Sonos turns your house into an ipod

John_ops: Bravo! Bravo! My squeezebox did the same thing for me, wish they had the nice Sonos interface without using my tablet pc.

If you do your searches on Audiocircle you will find that no one mods the Sonos and that the squeezeboxes sound better out the digital output. I run my Squeezebox into a 10k DAC and I am quite amazed at the quality. It did require a Bolder Modified powersupply to make it all worthwhile.

I would have loved to have the Sonos Remote control and simplicity but the sound quality was not at the same level versus using Flac files on the SB3. So for now I'll stick with my TablePC choicing album covers from the slimserver software.

I know the USB Dac's are suppose to be the good, but the thought of connecting my noisy (physical and ground issues) computer (and I've built quiet computers before) to my audio system is just contradictory.

John_ops: I stand corrected on audiocircle, and now you have me obsessing over where those threads were... I bought the SB2 over 1.5 years ago because of what people said. I found one of my original links to a review stating the Sonos didn't have a digital output... so looks like a lot has changed with the sonos...

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/SonosDigitalMusicSystemReview1.php

The nice thing about the squeezebox was they were only $200 back then compared to the $1100-$1800 back then for the sonos. Granted now after modification the prices are closer.

John_ops: I completely agree about the convience thing.. even if my universal Player is better I prefer the convience of my Squeezebox immediate access to music. I should also describe how I use my modified squeezebox which I find advantagous. Since I have computers in every room, they can use softsqueeze to play music and interface with my whole collection.. so I'm never away from my music. I use Internet Steaming Audio a lot to find new music... The Atlanta Jazz station is awesome, along with some Euro Techo stations.. I can leave my main rig on and move from room to room and control it from any computer that is up (keep in my bedroom has a 37" monitor, my office has a 37" monitor (plus two 20.1" screens))

I have a tablepc (1.5gig of ram, 12" touchscreen) that I use the web interface to view my albums, build playlist, and control the content.

Plus the Squeezebox have all these cool plugin's that you can use.
1) When not in use they stream RSS news feeds like a Stock ticker! Totally cool when having breakfast or cooking dinner to glance at. Or I can set this up as a screensaver while listening to music.
2) There is another streamer that downloads song lyrics and plays them..
3) I'm about to try out a room accoustic correction program
http://www.inguzaudio.com/RoomCorrection/
3) integration into whole house automation, security via Plutohome... I'm sure there are others as this solution looks a little pricy (hardware) but it is well thought out and open source
4) The advantage of using a tabletpc while listening to my system is I can surf while sitting back on the couch.

The funny thing was my tabletpc and the Squeezebox were a little more than the Sonos... another thing to think about if your need to purchase a laptop for home! Plus I use the laptop to rip on battery to FLAC for an even purer rip.

Granted you do have to wakeup the laptop out of standby, and it can get warm on the lap, and playtimes can't exceed 4.5hrs without charging the laptop, So the Sonos is definitely advantagous with the remote... too bad it won't control the rest of my system... now I'm looking for a universal remote that has at least an 8" screen, wifi, Web browser, and supports RF control so I can slimserver and control my whole system while glued to the couch!

UI design is pretty critical.. if I didn't have the tabletpc I would have a much harder time with my 900cd collection that I'm still ripping..uggh