Play Music, Wirelessly, Throughout Your House
When we test a product with which we are unfamiliar Spot Cool Stuff always starts out skeptical. And almost always we find that at least part of our skepticism is well founded. Not so with the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. We were delighted by this near-flawless, easy-to-set-up, way to wirelessly stream music and internet radio throughout a house.
It works like this: In any room you’d like to listen to music you place one of Sonos’s ZonePlayers. You then plug into each ZonePlayer a set of stand alone speakers, or high-end clock radio, or home theater system or whatever you’d list to listen to your music on. Connect one of those ZonePlayers to a CD player and/or to a computer that has your MP3 music collection. And there you go. There’s no reason to lay wire around your house—or even to have wireless internet—because the Sonos ZonePlayers create their own wireless network.
Playback over this wireless music system can be managed via the very cool Sonos Controller. This controller consists of a 3.5″ inch LCD screen, buttons for the volume and for other common commands, and a navigation flywheel similar to that on an iPod. Spot Cool Stuff has seen enough bad user interface in our time to know really great UI when we see it. And the Sonos Controller has a great user interface. The controls are all intuitive and navigation to the various functions is fluid and fast.
The Sonos controller isn’t only for selecting music tracks and changing the volume. With the Sonos controller you can surf over 15,000 (!) free online radio stations. The Sonos system also automatically syncs with free online music services such as Last.fm and Pandora and pay services like Napster, Rhapsody and Sirus Satellite radio.
Whatever you are listing to—MP3s, CDs or sound streaming over the internet—you aren’t stuck with just one choice. The Sonos Multi-Room Music System is flexible enough to let you play Bach in your bathroom while also putting the BBC news on your kitchen speakers.
Further, the system is flexible enough to allow for more than one controller, or one type of controller. You can control your Sonos on your computer desktop or—how cool is this?—on an iTouch (or iPhone) via wireless internet. In fact, if you are looking for additional controllers you’d almost be better off buying an iTouch rather than a more expensive Sonos controller; the Sonos iTouch app is completely free.
As for the ZonePlayers there are two types: the ZP120, which includes 55W per channel amplifier and a separate analog subwoofer output, and the ZP90, which does not. (In other words, you’d need a ZP120 to connect a pair of unpowered stand-alone speakers; the ZP90 is for anything else: a stereo receiver, speakers with their own power source, etc.). Both ZonePlayers are attractive enough to incorporate into your room decor but, if you’d rather, they are also each small enough to discretely tuck away.
The whole Sonos Multi-Room Music System is astonishingly easy to set up. Spot Cool Stuff tested out the two-room Sonos 150 bundle, which includes one controller, a controller charging cradle and two ZonePlayers (one of each type). It took us exactly 67 minutes set up the entire system, including the time to simply unpack the components from the box. About 15 minutes of that was spent trying to figure out exactly where we wanted to place the ZonePlayers.
For our test we hooked up a pair of the Sonos SP100 loudspeakers to one of the ZonePlayers (recommended!) and to the other a Shuttle D10 and pair of Logitech Z speakers. It all sounded fantastic! The most impressive aspect was how perfectly synchronized both speakers were. Prior to getting the Sonos system we had jerry rigged our own suboptimal multi-room speaker system by streaming the sound via wifi and an Apple Airport Express. One of the many problems with that system is that one speaker always lagged the other, meaning we had to keep each speaker out of earshot of the other in order to avoid a massive migraine. Not so with the Sonos system.
A few other noteworthy qualities of the Sonos Multi-Room Music System:
Works with both Mac and PC. Older versions of the Sonos weren’t fully compatible with iTunes; the current version is.
Unlike competitor systems, your computer needn’t be turned on to use the Sonos, which can play music off of a CD player, an iPod, or any network-attached storage drive.
The Sonos has incredible file format support. It works with top quality Apple Lossless, Flac and uncompressed WAV and AIFFFile as well as all the usual suspects (MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.).
The Sonos software (which is excellent, not incidentally) includes an alarm and sleeper functionality—set music to start playing when you want or have it automatically set off after a set period of time.
Since the Sonos creates its own wireless network it doesn’t rely on, or occupy any bandwidth space of, your internet router.
Finally, we are extremely impressed how easily expandable the Sonos system is. Want to incorporate another room into the Sonos system? Simply purchase another ZonePlayer. You can expand the Sonos to work in up to 32 rooms. (If you live in a house in which you need to control the music in more than 32 rooms from one central controller well, then, we’d love to meet you).
Easy set-up, easy expandability, easy-to-use controllers, cool iTouch integration and most of all, fantastic sound—we are no longer skeptical about the Sonos Multi-Room Sound System. It has earned our Most Excellent award.
