Customer Reviews

Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have owned the Sonos 250 bundle for a week now and it works like a charm!
It comes with an extensive owners manual,easy setup and most importantly it simply works.
I returned a Squeezebox Duet for a refund after 25 days it was a too problematic (constantly on the phone with tech support),the controler had too much lag time booting up from sleep mode.

The CR200 remote controler is an awesome piece of work it is robust (as is the entire Sonos system),fast and has a very sturdy rubberized build with a big bright full color screen,very nice.
The build quality for all the componets is top notch and I mean TOP NOTCH quality.

One thing to note...the 120 zoneplayer will not connect to a receiver only speakers as it has its own built in amp I made that assumption,not a problem my mini Onkyo receiver will find other duty around the house.All this is to say if you intend to connect to 2 receivers STOP and buy two Sonos 90 zoneplayers and CR 200 separately.
The sound from the built in amp is equal to if not better my my mini 60 amp Onkyo system.
The Sonos 90 zoneplayer in the bundle connects to my big Onkyo receiver in the family room again the sound is awesome and of course it syncs with the other room or plays seperate selections in each room if you desire.
There is another Sonos 90 in my future for my mini Onkyo.

All in all you cannot go wrong here Sonos cost more then its competition but is a better value and worth every penny.
I went the low road (Squeezebox) and it was full of bumps and headaches, dig a little deeper and save yourself some time and headaches Sonos is the way to go.

My wife and I decided it was time to get rid of the stereos that sat around our apartment working only as radio's and iPhone input players -- we hadn't played a cd or tape on them in years. I stumbled on Sonos after looking through audio magazines on-line and it was on the only system I saw that really address all our needs. I ordered the BU250 bundle along with an S5. They arrived yesterday and I literally had them playing music in under 15 minutes -- including the uninstallation of the previous stereo equipment and the indexing of my music collection.

Step 1. Plugged in Zoneplayer 90 into router and power. Plugged in externally powered speakers.
Step 2. Moved old stereo to floor; attached speakers from old stereo into Zoneplayer 120 and plugged into outlet.
Step 3. Moved old box radio to floor; plugged S5 into outlet in the kitchen.
Step 4. Installed software from cd onto computer (this required pressing the mouse button several times but no actual technical understanding). Indexed the music on the computer too.
Step 5. Following the software prompt, told each Zoneplayer to announce it is around (push mute and volume up button at the same time). The software also had me update the software on the Zoneplayers to the latest versions (automaticly done, I just had to acknowledge this was ok). I then started playing local NPR station per commands from the computer to prove I could.
Step 6. Woke up the Controller 200 (it was already fully charged out of the box) and used the mute/volume button combo press on one of the Zoneplyers to let the remote know there is a system around to latch to.
Step 7. Gave remote to wife (I have an iPhone with the app installed). She then logged into her Pandora account from the remote and was playing music in under a minute.
Step 8. Invited friends over to gaze at what I have accomplished.

It was really that easy. We now have a bunch of bookshelf space back in the living room and we can quickly listen to just about any song out there with just a few touches to the remote. I have a NAS on order so we can play our music collection without having the computer powered on.

Bottom line: a very easy to use, easily expandable, full featured solution to life after cd/tapes.

I am a very sophisticated user so getting something as easy to set up and use as a Sonos was not originally part of my purchase criteria. But since I'm not the only user I had to go beyond my own considerations when making a purchase.

This review is for a Sonos BU250 bundle + S5 that I purchased just before Christmas this year. I added a pair of SP100 speakers just a couple of days ago. I've had the system for about a week.

