My husband, Kyle, is, as you probably know if you’ve read this blog, like, ever, a stay-at-home dad. Which is, to hear him describe it, a calling with very few adult rewards: it’s a life of endless bowls of Cheerios, repeat viewings of Caillou and ‘The Wheels Of The Bus’ on infinite loop. And any time that I’ve suggested that he write about stay-at-home fatherhood, he’s responded by huffing loudly and mumbling something about not wanting to live it twice. But when I suggested that he write about cool stuff, stuff that he likes and is grown-up and has nothing whatsoever to with Caillou, he was kind of into that.
So, behold. He’s started with the SONOS Wireless HiFi System that arrived in a box on our doorstep the other day. He loves it, a lot, and he’s here to tell you why.
I was recently introduced to the SONOS Wireless HiFi System and I have to say it is very cool. I received a “Bridge” and a “Play 3” unit. I plugged the Bridge into wall power and connected it to my wireless router with the supplied Ethernet cable. I then plugged the Play 3 unit into wall power. I downloaded the SONOS iPhone app (also available for your Android device) and followed the setup process for the system. Within minutes I was listening to Pandora Radio. There are several music streaming options, as well as accessing your own computer’s music library all delivered wirelessly through the SONOS system.
With one Play 3 unit (or the larger play 5 model) you can position the speaker unit anywhere in the room (or in any room) without the constraints of speaker wire and play great sounding music. By adding a second unit in the same room you can configure the two to play with correct stereo separation. Or simply put the unit in another room.
And this is where the flexibility of the SONOS system really comes through. With multiple Play units in your living space you can play the same music in every room or a different song in each room. All controlled by your PC or Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android device or the SONOS controller which is sold separately.
With the Connect unit you can stream music from your home stereo to your SONOS Play units. With the Connect Amp you can add your own speakers into the streaming system. There is also an available Sub Woofer.
It is the expandability and ease of set up which, I think, make this such a great system. And at $299 for the Play 3 and $49 for the Bridge it is an affordable system to get started with. If anything, the temptation will be to put a unit in every room. So it’s probably a good thing that we live in a one room loft.
Check out this video for the full visual and aural experience:
(There’s a promo going on until June 9th at Target, during which you get a free Bridge with system purchase. We’ll certainly be getting more units.)