Hot Sonos ZP120 on ZP100 action spied
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 26th 2008 8:16AM
posted May 26th 2008 8:16AM
There you have it, Sonos' reputed ZP120 zoneplayer mounting its chubby ZP100 Appalachian cuz. The new amplified zoneplayer adds 802.11n to the mix while ditching the analog outs. Also rumored is an un-amplified, 802.11n ZP90 to replace the ZP80. When? We have no idea but you'll know when we do. Backside front after the break.
Take your music for a wild ride
Hopefully a new controller as well :-)
This unit is anything but cheap. Yes, you could build a couple single board computers to transport your music but how would you amplify speakers? How would you walk around with a wireless hand held device that selects all your music?
Listen, I know $1000 seems outrageous for many people. This product is not designed for the young college kid in the dorm, this is designed for the home owner who wants to add a couple of networked speakers in another room without running cables all over the place.
This could be the ideal way to add some music into your kitchen with out all the mess of bulky stereo equipment.
http://www.sonos.com/products/systems/bu130/components.htm
What? $999 for that? With 2 cheap single board computers, some cheap miniPCI 802.11a cards, some free linux, an old palmtop PC and a few hours I could do the same thing. It would be a lot more fun, a lot more cheap and would sound just as good.
My gran couldn't do it though, so I'm guessing that's who they plan to sell to.
Well, I installed Sonos on my tablet, quad-pc and wife's mac using a fit-pc (see www.fit-pc.com) as a music server in 20 min. I prefer playing with my daughter instead of building Linux-thingy's. It's worth the extra $800.
People who like to keep it fast & simple ;)
I prefer to just use AirPort Express + Salling Clicker, yet that Sonos Remote *is* mighty nifty.
You'd need an amplifier, too.
Hey, for $10k, a forest, a wood mill and a year of your life you could build your own log cabin on a cheap plot of land. Sounds like fun, but that's not for everybody and the end product likely won't look as nice as the pre-built option. (although a log cabin can look damn good)
Tom - not on the zp100/120 they have a built in amp, hence the speaker outputs. The zp80/90 requires an amp.
Yeah, man!
That is exactly what I usually say about my overpriced car.
A few wheels round there, a few aluminum tubes round here, glass, glue, and I've got my car on the cheap
I even have furniture at home that I should habe built myself with bits and pieces
But going for the real deal here, I don't see the real improvement on a "n" based mesh netowrk whose only reason to exist is build the Sonos-use-only network. I am sure it has to be anything else under the hood. Ok, that somebodie's house is so big that it has huge distances between rooms, but most of us don't. Furthermore, for a device for music only (lossless or not), current bandwidth is more than enough.
At least my setup works just fine...
You could not in a hundred years write a software that's this simple and functional.
Hopefully someone will come out with a product that does for video what sonos has done for audio!
No line level OR digital outputs (not counting Sub) on the ZP120? For serious? Man, if these rumors pan out then Sonos will have launched a product that addresses nothing I care about.
There is digital output on the ZP80/90. The idea is that if you are running your own amp you don't need the amp in the ZP120.
I'm still very happy with my Sonos system. Just added a Pandora account and it works like a charm and sounds good. Still have two nits with the system: can't play Apple DRM files and can't stream Real Audio.
For those of you attracted to Sonos, but thinking (rightfully so) that they're overpriced for what they do, check out the Logitech Squeezebox Duet. We've been fantastically happy with ours so far.
'n' compliance is a necessary but insufficient step in the right direction -- surely there needs to be more. Even tho the current controller is the best on the market it still leaves alot to be desired. It'd be really cool, for example, if it could also control other household appliances like my TV. Or a function to access freeedb or gracenote or allmusic to get more info on a track or its performer..that's a no brainer. The indexing function is seriously limiting--I had to rename every file of my entire collection to be accomodated by Sonos limited station memory. Moreover, for services like Rhapsody there's no indiividual track index which sometimes makes finding a selection unreasonably difficult (you have to search thru albums and may not necessarily no which its on). Plus the visual design of the controller is dated. And since it's already attached to the router it should have a browser and iNet access. We'll have to wait and see.
I love my Sonos - nothing I've seen (including the Duet) or used comes close to the simplicity and ease of use of the Sonos system. That said, I hope to see the Sonos prices come down. The supposed features don't do much for me - the current range is perfect fine for me - I have a ZP100 outside and don't have any issues. If Sonos would drop the prices of the ZonePlayers 25-40%, I'd buy another one tomorrow!
@Paul - I think it was priced high (IMO) because there wasn't really any competition until the Squeezebox Duet came along.
I have purchased just about every kind of media adapter made. Much of this was in conjunction with a work project, but I had access to to the latest and greatest from dozens of manufacturers. Sonos was and is the best when it comes to ease-of-use audio.
I was so impressed with Sonos that I have 19 Zone players and 7 controllers. They've worked wonderfully for going on three years now. I use them everyday. I love that I can link the outdoor speakers with the basketball court and garage when I'm doing summer chores! My kids are bugging me to hook one up in their bathroom and the only thing holding me up is choosing which waterproof in wall speakers to buy.
I have on occasion had some network bandwidth issues when I was listening to too many different sources concurrently. Maybe N would help with that.
I also use the Zone player to network an XBOX 360 and a PC in my workshop with perfect results.
Slap a 10 inch touchscreen LCD on an Apple TV and it kills these. Until Sonos starts thinking video, I can't consider them at that price point.
Jamie,
You've clearly never used Sonos. Apple TV couldn't be further away...
I have had Sonos for 3 years now (5 zones, 2 controllers). Sonos is technology that actually works as advertised. I have it set up with a Buffalo Linkstation for my music library of 500+ CDs and Rhapsody To-Go account. And it's simple enough for my spouse to use. (I can't say that for my HDTV setup.) Yes, it's not cheap but it's much less expensive than hard-wired systems. Service/maintenance is effective by calling Sonos directly. Yes, I'd love it to do video but it does what it does very well.
I bet video is comming. Looks like a recently hired East coast VP of product development is a video guru. 802.11n increased bandwidth and using the clean 5 GHz spectrum will prove important.
They are also hiring more, Google Sonos and craiglist. Get a job and a free/cheap Sonos?
As for me, I'm still on the fence. Sonos is expensive but sweet.
Squeezebox Duet much more affordable but somewhat flawed.
When the SB Duet came out, Sonos did discount the bundle $200.
Now I'm waiting for another promotion to get me of the fence.
How about and "browser" based controller? Then you could use an IPod Touch, IPhone, or other similar wi-fi device.
The 120 May not have analogue outputs but that is what a ZP80 is for. It is, however, 20% smaller and it has a 55w amp, rather than a 50w amp and uses 802.11n, so it has much longer wireless range.
It still has a sub out. Sonos is great kit. Yes it is cheaper to 'build your own' but I would rather have an out the box solution which works extremely well and is very well constructed.
There is rumored to be a ZP90. This is exactly the same as the ZP80 but with 802.11n, so it has much longer wireless range.
If you think this is expensive, try Crestron on for size. In UK, an 8 inch wireless tablet costs around £3500 ($7000). Now that really is expensive!