I previously had a Squeezebox system for a few years (SB3 attached to the home theater, Duet set up in the living room). Though the SB3 had been trouble free I was always disappointed by the user interface to search and play specific music. The frequent updates to the Squeezecenter software (now Squeezebox Server) were equally frustrating since those updates sometimes introduced problems that were not previously evident. Finally the range of the system was limited since it relied solely on the existing WiFi network (or wired Ethernet--in my case via powerline adapters). Regardless, the music was prone to stuttering or stopping altogether...quite a frustration when you have guests or just want to sit back and relax. In all fairness, Logitech (the owner of the Squeezebox brand) has done some commendable updates to their Duet software which has improved its functionality considerable. Still, the continuing dropouts and occasional lockups made the whole system less than a pleasant experience. With all that said, I am still a staunch supporter of the Squeezebox system and will continue to recommend it for certain users and configurations. For me, it ultimately fell short for what I had hoped to accomplish.

After doing a bit of research on options and alternatives I decided to go the Sonos route. I've known of Sonos for a few years but had decided on the Squeezebox route primarily based on cost. This time around, I decided the extra cost would be offset by the ease of use, so I went ahead and took the plunge.

For me, the critical factor for my decision was the mesh network which allows each unit to "piggyback" from the others, extending the network throughout the house. Now I don't have be concerned about the extent of a wired network since the mix of Sonos units throughout the house takes care of everything. I have a ZP120 in the living room (connected to Sonos SP100 speakers), a ZP90 in the media room (connected to the home theater and wired network), and an S5 in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The CR200 controller sits in the living room, but we also use the free iPhone/iPod Touch app to control the system when we're away from the living room.

I intend to add a couple of additional units--a ZP90 connected to a pair of powered speakers in my home office, and a second S5 that can do double duty in the guest room and as an outdoor system when we entertain.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the setup, ease of use, and overall functionality. And during my one call to technical support (I had a setup challenge since my network wasn't cooperating to connect to the initial Zoneplayer) the staff member was knowledgeable, patient, and thorough in his execution. After a bit of troubleshooting, we got the problem resolved and I have been a happy listener ever since. I highly recommend the system to anyone looking for a pain free whole house (or part of house) music system!

I am really happy with the purchase of this Sonos equipment. Over the past year, I increasingly became interested in jumping into a wireless household music system that can bridge my interest in audio and technology. After a fair amount of research, I decided on the Sonos solution. I started with the BU250 Multiroom Music System and a S5 Zoneplayer. My initial experience when I received the stuff was very similar to that when I get any Apple product. Packaging was well thought out and the design and quality was great. Cool, compact design and installation was a snap.

I had really good sound piped through the house within 30 minutes. The user interface on the remote was extremely intuitive and with the exception of a few needs to reference the manual, it was self-explanatory. The S5 sounds very good for a boom-box type application, but the ZP120 hooked up to some decent Polk Audio bookshelf speakers I had lying around sound a lot better and provide far better separation. If you have a good pair of speakers and don't need the portability, this is the way I recommend you go. This said, I easily see the benefits of portability of the S5. Like for parties out on the patio, working in the garage, etc.

I also hooked up the ZP90 to my main stereo, which I am very picky about the sound. I choose to use the digital out into an off board DAC, which feeds an analog signal into the stereo. I could use the analog directly out of the ZP90 and bypassed my DAC, but do not - nor did I do serious A/B comparisons to see how much better my DAC is to the one in the ZP90 unit (or if it is even better). The sound on this system is excellent and very listenable for long periods of time. Although a CD on a higher end player sounds much better, the convenience of dialing an almost endless variety of music into the mix from the comfort of my chair is technology at it's best!! When sitting in front of my stereo, I spend my time about 50% listening to CD's and 50% listening to material through the Sonos feed.

But, I find that I am listening to far more music in general because I don't have to be confined to the room with my main stereo. It is the greatest thing when throwing a party and I have turned countless friends onto it because the sound, the convenience, and a very high cool factor.