LEARN MORE & BUY:
ALL SONOS PRODUCTS | SONUS BU150 BUNDLE | SP100 LOUDSPEAKER | APPLE iTOUCH
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The Best Inexpensive HDTVs
If you think HDTVs are those sets in the department store’s television section with eye catching picture quality but with a price you can’t afford, think again.
High definition television prices have fallen dramatically over the last years, especially at the online discounters such as Amazon and Buy.com
. But not all HDTVs offer spectacular picture quality. We’ve separated those HDTVs that are cheap for a reason from those that offer high quality at low prices.
Here’s are rundown of the high value HDTVs by screen size:
15 Inch Screen
Pyle PTC15LC LCD
| Est. Price (US$): 235 |
Contrast1: 500:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 52,428
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It hardly seems worthwhile to get an HDTV with a tiny 15 inch screen. But we suppose there might be circumstances you are size-constrained, on a boat for example. For those circumstances, this little Pyle is your best, cheapest HDTV choice. The screen contrast isn’t very high (only 500:1) but the picture quality is otherwise pretty good. And the sound is surprisingly sharp. This set weighs only 10.3 lbs (4.7kg).
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20 Inch Screen
| Est. Price (US$): 260 |
Contrast1: 700:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 52,454
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Don’t let the fact that you’ve never heard of Vizio put you off—the picture quality on this affordable 20″ HDTV is very good. Sadly, this Vizio’s sound quality is merely adequate. You’ll be satisfied with the sound if that’s what you are used to, or when watching the news, but audiophiles will be happier pairing the HDTV with a good surround sound speaker set.
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22 Inch Screen
Samsung LN22A450
| Est. Price (US$): 385 |
Contrast1: 3,000:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 80,181
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This Samsung has the highest pixel density of any HDTV on our list. Combine that with a high contrast ratio and you have an HDTV with a picture quality that exceeds that of many more expensive sets. (To wit: after testing all these models Spot Cool Stuff purchased this Samsung ourselves). We also appreciate the 178 degrees viewing angle (compared to around 130 degrees for your average HDTV set). Our only complaint: Like the other the Samsungs on our list the LN22A450 has only three inputs; that’s enough for a DVR, video game system and Blu-ray player but you’ll have to unplug on of those too hook up a camcorder, for example.
Speaking of Blu-ray players, this set looks great with the Samsung BD-P2500
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32 Inch Screen
Panasonic TC32LX85
| Est. Price (US$): 570 |
Contrast1: 10,000:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 32,784
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The best value HDTVs are at the 32 inch screen size—you save relatively little getting a smaller screen but pay exponentially more as you go up in size. Also, budget HDTV models above 32 inches tend to have screen sizes that exceed their processing capability. In other words, the picture quality on budget HDTVs larger than 32 inches tend to be darker and not as crisp. (Two very notable exceptions to this is the 42-inch and 50-inch Panasonic Vieras, both reviewed below).
The cheapest good 32-inch HDTV is the $460 ViewSonic N3235W. (Most ViewSonic HDTVs are, if we may say so, crap. However, for reasons beyond our knowledge, ViewSonic’s 32-inch N3235W model is quite good). We think it is worth paying around $100 more for this Panasonic—the picture quality is outstanding and the sound merely a notch below that. This set matches well with the looks of a Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray player.
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37 Inch Screen
Sony Bravia L-Series KDL-37L4000
| Est. Price (US$): 800 |
Contrast1: 2,000:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 28,353
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To our eye, this Sony is the best looking HDTV on this list. The sleek design and cool use of negative space around the base looks especially great paired with a Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player.
As for how this Sony Bravia looks when it is turned on, the picture quality delivers some of the most black blacks of any HDTV. However, the contrast for the brighter colors is a bit low for our personal tastes; the color saturation of this Sony’s picture is more muted when compared to other options like the Panasonic 32 inch (above). Some people prefer the Sony specifically because the picture it produces is more muted and thus appears more true-to-life. Others prefer the in-your-face, unnaturally bright picture that is especially emblematic of the Samsung HDTVs.
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42 Inch Screen
Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80U
| Est. Price (US$): 680 |
Contrast1: 100,000:1
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SCS Resolution Ratio2: 20,981
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Amazon’s current sale price of $680 for this latest model 42-inch Panasonic is an outrageously great bargain for this superlative quality HDTV. That’s not a typo in the gray intro box—the picture contrast of this Panasonic really is 100,000(!) to 1. Even with that extreme contrast the colors come off as natural, not overly saturated. We also love how the panel is rated for 100,000 hours of use; that should last you more than 30 years. Combine this excellent HDTV with the equally excellent
