The second ZP80 (and a third, a fourth, etc., as well as one or more ZP100s, up to a maximum of 32 players in all), as well as the CR100, all log on to the network created by the first ZP80. The first acts as the WiFi hub, and can also be used to access the Internet for Rhapsody (PCs only) and other streaming services, as well as for Sonos' own software updates. The beauty to me of a distributed-music system is that the noisy PC can be in a different room, and for that you need two ZP80s. While a Sonos system can be set up with a single ZP80, this means the host computer needs to be in the same room as the audio system, as there needs to be an wired Ethernet connection between it and the Zone Player (footnote 1) (or a wired connection between the ZP80 and a network drive again, see sidebar, "Network-Attached Storage"). I didn't get just the ZP80, but the company's ZP80 Bundle ($999), which comprises two ZP80s, a CR100 with charging cradle ($50), and a ZP100. But when, in May, Sonos introduced its ZP80 ($349), which omits the amplifier, it was exactly the trigger I needed. As useful as this feature is for non-audiophiles, it didn't fit with my own vision for server integration: a unit with line-level and digital outputs that could be painlessly integrated with an existing high-end system. I had put off reviewing the Sonos system because the company's first product, the ZP100 Zone Player ($499), included a power amplifier-all the owner needed to add was a pair of speakers. This controller is one of the neatest consumer-electronics products I have encountered: it is sealed to prevent damage from liquid splashes it has modes for both deep and shallow sleep, from which it can roused by being picked up and as well as a motion sensor, it has a light detector so that its control buttons are automatically backlit when the ambient light drops below a preset threshold. The Sonos CR100 controller's ($399) full-color, 3.5" LCD screen not only allows easy navigation of your music files on up to 16 network devices, it will also display all the metadata associated with each track, including the album-cover art, if you've stored that. Most important, it moves the display from the processor to the remote. It can also dispense with the computer, working with a network storage hard drive (see Jon Iverson's sidebar, "Network-Attached Storage"). The Sonos system is more sophisticated than the Squeezebox in that it sets up its own proprietary, encrypted WiFi network, said to be optimized for streaming audio files rather than for making use of a general-purpose network. But the Airport Express was supplemented by the $299 Slim Devices Squeezebox (see September 2006, p.128), which takes the level of audio performance up a notch, and allows direct control of the remote media server from the listening chair. I have been writing about ways of implementing a media-server–based system for a while now, beginning with my May 2005 review of Apple's $129 Airport Express WiFi Hub, which, with its line-level and digital outputs, is still the cheapest, if not the easiest, way of feeding music around the home from files stored on a PC. "The stuff literally walks out of our door." "Sonos is the easiest way of putting together a multiroom system," the dealer told me. But I had already been given an inkling that this company was on an upward path when I visited a dealer last March and had seen a large stack of Sonos boxes in their custom-install warehouse. Any doubts I'd had about making the Santa Barbara–based company's new ZP80 and older ZP100 the subject of a Stereophile feature review, or about featuring the Sonos CR100 system controller on this issue's cover, disappeared. What does matter was the host's mention of all the cool stuff the bimbette had had installed in her new pied-à-terre: ".and a Sonos audio system, of course." home of Jessica Aguilera, or Christina Simpson, or. The show was doing a segment on the new L.A. No, I do not watch NBC's Extra, but as I was reaching for the remote I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw. But the kitchen TV just happened be tuned to Channel 4 when I switched it on while I was preparing dinner. I was probably the last to realize that Paris Hilton was not the name of a French hotel. I am not interested in the doings of people who are famous merely for being famous.
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