As far as source material goes, I subscribed to Sirius on the Internet (as well as my car and home), and it works seamlessly. It has actually saved me money because I cancelled my home subscription and now pipe Sirius through many rooms in my house with no hassle of weak signals and finding northwest facing windows to dangle an antenna in. Additionally, I have ripped about 150 gigs of music using in Apple Lossless format and keep it on a NAS attached to my router. So when someone asks to hear Neil Young do Helpless on his Unplugged album, no problem. Or, when my Irish mother-in-law was here from New Jersey and misses her WOR radio station in the morning, I dialed that in too. All through a few clicks on the Sonos remote (and it's free).

By now, you should have figured out I give the Sonos system a hardy recommendation . . . . . but there are a few cons. Namely:

The cost of the system is pretty high. But I personally feel you get what you pay for.

Although the Sonos network uses all units to communicate with each other and expand coverage, the reception is not stellar and you have to be sometimes thoughtful on unit placement. In a couple of situations, it got dicey on me if the distance to the closest unit was more than ~50 feet and through multiple walls.

If you use iTunes to manage your digital music, it is not really intuitive if you want Sonos to use your play lists and the computer that you run iTunes is not readily available on the network. Though I have found a workaround and am sure there may be better solutions.

The CR200 remote runs out of juice after about a day and a half, so it needs to find it's way back to it's charging cradle after extended use. Also, I wish there was a feature that allows you to make the remote beep to help find it because I misplace it a lot . . . . especially during parties!

Anyway, I don't write too many reviews, but when I find something that works very well and I am this happy, I owe it to the company and to other readers of reviews to share my thoughts. Hope it helps!

The Sonos system just works, and works brilliantly. Having multi-room wireless sound in my home with the option of listening to so many sources of music (digital music from my networked computer, Sirius, various online radio stations and online music service) as well as tying it into my existing home stereo for CDs and terrestrial radio is just brilliant. The hardware and software are engineered to the highest standard. It's not cheap but the functionality is a whole level above anything else out there. Those who want the best will be satisfied. Expect to pay $2000-$3000 to truly set up a large home with 4-5 zones assuming you need Sonos amplifiers and speakers in each room rather than using existing equipment. The new remote is spectacular and being able to control everything from my iphone is great. A whole home sound system is like landscape lighting or hardwood floors, not strictly necessary but really adds to the ambiance of the home.

I've owned my Sonos system for two weeks and I'm loving it. I'm a huge music fan. I always have music playing wherever I am. I've always dreamed of a way to link all my music together and listen to it throughout my entire house in synch. My dream is now a reality thanks to Sonos! I purchased the Sonos Bundle 250 plus a Zone Bridge BR 100 and 1 additonal ZP 120 and three Sono's S5's.

Set up was a breeze. I just hooked the Zone bridge to my router. Then attached via RCA cables the ZP 90 to my home stereo. This covers my living room, kitchen, and solarium. Then I placed a ZP 120 in my home office and used my old book shelf speakers and a powered subwoofer I had laying around. Then I placed the additional ZP 120 I purchased in my garage with a couple of B&W 686 bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer from MartinLogan (Dynamo 500 10-Inch 120-Watt). I then placed two Sonos S 5's in the master bedroom. I did this so they would run in stereo. I was able to designate one channel (R) and the other Channel (L). I placed the third Sono's S 5 in the master bathroom.

So I'm currently running 5 zones. Living room (which actually covers three rooms from previously hard wired speakers: Living room, Solarium, Kitchen), Master Bath, Master Bedroom, Garage, & Home office.

Now my advice is buy the Zone Brige BR 100 unless you want to have one of the zone players (ZP 90, ZP 120, or Sonos S 5) hooked to the router. For me router was not in a location where I wanted to hook up a zone player.

Regarding the controller (CR200) that works flawlessly with the sonos system and it's nice to have a dedicated controller for the system. However, to be honest I mostly control the Sonos system via either my iPhone 4, iPod touch, or iPad. They all work great. The iPad controller is truley awesome though. It's so huge and provides a great view of all the zones. My son can listen to his "rock anthems" while he plays outside (Garage zone) and I can listen to NPR in the living room drinking my coffee. Or, we can link 'em all together and have a party!

