Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
- Convenient and cost effective way to get started
- Best-in-class wireless technology for multi-room music
- Instant access to endless music
- Simple setup
- New features and music services with automatic updates
Product DescriptionThe BU250 includes two Sonos ZonePlayers and one Sonos Controller to let you enjoy the music files on your PC or networked hard drive anywhere in your house, thanks to hassle-free wireless networking capability. Controller offers a 3. 5″ color LCD to provide easy browsing of your PC music library and independent control of each ZonePlayer in your system.
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
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I bought the BU290 system that comes with two players. zp120 and zp90, in a bundle. The zp90 unit I attached to the router and since my router is not in a place I want my stereo to be, was a wasted unit. It is sitting under the desk next to the router. Which means I could use only the zp120 unit for music. I then realized that what I needed was a zone bridge, which ought to have come with this package, otherwise you would be have two working music players. Mind you so for one wireless player, I am $1000 inhole at this point. It was also not obvious to me that I needed speakers with all of these players. The speakers that I did attach do not match the unit so the whole thing looks mismatched and slightly schlocky. There is no off switch on the unit which bothers me. I have to pull the plug out to turn off the little light on the front. This oversight in a $1000 unit? All electronic devices should have a on/off switch.
I then bought a S5 player, this is the thing with the speakers built in. It looks nice but also has no on/off switch. I put it in the dining room where I will use it very infrequently so lack of a switch is annoying.
My suggestion: Buy the zone bridge and player with speakers. Don’t buy the set. The player S5 is same price as the 120 and it is a far better piece.
My conclusions: Its a way overpriced bit of machine. About double what it should be, as the company has indeed cut some corners. If money is no object, THEN, this is a very good machine indeed. But as I rate it a 2 for cost and a four and a half for functionality, I think three and a half stars is about what it deserves at this point.
One problem: I was not able to hook up the player in its final place at first. Router could not find it. So I had to set it up near the router and then take it back and put it in the dining room and it worked fine then.
Rating: 3 / 5
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
Have owned this now for 4 months and absolutely love Sonos. Did a lot of research before buying and this system definitely delivers. The new hand-held controller is much nicer and easier to use than the previous version (I demoed the previous unit at a store several times) The setup was a snap, took a few minutes to plug everything up and load the software on my computer, point the sonos to my HP MediaSmart server and I was listening to music. Will be expanding my Sonos equipment to every room in my house. There are other systems that are cheaper but NONE of them have the functionality or ease of use of this product. This out-apples all apple products for execution.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
My plan had been to demo the Sonos system in my home for a few weeks under the no questions asked Sonos 30 return policy and then make a decision. It took about an hour before I knew that this was a keeper. Setup is easy peasy . . . sound is excellent and the available music selection is virtually unlimited. Setup was quick a straightforward and then I was playing customized Pandora stations within minutes . . . actually more like seconds following setup. It tapped into the music collection stored in iTunes on one of the PCs in the house and I understand it would do the same if the music was stored on an external hard drive (connected to the network) or my home server (where I plan to eventually house all of my music). The system is very intuitive. My daughter and wife had it down in a few minutes. I tested a few other things like looking up ‘salsa’ and ‘tango’ and within the internet radio section and found many stations of that type that I could play or save to favorite stations. It has now been a few days and we have music going all the time in the kitchen, family room or both. And – because the system is so scalable – so easily expanded – I will not be able to resist adding zones for the master bedroom and outside in short order. I demoed it for neighbors and they were sold on the system very quickly.
I have pairs of in-wall speakers in five rooms and 2 pair of outdoor speakers and had previously been running a second zone off of my home theater receiver with a separate amp. It’s not even close – the Sonos system blows it away. I rarely write reviews but I was too impressed to not.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
Ok. As I type this I am listening to music streaming from my desktop. Earlier, I was listening to music from my wife’s computer. We have three zones set up — one stand-alone player, one 120 driving speakers, and the last, the 90, hooked into a receiver/amp. Literally with a touch, one can choose where music will be played and each zone easily plays whatever we want — including local and internet radio. I use both the 200 controller and the Ipod touch ap, whichever is handiest.
The quality of the individual units is supurb, as nice and as well thought out as any industrial designed item, including anything from Apple.
I have had the system for a few weeks and here are some things to beware of. . .
1. . wav formatted music. I did not know what the problem was, only that dozens of albums were not appearing in the various lists (by artist, album, etc). An e-mail to customer support late one evening got a response by early the next morning asking for some details, including the type of format. It quickly became clear the issue was . wav music. A follow-up email that night was answered by the next morning, along with comprehensive instructions on how to take care of the problem: I used itunes. I added “type” to the column, sorted on that column, so all . wav appeared together. Then I selected (highlited) those cuts and, under the advanced tab, let itunes convert them all to apple lossless. It took a while but problem solved.
2. If you have a Norton’s desktop firewall, you will have to configure it to give access to SONOS. This took about 2 minutes, following the screenshot by screenshot instructions.
3. The Ipod interface is close, but not an exact match, to the 200 controller interface. It took me a while to figure out how to navigate back from, say, the screen where one selects which zones to play, to the music selection screens. But this is a tiny nit to pick.
My next project will be to copy all our music onto a USB drive attached to a new router, or get an NAS drive to plug into the router, or, buy a Dell Hybrid or Apple TV or Apple mini to use as a media server so I will not have to have the computers on to hear the music. Can’t wait. . .
Other notes: The SONOS S5 standalone box certainly fills a room with warm sound. It would be perfect bedroom addition if it had a display with a clock radio function. Others have commented how it would have been nice if it had an ipod dock. . . but that gives Apple obsolesence control over the connection.
In summary, this is an easy to set up, easy to use, nice sounding system. Audiophiles might sniff, but the music is fine. Taking into consideration the alternatives, high end multi-room systems can easily run tens of thousands of dollars between wiring, touch screen controllers, speakers, and labor costs. I had this one up and running in three room in about an hour, and that includes the time it took to wire the speakers to the 120, hook up the 90 to a receiver, change the firewall configuration, and synch everything.
Go for it.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System
I have been reviewing solutions to create a wireless music system throughout my house for about 1 to 2 years. Repeatedly, this one popped up as the most expensive and highest rated. Now I bought it (and another 2 ZP120, another controller, and two ZP90′s).
I will say that it is one of the most brilliantly designed and executed pieces of software and hardware I have seen in a long time. There is no fiddling or messing around with drivers for Vista and what-not: It just works.
I like the flexibility to have units with speakers, with amplifiers only, or without amplifiers (or just a repeater of the wireless network). I have lots of different stereo’s around the house in various places, some of them of very high quality; all of this prior investment can now be hooked into the system (connected to the Zonos wireless system).
The ability to use the free Pandora music service (in the US) is almost too good to be true. Pandora is almost ad-free; so basically, you have any kind of music available for free any time. Incredible! (The variety of music on Pandora is mind boggling). Then of course there are the thousands of radio stations (10 or so local!).
We thought about various other house-wide music systems, including ones that require to wire up the whole house with speaker wires etc. That would not have been cheaper, and less flexible (now we can rearrange and redecorate and just set up the music in a different corner of the room). I have no experience with cheaper wireless systems, but from reviews as best as I can tell, Sonos is still unique in it’s capabilities, flexibility, and elegance.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System