Kitchen Music System - what do I want?

[IforB]

I found the sound quality of the 5 much better than the 3, the 3 is fine, but the 5 is superb. I think the extra money is well worth it.

In your lounge, you could just get a Sonos connect and hook it up directly to your amp via phono rather than getting another 5.

I've got 5's in the kitchen, office and garage and a connect in the lounge on my main system. It's a fantastically easy way of accessing your music.

[aberdeeneuan]

I have a Sonos Play 5 in the lounge and dining room, both sound superb.

I have a connect hooked up to ceiling speaker in the kitchen and one in the bathroom too, easily fills the room.

Easiest way is a play 5 though, it would easily fill a kitchen.

[T1berious]

I got a Sonos system last week and can't recommend it enough! Simple installation and setup, we went for a couple of connects and a bridge to use with existing Amps \ speakers. really happy with the results. Signed up to Spotify which is good but I think for the best sound you'll need to get your CD's ripped (guessing you'll be going FLAC?) and use a NAS.

I looked at squeezebox but ended up going Sonus, Ours was lest than £700 including cables etc.

[IforB]

The difference between putting MP3 and lossless files through a Play 5 is massive. I've a mixture of different formats saved and even my wife (a committed audiophobe) notices the changes.

A friend of mine has a Naim HDX, so I'm going to use that to rip CD's onto a drive as well as it can be done. That's a serious piece of kit, I'd have one, but the price is somewhat on the salty side!

[Bullett]

Or use something like EAC or if you can't be bothered with that much faff then try dbpoweramp, that will rip. tag and validate that the rip is as perfect as it can be.

[IforB]

I'll have a try of them. To be honest, using the HDX isn't a problem as it also means I can get copies of all of his vast collection of music too...

[fluffnik]

T1berious said:

I looked at squeezebox but ended up going Sonus

Why as a matter of interest?

I have a Squeezebox Radio (portable with battery) and a Touch plugged into my hifi and am planning to get another to run powered speakers in the beedroom.

I like that you can control them with a phone app or web interface as well as the obvious ways...

[phatmanace]

Yet another +1 for sonos - not cheap, but brilliant

[dave_s13]

fluffnik said:

T1berious said:

I looked at squeezebox but ended up going Sonus

Why as a matter of interest?

I have a Squeezebox Radio (portable with battery) and a Touch plugged into my hifi and am planning to get another to run powered speakers in the beedroom.

I like that you can control them with a phone app or web interface as well as the obvious ways...

I've got a Squeezebox duet in the back room.

It's brilliant but if I was spending a bit more money I would have got a sonos.

They are just better. Not that SBox isn't really, really good.

[Rosscow]

I have a Pure Avanti Flow, and I find it very very good.

Plays all sorts of radio stations - FM, DAB, internet. Plus it will stream from your PC music library via wireless and also has an iPod dock.

A good £250 investment

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001RTS582/ref=asc_df_B...

[T1berious]

fluffnik said:

Why as a matter of interest?

She who must be obeyed was playing with the iPod Sonus App while hooked up to about 10k worth of Naim kit and B&W PM1's (the latest ones), she was very impressed, a trick in itself as she's also a commited audiophobe.

Add to this it was a doddle to setup, zero dependance on a PC (just remember building a squeezebox server when I had a quick go and messing about with flac) so it was a Sonos.

The iPhone Sonos app is also pretty good. looking forward to getting a NAS and finishing get our CD's onto lossless.

Overall, really happy.

also enjoying the Spotify App, I can make my playlists available offline. so playing stuff in the car on the iPhone is a breeze.

[Top Gear TVR]

No brainer - sonos + a good music streaming package. was napster - though not so good now, trying deezer.

S3 ok for kids bedrooms, but get a sonos amp (ZP100 / 120) and seperate speakers for decent sized rooms. Not tried 5 yet.

[thehawk]

Yeah, anyone who tries Sonos would recommend it - it really is that good.

[phatmanace]

thehawk said:

Yeah, anyone who tries Sonos would recommend it - it really is that good.