Now I did have one small glitch that required a phone call to Sonos. Customer service was great. When I called in at first an automatic message informed me I was caller number 14 and they would call me back at this number. I thought that was so cool I didn't have to stay on hold waiting. Within an hour I was speaking with a customer service repressentative. My issue with iTunes between Sonos was then resolved with a little help from Sonos customer service. Friendly and fast.

I currently have three separate computers with music on them that are linking into the Sonos system with roughly 2000 albums in total. Plus I stream music from both Rhapsody and Napster. I've linked my favorite radio stations so with a touch of a button I'm listening to my old college radio station or my home down radio station. I'm truly just beginning to realize all the cool features Sonos offers.

I actually need to purchase 4 more S 5's. The kids each want one for their rooms and I like to have one additonal one for the garage to run to my wireless speakers in the yard via the headphone jack out to the wireless "rocks" I have in the yard. I have four Audio Unlimited 900MHz Wireless Rock Speaker System "rocks" that I place throughout the yard when I have company or simply want to have a camp fire or something.

I just wanted to post this to let anyone interested in this system know how truly amazing it is. The sound is awesome. The ability to unleash your music collection is mind blowing. It truly is a dream come true. I love Sonos!

If all you are doing is playing radio over the sonos you will have no problems with it. If you plan on using Sonos with your Ipad or Iphone it is another matter entirely. While it is supposed to be a piece of cake to set up, I had many problems with it. Firstly I was told that the router I had, which was provided by Telus, had a security feature which blocked the Sonos app. I had to go out and buy a new router and order a new modem from Telus.

After a few days I had all my new equipment installed. I am able to run the Sonos from my ipad however it has all sorts of problems. Firstly I was told by Sonos customer support that Sonos is not meant to work with Itunes DJ. I later found out on my own that I can play the DJ. It is hidden deeply in the Playlist Menus. I am still not sure if it is just reapeating the same playlist over and over again or if it is playing correctly. Part of the problem is that Sonos does not accurately show which song is currently playing. It is supposed to. Their app has a screen for "Now Playing". The problem is that it never updates, or if it does update, it is inconsistant. One never knows exactly which song is playing. Very often, it does not feature the album artwork, or is very slow to load it, since it seems to call it over the wifi instead of importing it.

I once again contacted their support department and they gave me some rediculously lenghty process that might fix it but here's my point; Why should I have to go throught all this trouble wasting hours of my valuable time? I spent a lot of money on the Sonos system based on their claims which turned out to be less than accurate. Why are they having me Beta test their app and why doesn't it work correctly?

Also their app does not seem to communicate properly with the desktop software so if you make a change on one it is not reflected in the other, or it becomes non-responsive. There are a lot of little issues around this. Sonos needs to fix their apps so that it works properly.

Pretty much all of the music services that they advertise are not available in Canada. They don't tell you this on their website. Therefore you are left with empty menu items which only confuse things, Like "Sonos Playlists" and "More Music" The menu system has far too many levels and menu items already without having things in there to complicate matters.

All in all I will enjoy listening to the radio on my Sonos. It does do that well, and syncronises it in every room as promised.

I didn't buy this package exactly, but I bought two ZP90s, one S5, one CR200 Controller, and a BR100 Zonebridge (which I don't actually use). If you contact Sonos directly, they will make you a custom package and give you a discount and free shipping (next day air). I got all that for $1300. Notice that is only about $300 more than the BU250 package, but includes a lot more stuff!

Setup: It is super easy. Just connect one of the pieces to your wireless router, and the rest of the pieces just need to be plugged into the electricity and speakers/amplifiers. If you don't want music where your router is located, you need one of those BR100 Zonebridges, or you need to run a long ethernet cable (like, through your walls) from your router to one of the locations where you want music (which is what I did and is why I don't use the BR100 I bought). When you install the software, it walks you through what to do, which is not much (push two buttons on the pieces to join the pieces to your network and tell it where your digital music is located on your computer. I may be jaded because I am pretty good at setting up computer stuff, but this was stupid easy.

