Sonos Inc.’s Sonos Digital Music System was first announced this past June. The modular sound system was developed to provide house-wide music culled from music collections on Macs, PCs or Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems, and features a four-port 10/100baseT Ethernet switch and has 50 watts RMS per channel speaker hookups, RCA audio inputs and outputs and a remote control. In June Sonos planned to ship the system sometime during the fall, but that date has been pushed back to mid-January, according to an announcement from Sonos’ public relations manager, Thomas Meyer. The move was made to fine-tune Sonos Digital Music System’s system performance, according to Meyer.
The Sonos Digital Music System comprises a US$499 amplified device called the ZonePlayer; users control playback using a $399 wireless remote control called the Controller, equipped with a 240 x 320 pixel 3.5-inch LCD color screen and touchwheel. ZonePlayers can be set up throughout the house, accessed using a single controller. The Sonos system supports MP3, unprotected WMA and AAC files and WAV formats, and is firmware-upgradeable to support future formats.