Sonos Zoneplayer S5: There’s an app for that
Most in-home streaming music devices work with the iPhone by means of a dock, making it impossible to do anything else while you’re jamming out. The Zoneplayer S5, on the other hand, has an iPhone app that turns your phone into a remote control.
Sonos has built its brand around offering high-end home wireless streaming music systems. Until now these systems have required separate speaker components, not to mention a hefty starting price of $1,000.
While the Zoneplayer S5 might look like any old iPod docking system, it boasts five speaker drivers under the hood. With a woofer, two mids and two tweeters powered by separate amplifiers, the S5 can crank out some serious watts.
The Zoneplayer S5 can be controlled with any Sonos touch screen remote rather than putting controls on the console. Alternately, it can be controlled using desktop software or any iPhone or iPod Touch.
Then you can access any number of online streaming services. In addition to playing your MP3s, the S5 can stream music from Pandora, Rhapsody, Last.fm, Sirius, Napster, Zune Marketplace or Internet Radio. That covers just about all your bases in terms of streaming services.
However the quality components and plethora of features come at a price. The Zoneplayer S5 will set you back $400. And that’s without the addition of a $350 Sonos remote.
Although that’s no small chunk of change, it’s really not a bad deal for the money. It’s fairly comparable to similar models from high-end manufacturers like Bose.
Another potential downside is that your first Sonos component will need to be hard wired into your network. While this may seem like a hassle, it’s the only way to make sure that your music streams won’t skip from re-buffering.
This just goes to show how deeply the iPhone is becoming ingrained into our culture. It’s just a matter of time until someone comes out with a home automation system based entirely around the iPhone.
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