Scottish Elises

For the techno's out there (mostly shug)

I took a gamble on the sony gigajuke about 3 years ago as they had standalone speaker systems and i didn't want speakers everywhere, got the main unit and 4 satellite units. Since day 1 the user interface is clunky, keeps dropping out of the network etc. We also live in the world of apple (2 iphones, 1 ipad, 1 macbook and umpteen ipods), so when we want to encode albums i have to do it twice, once on the gigajuke and then on the macbook.

Apple music is stored on the macbook which isn't always turned on and it's starting to run out of space

Had enough of it to be honest and i've stopped listening to music in the house as it winds me up to much. I've now noticed that sonos now have all in one satellite units

The questions

Do sony have a software update for the gigajuke which would address the user inferface issues?
If i bought an apple time capsule could the gigajuke connect to it so i only have to encode once in itunes

and this is more a question for andyG/shug

how much to change to a sonos system, i'm guessing i need wireless music storage and 5 music locations.

Chris

Dont know much about the Gigajuke im afraid.

I have Sonos however and its awesome!

I have Napster rather than Spotify (£5 vs £10 per month) and very rarely listen to anything but this. (8500000 tracks and counting) You also get internet radio and Last FM. (FOC)

A few different options for each Zone and you need a Zonebridge (£80) if none of the Zones are near your router.

The options are:
S5 (all in one unit in Black or White) RRP £349 (each)
ZP90 (unamplified music) for plugging into an existing hifi setup etc (£279)
ZP120 (amplified music) for plugging into separate speakers. (£399)
There is also a new Wireless Dock (WD100) that allows you to dock your iphone / ipod and play any music which is contained within the device. (£99)

You may still be able to get a BU250 bundle which has a ZP90, ZP120 and the CR200 (£279) controller for £800 ish

You can get an app for both Apple products and Android products from the webstore which is free of charge so alot of people don't bother with the controller however i have one and it is excellent (IMHO)

Sonos is very easy to setup, rarely drops and sounds awesome.

Well worth the cash in my opinion.

Hope this helps!

Prior to actually using Sonos i thought it was expensive and things like Boxee could do just as good a job for free.

Then i actually installed it for my old man, and i've totally changed my mind. It is just excellent and well worth the money.

In your particular circumstances it's going to be a bit painful moving at first, but if you go down a NAS storage and Sonos route then at least you're pretty future proofed shuold you wish to change direction again. The readynas will also support time machine backups without tying you further into apple land.

I have one of these
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143121

with 2 x 1TB discs in it. You can do it cheaper, but again it's an excellent unit. It automatically saves everything to both discs to prevent total data loss if one HD fails. It also means that it's easy to upgrade at a later date as it takes standard hard drives.

EDIT : Of course if you have the readynas you could also use it to stream music to your macbook, or using some airplay products but that's not going to be as cute as Sonos.

Another Edit : My folks run their mac mini as their main 'puter and it doubles as storage for Sonos which is another option for you

I love running both zones I have synchronised, so I can move around the house with music on.

Sound quality from the Sonos S5 player is very good, but you'll need a real audiophile to bring a quantifiable response (TonyG.....).

Hopefully these systems (Sonos / Napster etc) will be stable and around for some time - otherwise we have another betamax fad

To be honest that's the beauty of having your music in a non proprietary format, on a NAS drive - even if Sonos does disappear it's then relatively easy to move to a new product in the future.

Less easy if you've invested in S5's granted..............

Happily vote for Sonos here, I have installed the "Bundle" Ed mentioned as well as an S5 for the kitchen.

My 90 is wired to my Pioneer amp which is all under the stairs cupboard and runs into the Living room through ceiling speakers.

The 120 runs a pair of ceiling speakers in the master bedroom.

Looking for another S5 for the ground floor garden room / move it into garage to give me 4 zones.

Loving Napster, rarely listen to much other than this, and when the app is on the touch/ipad and phone as well as the controller there is always something to hand to change music and volumes etc.

I didnt look at anything else (Apart from some of the systems with wall mounted panels etc but they seemed a bit OTT) as Tony G looked after me from the start to finish.

The only problem is I have a rather nice Nakamichi Soundspace system that feels just so nice but outdated, and now I have nowhere to put it/ use it as the beauty of the Sonos imo is that its not on display.

I can't see Sonos diappearing anytime soon from the amount we sell.

Great system, really user friendly and the sound quality is pretty good.

If you want better sound, get a Zoneplayer 90 and use it with a decent amp and speakers.

I'm planning on a 3 room set up.

Do I just need:

Sound Bridge
3 X S5s?

Zonebridge

Lots of places are doing a bundle were you get one s5 and a Zonebridge for £399. HTH

Was thinking about this before the clio died but just incase I have any money left.

what would I need....

to plug into my amp for living room tunage &

In the bathroom (powering some in ceiling speakers) &

In the bedroom, I am thinking totally standalone for this, and does it have an alarm ?

for living room - Zoneplayer 90 - plugs in to the amp like a CD player would have.

For Bathroom Zoneplayer 120 and speakers - or if it's a smallish bathroom one SSM (single stereo monitor) - still needs two speaker cables.

In the bedroom a Zoneplayer S5 (i don't think it has an alarm though, but could be wrong)

You will need either - a Sonos Controller or an iPod touch/iPhone for control (or there a PC desktop controller) - and there's an Android app now too

you will also need at least one of the boxes plugged in to your router - if none of the above are near it you can use a Zone bridge.

The sonos system has an alarm. So can be set to go off in any zone, havent explored to see if it comes on on a desired track or radio station, just the chime so far.