Product Description includes two Sonos ZonePlayers and one Sonos Controller * lets you enjoy the music files on your PC or networked hard drive anywhere in your house * hassle-free wireless networking capability * Controller offers a 3.5" color LCD and a clickwheel control the provide easy browsing of your PC music library and independent control of each ZonePlayer in your system * multi-zone synchronous playback (same music plays in multiple zones simultaneously) or multi-stream playback (each ZonePlayer plays individually selected music) *
Very good product, just a couple caveatsNovember 17, 2008 The wife surprised me with this early gift to the both of us for the Holiday season. This sort of functionality/cool factor something the both of us have always wanted, so we saved and, at this price, it'll be the only gift given out this year...for either of us.
The setup is stupid simple. You plug-in and wire the boxes where you want them, power up the controller, press a few buttons on the boxes and you're set. Windows Media Connect sharing works perfectly through Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11), and this includes all the DRM wma files we've downloaded from the Zune Marketplace using our ZunePass. Unfortunately, WMA lossless files are not supported, so I needed to transcode my library to ~320kbps mp3 (yay dbpoweramp).
The controller utilizes an iPod-like interface, so it should be familiar to most people, and very intuitive to those who aren't (though I feel the Zune interface is superior in all respects).
I definitely give it a thumbs-up. Just be ready to drop some coin for the starter bundle, and cry if you ever want to expand in to more rooms.
Probably the best thing I have ever bought!November 15, 2008 I love music. I'm always singing a song or listening to one in my head. And I love all types of music. Rock, classic rock, classical, punk, some rap, opera, drumming, bluegrass, country, hard rock, metal, international, etc. I love it all. But, even with multi-CD players, you can't play them all and it's somewhat cumbersome. I was always jealous of friends who built their house and put in speakers to all the rooms, but my house was pre-owned and was not wired. Running wire to everywhere would require lots of demo; wasn't an option in my mind. Enter Sonos....
I actually heard about it several years ago and knew immediately it might be the solution to my situation. However, as others have said I was reluctant given the price to buy it. Man, was I stupid. I bought my first bundle earlier this year. I am so in love with this thing that I now have a combination of powered units and unpowered units in the following places: master bedroom, master bathroom, dining room, kitchen, outdoor patio (unit sits in kitchen, ran speaker wires to outdoor speakers), workout-room, family room and home theater. Yes, I have 8 zones. I have my CDs burned to a NAS that Sonos "looks" to. I also subscribe to Napster. I can literally play almost any song you can name, all at the touch of a button. It's like a gigantic, neverending jukebox. I live alone, so I just link all the zones I want to include and the music is just present in every room that I normally spend time in. I also use the alarm clock function on the controller; I wake up to my favortite rock playlist instead of an alarm. It has a sleep function too, so you can drift off to the sounds of your music in your ears. My friend's fight over the controller when I have parties. I truly consider this to be the best device I've ever bought, or a close second to my home theater which is also a big "wow" for people. But, I don't fire up my projector daily. This Sonos system I literally use every day for many happy hours. I can't recommend it highly enough!
one of the greatest thingsNovember 6, 2008 I bought this and a synology server so I could reclaim the ability to listen to my digital music anywhere in the house. Now, I have it and with this server and the sonos ability to connect to radio stations around the world and the awsome pandora music station, I am just in heavan. Easy to setup, works with 4 different setups in my house, home theater reciever, stereo reciever, stand alone with speakers and many types of speakers. Well worth it
A system even an engineer could loveOctober 11, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am an engineer so inherently I look for the value proposition in everything I buy. I have owned my Sonos for over a year now and had held off buying it for at least a year because I could not justify spending >$2K to transport music to different areas of the house. I was silly to wait because I absolutely love the system. I bought a flat panel TV and home theatre amplifier with speakers as well as a media center computer that stores all my music and video. After that big expense the cost of the Sonos did not appear to be that bad. The connections were a no-brainer and all the units have worked great. I have an unpowered unit connected to my 5.1 home theatre, a powered unit driving speakers in the yard, a powered unit driving speakers by the hot tub and an unpowered unit connect to a stero in the game room. Having the ethernet ports for hardwire connections in remote rooms has also come in handy when I have work meetings here. Storing and accessing the music is quick and easy. If I look to say that there is something that did not meet or exceed my expectation it would be that in order to get the album covers to appear on the Sonos unit, I have to go into MS Media Player and assign a jpg to the music files XML tags manually. But I can't blame Sonos for that.
Does everything it says, easilySeptember 30, 2008 I installed this system as a fully wired (cat 5) system in a living room and den, tied to a network hard drive in the basement. It took less than an hour to set everything up since my music was already on the hard drive. I was amazed when all my music showed up on the remote, in the proper categories (genres). The Internet radio worked well too. There were only a few flukes, such as when some jazz got classified as classical, but that may not be Sonos' fault. I have only a few minor quibbles, i.e., (1) it is easy to create a playlist but there doesn't seem to be a way to delete tracks from it. You have to delete the whole thing and start over. (2) If you are playing say, a jazz playlist and want to switch to a rock playlist, you have to clear the jazz playlist first. Otherwise, it just adds your rock playlist to the music queue, and you end up with a mixture of jazz and rock. Overall though, I am highly satisfied, and think the system is worth the rather high price.
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Onkyo HT-SR800 Black Home Theater System $335.96 - $499.00 from 2 stores. User rating:4.0 out of 5.
Neatly Covering All A/V Formats, Precisely Tailored for Your Home
When it comes to all-in-one home theater, the HT-SR800 has made a clean break from the pack. You're looking at packaged home theater that neatly integrates your high-definition entertainment and your HDTV through an HDMI channel that transports video with a resolution all the way up to 1080p. Ably supported by component video switching, the HT-SR800 will handle most of the A/V components or formats currently available, as well as the spectacular quality of high-definition discs. Also, reinforcing the convenience of matched components, this package is the first to use an Audyssey room-correction technology specifically designed for integrated systems. The options - XM Radio (including 5.1 surround sound radio with Neural Surround decoding) and iPod integration-can really extend your reach, making the HT-SR800 one of the more complete home theater packages available.
Special Features-
HDMI Pass Through (2in/1out , 1080P compatible) - A separate audio connection is necessary
"Audyssey 2EQ" Auto room calibration w/Microphone
XM and Sirius satellite radio ready
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