The CR200 Controller: It is a delight. The interface of the remote controller is very iphone-ish. In fact, as you are probably aware, you can download an app for the iphone which allows you to use your iphone as a controller for the system. I tried the app too -- it looks and functions almost identically to the dedicated CR200 controller. All aspects of it are easy to access and use, from adding/subtracting the rooms where you want the music to play, to changing the volume in the different rooms, to selecting the music you want to play. It pulls up your music instantaneously, whether it is your own digital music on your computer, your Sirius stations, or internet radio. By the way, there is so much internet radio available, I feel silly for adding Sirius ($2.99 per month if you already have a Sirius radio in your car), because the internet radio gives you just about anything Sirius does (except a few things like Howard Stern). You can also use subscription music services like Napster and Rapsody, but I haven't tried them yet (but plan to).

The S5: It sounds really, really good. Like a Bose box. This piece is nicely portable, so you can take it out on the deck of your house, for example.

The ZP90: It has digital (toslink and coax) and analog (RCA) outputs so you can plug it into your amplifier. It sounds really good using the optical toslink.

I looked at the logitech squeezebox system, and if I were a single dude, I probably would have got it instead. But, I have a wife and daughter who don't like fooling around with computer stuff as much as I do. I am glad I got the Sonos system, because they are able to use it with no problems. Plus, it really is cool. If you have the money, get it -- you won't regret it.

As others have commented, I find the interface and ease of use of the Sonos system to be truly outstanding. I converted over from a system of iTunes and three Apple AirPort Express devices. I am big Apple fan in general but for music distribution I found the Sonos system to be far superior.

What I would like to comment on specifically in this review is the high quality of customer service Sonos provides. When I installed my system, there were some challenges getting it to work - which ultimately traced back to a balky Verizon FiOS router (the Sonos equipment worked fine). Even though the problem was elsewhere (with the Verizon FiOS router), the Sonos technician patiently spent close to an hour walking me through some work arounds the ultimately got the system working properly, even with the balky router. A few weeks later for reasons unrelated to the Sonos system, which was working fine after the technician's help, I ditched the Verizon FiOS router in favor of a D-Link model, which worked flawlessly with the Sonos system immediately, no awkward router workarounds required.

Most companies, if they offer technical help at all, will refuse to offer support if they suspect the problem lies with other equipment they did not manufacture (such as the Verizon FiOS router). Not Sonos. The technician was deeply knowledgeable about how to troubleshoot the issues until they were resolved. In addition, the wait time to speak with someone was short and the technician had excellent communication skills - English was almost certainly a first language. I suspect the Sonos technical help operation is based in the United States. Very refreshing after many frustrating experiences with technical support from other companies with the more typical offshore operation where communication can be a challenge and sometimes the technicians appear to be reading from a script (e.g., they ask if the device is plugged in and other ridiculous questions, rather than helping to solve the actual problem). To be fair, from time to time I have had great assistance from offshore technical help operations, but more often than not it can be challenging.

So, if you are contemplating the pricing of the Sonos products, which certainly is higher than competing systems, know that the quality of technical support is amazing. Someone who communicates well and doesn't read from a script will make sure it works. I thought long and hard about the Sonos prices before taking the plunge and would resoundingly say it truly is worth every penny.

I've bought many things through Amazon, but have never written a review. This system is worthy of a five-star review. Setup couldn't have been easier, bought the wireless bridge and it works flawlessly. Set up my music folders, added my Rhapsody account, and I can't stop listening to all my music. I only have one zone setup currently but will be adding a second and third very soon. Now that I see how great this works, I'm kicking myself I didn't buy it sooner. If you are even thinking about purchasing Sonos components.....just do it. You won't be sorry.