PLUS
Very easy to set up and use
Clever iPhone controller app
Good sound and lovely cosmetics

MINUS
Integrates different users' music libraries, rather than keeping them separate
You need to update music index whenever you add new music

If you're one of the zillions of people who own an iPod (or other MP3 player), chances are your music library is sitting on a computer in your home. Sonos is one of a growing number of companies that make products that let you play that digital music in different rooms in your home; and the S5 music system reviewed here is its latest product.

Priced at $479, the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 has lovely minimalist styling. All you see on the front is a perforated grille sitting on a white rectangular pedestal. On the top surface are understated buttons for volume/up down and mute. Also supplied with the S5 is PC/Mac software for setting up and controlling the system.

As the term "ZonePlayer" implies, you can install multiple players in rooms throughout your home. You can have several ZonePlayers playing the same music, or let users in different rooms choose different songs.

You can operate the S5 from a computer, with an optional Sonos CR200 controller ($399); or with a free Sonos app running on an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. Your iPhone or iPod Touch communicates with the ZonePlayer via Wi-Fi, over a home wireless network.

That means one ZonePlayer has to be connected to your network router. Alternatively, you can connect a Sonos ZoneBridge ($199) to your router, and place the ZonePlayer in the room where you want music. The device connected to your router (whether it's a ZonePlayer or ZoneBridge) communicates wirelessly with the ZonePlayers in your home. The Sonos system does not use your home Wi-Fi network, but instead communicates over its own mesh wireless network.

It sounds complicated; but setup and day-to-day use is actually very simple. You start by connecting a ZoneBridge or ZonePlayer to your network router, and then load Sonos Desktop Controller software on the computer housing your music library. The software prompts you to push a button on each Sonos device, and then identify and connect with the device; after that, it asks, if you have ZonePlayers in other rooms. You can give each ZonePlayer a name like "living room" or "kitchen."

Next, the software asks you to identify the music library you want to share, and to set your computer for sharing. On a Mac, Sonos Desktop Controller provides clear instructions for setting up sharing in System Preferences. You can share the music libraries on more than one computer, or libraries on a network-attached storage (NAS) system. The final step is to compile an index of your music library (or libraries), a process that takes several minutes.

When you're done, you can use the Sonos Desktop Controller software on your computer to choose what music you want to play in what zone. Or you can use a Sonos CR200 controller, or an iPhone or iPod Touch to control playback. If you're using an iPhone or iPod Touch, you first have to download the Sonos app, which you can do free of charge from the iTunes app store. You also have to make sure Wi-Fi is turned on on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and that it's logged onto your home network, and again push the appropriate buttons on your ZonePlayer and/or ZoneBridge to establish communications between your iPod/iPhone and the Sonos network.

In my tests, the whole process worked seamlessly, with only one minor hitch. I got an error message on my iPod Touch saying the app could not connect with the ZonePlayer, even though it had successfully found them. I tried phoning the tech-support number on the manual, but it would not work from Canada. But the Sonos Website provided a different toll-free number, and that did work. There was no long wait in a phone queue; instead, a very capable and friendly agent determined that the iPod app had actually connected with the Sonos system, but for some reason hadn't cleared the error message from the screen. Existing and restarting the Sonos app fixed that problem for good.

After that, it was a very simple matter of using the Sonos app to stream music to the ZonePlayer. To do this, select the Music Library function, then search by Album, Artist, Song or Playlist (the system supports playlists imported from iTunes and other music-management programs, as well as playlists created with Sonos Desktop Controller. You can cue up a whole evening's worth of music at once.

You can also use the ZonePlayer for Internet radio, searching by genre, location and other parameters. There's even an option for setting your home location, so you can listen to local Web radio.

During music selection and playback, the software displays album art as well as textual information. While the interface is different from the standard iPod presentation, it's still very intuitive and iPod-like. No iPod user will have difficulty using the Sonos app. One nice touch: the app scrolls long song, artist and album names, which the iPhone and iPod Touch do not do.

It's worthwhile noting that the Sonos app is not streaming music from your iPhone or iPod to the ZonePlayer. The music is being streamed from the computer or NAS drive housing your music library. Your iPhone or iPod is simply acting as a controller, and sending instructions over your home network to the computer or NAS drive.

There's some room for improvement. When you add more music to your iTunes library, either by download or ripping a CD, it doesn't show up in your Sonos library on your PC or iPod until you update the device's library index, a process that can take several minutes (but you can use the Sonos system in the meantime). Also if you are sharing the music libraries on several computers in your home, the show up in the Sonos app integrated into a single library. In my house, that meant my teenager's copy of Beams by the Presets came between albums of music by Bartok and Beethoven (part of my collection). It would be great if Sonos allowed you to choose from different users' music libraries.

As to sound quality, it's very good for what this product is: the digital equivalent of a classic table radio. The S5 cabinet houses two tweeters and two midrange drivers, plus a woofer shared by the two stereo channels; each speaker is driven by its own digital amplifier.

Overall sound is very pleasant and well balanced, but deep bass is predictably a little weak. Citing two extreme examples, a recording of Canadian ex-pat pianist Angela Hewitt playing Bach arrangements had excellent clarity, but the bottom register of the piano was less authoritative than you'd like and the top end lacked sparkle; and "Alpha Dog" by Fall Out Boy sounded loud and dramatic, but also a little congested.

The sound is certainly comparable to any upmarket iPod speaker system. For rooms and applications where higher volumes and better sound quality are needed, Sonos offers other ZonePlayers, including a model that allows you to connect external speakers of your choice.

This affordable all-in-one player, and the new iPhone/iPod app, are two great additions to a superb digital whole-house music system.

Article Tags:  music, sonos, zoneplayer, iphone, library, network, controller, zonebridge, ipod, itunes,