Sonos Digital Music System Review

Early on in the review I established subscriptions to Pandora and Rhapsody, both internet music subscription services. Pandora allows one to create and rate music stations of one’s own design. Enter an artist’s name and Pandora will use its database to play similar artists, which can be rated either “I Like..” or “I don’t Like…” However, I found this to have limited applications, as I couldn’t build a database for my listening. That needed to be done with Rhapsody, the online service which allows allocation of one’s selections to the home network or MP3 player. Burning discs costs extra, and to date I haven’t had the burning desire to do so. The only practical application of burning seems to be for use in a car, but even that is already being eclipsed by MP3’s. I saw no compelling reason to burn discs of favorite artists given the quality of streaming audio play.

Later in the review process I wondered if a different music service might have a different quality, even though supposedly similar services. Though I did not have time to explore it extensively, I did a few days testing between Rhapsody and Napster. Again, the testing was incredibly efficient as I could have the first music service playing while cueing up the second. Literally in an instant, the second sample could begin and the distinctions heard instantly. I distinctly preferred the sound quality of the identical music streamed over Napster. It was crisper, “fresher” sounding than Rhapsody with better definition. As of this time I have continued my Napster subscription with an eye toward switching if I feel this qualitative difference persists over time.

I’m still exploring the vastness of the Rhapsody site. Integration with the Sonos Desktop or hand-held controller is seamless. Within moments any chosen piece of music can be placed into one’s files and from there automatically updated to Sonos. It is not necessary to have the music service software open to transfer to Sonos, but it is necessary to be signed-in with the music service to build a library or playlists of music. As with Pandora, a user can select artists to form the basis of a personal station, however one cannot vote on the selections. Because of the flexibility of Rhapsody and the fact that it was the portal for building stations and sourcing music to the MP3, I rapidly spent time almost exclusively with it rather than Pandora. I kept the Rhapsody subscription and dropped Pandora.

An oddity in regard to the desktop controller is that it offers more options than the hand-held version, despite Sonos’ claim, that “it offers all the same functionality as the Sonos® Controller, but instead of being in the palm of your hand, it’s all on your desktop.”

The final hardware piece to discuss is the NAS (Network Attached Storage), which is an external drive connected to the local network. With Sonos, it becomes the repository for CD’s which are “ripped” (played by computer at higher speed and converted to a computer file format) to it. Nothing less than the best codec would suffice, so I chose a lossless format which Sonos recognizes: FLAC. I am not up on all the details, but I was advised to use the internet-sourced software program, “dBPoweramp”, which has capabilities to, among other things, convert files and rip CD’s to a drive.

I chose an informally recommended brand of storage device, a Buffalo LinkStation Live 500GB Media. I had one or two questions in regard to specifics of setting up this NAS, and again Sonos was stellar in answering all inquiries. In our medium-sized ranch home, I have a dedicated listening room on the opposite end from the office. The wireless bridge would sit next to the office computer. One ZP would be midway across the home in the family room stereo, and the other at the opposite end in the listening room downstairs. Thankfully, Sonos’ wireless mesh network is boosted by each Zone Player; a Sonos tech did an analysis of my network and told me that the ZP placed in the middle of the house was boosting the signal and allowing the listening room to obtain it.

I was talking to that particular tech because of a peculiarity with the wireless operation of the Sonos network – it cuts out when our cordless phone rings! Our home phones are in the 2.4gHz range, which is the same frequency range as the SonosNet, the wireless mesh network. Interference from the phones is low enough that Sonos can work through it when the phones are idle. But when one is in use, it’s a different story as the entire music network shuts down; I mean dead, even the controller goes kaput. As a tribute to the system, only 1 minute or so after the phone is returned to its cradle, the Sonos system recovers. The music does not recover, that is, it does not resume playback but must be restarted.

This is a curiosity, as such a thoroughly designed network can be brought down by such a petty cause – a case of the elephant being spooked by the mouse. I would presume Sonos is working on an upgrade to eliminate this issue. The cessation of music was not all bad, as we have a policy in our home of turning down music and hushing background noise as anyone is on the phone. (Very good upbringing. –Ed) It is convenient to us in our situation to have a music system which automatically turns off when a phone conversation is begun. So, instead of running out to the store and buying the 900gHz phones or digital phones to avoid it, we’ve left it as is. It’s one less thing to run after when the phone rings!

However, there is a downside to this, as some days we field four or six calls and the constant interruption and reset of the system is not welcome. In addition, it is frustrating when I am in the listening room isolated from the rest of the house and the occasional evening call comes. The music simply cuts out. For that reason, the day will likely soon come when the new phones are installed. Beware, the price of the Sonos system might include the additional price of phones.

The first time I noticed the dropouts due to the phone system, I was using the handheld controller, which froze entirely. I had to do a “soft restart” by pushing a set of buttons, and it rebooted to full functionality again. Another time, I failed to sign out of Sonos on my laptop in the listening room and simply closed the laptop, putting it into hibernation mode and cutting off the signal to Sonos. That seemed to completely disconnect the Zone Player in the listening room altogether. I had to go through the steps of disconnecting (online) all Zone Players and reconnecting three times to get it to reestablish itself.

I spent a fair bit of time with another anomaly, this one involving a sudden cessation of music which had no relation to the phones. When I commanded the Sonos to play a music service channel, regardless I was at the office or home, or which Zone Player was designated, the unit simply went silent anywhere from 20 minutes later to 1.5 hours. At first I thought this was another wireless network issue, so I called Sonos tech support again to have the network analyzed. Everything on Sonos’ end checked out – or so it seemed!

Thinking that the issue had to reside with Rhapsody, I went next to their tech support – I was getting to be on first name basis with some of these guys now – in search of why their site was bonking. I was advised to conduct tests such as running a longer listening session with the NAS as source, or having a longer session with an actual FM station broadcast over the internet. One way to bypass the Sonos network was to play these sources like Rhapsody or Pandora on their own software on the computer versus the Sonos network, and thereby determine if the Rhapsody was indeed at fault.

An oddity I discovered is that the Sonos desktop controller and hand-held controller do not offer the same functionality. For instance, one can access internet radio from the desktop, but not the portable controller.