is the way to go and would be much cheaper than what you're currently suggesting.

MediaTank

SONOS is much more flexible in terms of positioning of equipment. AFAIK, from friends who have a Russound system - you need a central location to keep all of the equipment and everything is wired back to this point, also the controllers are fixed to the wall and are also wired back. Because SONOS is wireless and distributed you don't have to decide where everything gos upfront (other than built in speakers). You can put the ZP units anywhere. The controller is handheld and wireless so you only need one (or none if you have a iPhone).

So on balance, you won't need to do as much cabling or have wall mounted controllers fitted.

MT

Homer

+1 for Sonos. It covers all your music and radio needs effortlessly.
It obviously doesn't handle your TV distribution needs though so make sure you have that covered. How many video sources are you likely to want distributed around the house? 1/2 sky boxes? CCTV? DVD player? Probably use RF mosulation.
As far as the rest of the wiring plan goes you seem to be covered fairly well with CAT5 and RG6 for both internet around the house and TV points.
Technology in the area of HD TV distribution is moving fairly quickly and has gone from HD over 2 x CAT5 to HD over a single CAT5 over the last year or so.
You can even do HD up to 1080p over a single coax now! Get your chequebook out though as it's considerably more than going the CAT5 route.

windyboy

Thanks for all the replies guys, you have sold the Sonos system to me!

Electrician is starting 1st fix end of week.

Decided to wire speakers and a Cat5e point to a ZP120 in kitchen/living room, ZP90 for lounge/home cinema room and ZP120 in master bedroom. Probably get a Z5 that we can move about for the bedrooms and outside.

Cheers,

Windyboy

MediaTank

Good idea on the S5, going to get one myself for outside this summer.

C14N

I got to test out Sonos at the weekend in Cloney Audio and its a very nice system. I won't be getting it myself too soon unfortunately but it's something to mull over. I was wondering though, is there any way to connect more than 4 speakers to a Sonos system? Maybe even by adding an external stereo amplifier? I have quite a large kitchen and if I ever got speakers fitted, I'd like more than 4.

MediaTank

C14N wrote: »

I got to test out Sonos at the weekend in Cloney Audio and its a very nice system. I won't be getting it myself too soon unfortunately but it's something to mull over. I was wondering though, is there any way to connect more than 4 speakers to a Sonos system? Maybe even by adding an external stereo amplifier? I have quite a large kitchen and if I ever got speakers fitted, I'd like more than 4.

Yes, a ZP90 can be connected to an external amp - that's how I've done it. The latest version of their software also allows an S5 to function as a single channel. Therfore two of them make up a stereo pair. This feature was designed for very large rooms.

windyboy

Hi Guys,


Our open plan kitchen living room is 5.5 m x 7.5m. I asked Dave in Richersounds about the speaker layout here and he advised 2 speakers evenly spaced running through the middle of the room. My electrician asked Dave about installing 4 speakers with the ZP120 however he advised against using more than 2 speakers as he felt it would be too much of a strain.

Windyboy

higster

I've 4 speakers hooked up to one zp120...

https://sonos.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/sonos.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=269&p_created=1112891744&p_topview=1

No issues and seems like widespread enough (plenty of posts on sonos forums)
http://forums.sonos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14#goto_forumsearch

rob_

Sonos is sweet, but in cost per zone it gets costly when competing with the russounds.

It wouldnt be what I would go for at all.

Also be sure to insist on overkill for the wiring specifications, lots of Cat5e, and Ct100

MediaTank

Just a heads up, found an eBay store that is selling Sonos at a resonable price http://stores.ebay.ie/Graycom-Electronics

SmithySeller

Have 5 zones myself and will build on it over time. One word of caution, and this is an important FYI, the Switch that you bring all your network cables back to (from a Sonos perspective) needs to be a smart switch if not going wireless. You need to disable jumbo frames and have support for 802.1d, this protocol supports spanning tree protocol and needs to be enabled, as each Sonos ZP is a switch in itself. From the amount of cables you are talking about the following does work and is good value for money. Sonos wired will NOT work with any oul switch. Check the Sonos forums for more information;

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1429743#spec