Thread: Sonos

Originally Posted by mrmckay

All,
Thanks for all the info. My house is roughly 4500 sq ft and I plan on having six zones so I don't think I'll be pushing the limits of the system. Did any of you "centralize" the location of your zone players? I'd like to store all the zone players in my media closet in the basement where I have all wiring for the house coming into. Also, do any of you use with a media server for the sonos? ( I'm considering colocating a mac mini in the closet for this purpose. )

Regards,
Chris

Baccus is spot on. You can easily homerun everything. I have installed this in a number of situations with home runs. The nice thing about home runs is that you can just use the pre-amp and then ad a nicer sounding more powerful multi channel amp at the headend. Another advantage is being able to use other products as sources that are located at the same headend location.

Only issue you might find is latency or non connection at all to the controller. You just need to add a wifi extender or two in rooms that are far away from the headend. Simple fix. The iPhone app works better than the controller that comes with it and it has a better range.

If all you want is distributed audio Sonos is a great solution. If you want more control, AV, Video Distribution, Lighting, HVAC and you want all the advantages of Sonos then look at Control4, it rocks!

Originally Posted by mrmckay

Did any of you "centralize" the location of your zone players? I'd like to store all the zone players in my media closet in the basement where I have all wiring for the house coming into. Also, do any of you use with a media server for the sonos? ( I'm considering colocating a mac mini in the closet for this purpose. )

Regards,
Chris

Whenever we have a Sonos project where the house can be wired we installed all trhe components centrally in a rack. For wireless coverage we just use hidden zonebridges. We use Buffalo Terastations NAS boxes for storage.

Wow.. with the iPhone app that looks insane! so sick

I pre-wired the crap outa my house before it was built and I'm dying to go Sonos. I was waiting to see if they'd push out a larger multi-zone box so I didn't have to have 9 of these boxes hanging out in my home-run closet.

Does anyone have an inside if they are going to make a larger multi-zone Sonos adapter?

What is the cheapest place to buy the equipment from (saw they were sellin it at Best Try now).

Are you guys with larger home-run systems using the amplified version or the non-amplified preamp then pushing the signal through somethin else before spitting it out?

Originally Posted by BogeyBoy82

Are you guys with larger home-run systems using the amplified version or the non-amplified preamp then pushing the signal through somethin else before spitting it out?

If you're doing a home run I'd go with just a couple ZP-90's (non-amped) into some other multi-source, multi-zone system (eg . That way you don't necessarily need 1 Sonos for each room. Instead you just get as many as you think you'll want simultaneous different sources. Eg; if you got 4 people in your house, are you really going to ever be listening to more than 4 different things at the same time? Probably not, but maybe throw in an extra source or two for guest rooms or what have you... Depending on what you do, you may not save any money in the end, but you will gain some extra flexibility.

I've used a Sonos/Russound combo before and it was a complete pleasure. I highly recommend it. BTW, the iPhone controller app is way nicer than the standard Sonos controllers.

I have an Elan system running my entire audio/video distribution. 18 zones and alot of sources. Each person in the family has their own dvr distributed, all cd's and dvds are stored in escient fireballs and distributed as well. Each room has a via panel that doubles as a controller and a display for the security cameras. The system is virtually bulletproof and has provided me with years of painless operation.

Originally Posted by Bacchus

If you're doing a home run I'd go with just a couple ZP-90's (non-amped) into some other multi-source, multi-zone system

Bacchus,
Any recommendations on multi zone receivers?

Regards,
Chris

Originally Posted by mrmckay

Bacchus,
Any recommendations on multi zone receivers?

Regards,
Chris

I have used a 6 zone Russound receiver with wall control units in each zone and an RF remote that works beautifully with the Sonos.

Originally Posted by mrmckay

Any recommendations on multi zone receivers?

Not from personal experience. You just got two in the thread that I've read good things about, I'd probably add Niles to the evaluation short list...