Yup - it is. I spent a good few years trying other solutions as I thought that sonos was overpriced. After a few tens of people at work told me to stop trying to replicate it and just buy it, I took the plunge and bought three players.

I think that much like gin and tonic, you need Sonos and a streaming service to get the it out of it but it really is awesome and worth the cash

- ace

[Skyedriver]

Was about to ask a similar question to the OP.
The answers here have me bamboozled already....
NAS??
Spotify? Napster, i thought that was for dodgy downloads? Guess I am wrong.

I have a Cowon X7, wife has an iPod, she listens to BBC R2 someimes.
I don't want to pay to listen to radio and I think thats what Spotify etc is??
Someone on here suggested a grand for Sonos, is that correct?
Wife heard/saw a friends Bose a week ago and fancies one of them, I have heard of the Zeppelin and wondered if that was better, but everytime I try to read up I get more confused.
Sorry for the thread hijack
Help!

[NDA]

Yet another vote for Sonos.

I'm not a massive fan of the Play 3 though, I don't think it sounds great. Fine for listening to the radio in a bedroom, but otherwise a bit dull. Stretch to a 5 if you can.

Spotify is great, good sound quality and most of the music you'd ever need.

[justin220]

Play 5 rather that Play 3, it sounds a bit tinny, and a bit average IMO.

Stay away from Napster/Rhapsody aswell, go for Spotify

[SWAT78]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Another minor hi-jack, but can a NAS be used for anything else if I were to go down that route with a Sonos solution? I know you can use it for backing up music, photos, documents etc (and backing up within itself using RAID), and obviously streaming to Sonos equipment, but does it have other uses?

Have been pricing up a NAS and Sonos solution for my house which has come in at just over or just under a grand (depending on Play3 vs Play5 - I know what others on here are recommending on that!), but almost half the spend would be on the NAS (Synergy bay plus 2 x 2TB disks) and is the bit I'm struggling more to justify...!

[bigandclever]

SWAT78 said:

Another minor hi-jack, but can a NAS be used for anything else if I were to go down that route with a Sonos solution? I know you can use it for backing up music, photos, documents etc (and backing up within itself using RAID), and obviously streaming to Sonos equipment, but does it have other uses?

Have been pricing up a NAS and Sonos solution for my house which has come in at just over or just under a grand (depending on Play3 vs Play5 - I know what others on here are recommending on that!), but almost half the spend would be on the NAS (Synergy bay plus 2 x 2TB disks) and is the bit I'm struggling more to justify...!

Assuming you mean 'Synology', I use my ds411j for:

audio & video storage;
storage for IP cameras;
website host for my (tiny, tiny) company website;
remote access for various people to the PhotoStation

I was using it as a BitTorrent thingy for a while. eMule is kind of incorporated.

[Top Gear TVR]

back to the original question....Sonos + a music streaming service puts NAS and cd's, memory sticks etc all in the bin for the one off system cost + £10 a month. Plus you can grow the system over time and even do rooms from ebay purchases when the price is right.

You can even get monthly streaming service deals with a download and keep allowance so you can keep one album a month for the car or ipod etc - all for £10 a month or similar.

my sonos system has grown over the years;
zp100 (now called connect amp but with excellent inputs and outputs) use this for lounge and bathroom with a speaker switch box and use inputs for dvd hard disc player so i can pump tv or cd's into the sonos network for use around the house,
zp120 bedroom 1,
zp100 conservatory,
zp80 feeding an independant mini-system for amplification in bed 2,
play 3 bed 3,
play 3 kitchen,

only bed 4 and the garage is without!

the only limitation to this approach is internet bandwidth and one off purchase costs. you can stream multiple songs to different rooms simultaneously, or group zones together. If you have 1.5Mb or better you can cope with this - though some streaming sites struggle on bank holidays with demand.

if you have an iphone or similar you can get a free app to control it all saving the cost of a sonos controller

set up is excellent - sonos finds its way onto netwroks past firewalls like you cant believe!

i favour the zp100 over all the others as its good at driving warfedales who's tone i favour and has an excellent selection of inputs & outputs.

Its one of few tech purchases about which i have no regrets.