Sonos Controller for iPad

Sonos Wireless System & iPad Controller app.

Sonos, makers of the World’s #1 multi-room music system, released their free controller for the iPad and we are not only going to review that app right here for you, but we are also going to show you how you can create one of the most amazing home music systems you have yet to experience. Surely this is something you don’t want to miss.

Who Is Sonos?

In order to appreciate what we are about to review, you will want to know who Sonos is.  Sonos is a company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California that was created by music lovers, for music lovers.  Their philosophy is to create products that are well designed, of the highest quality and express their passion for music.

Sonos takes a new approach to consumer electronics.  They make it super easy to enjoy the best music all around your house.  And now, they have taken a significant leap forward in the world of music systems with the launch of the iPad Controller app. Essentially, Sonos has created a way to experience music that we all thought would be possible one day.   And now it is.

What Is A Multi-Room System?

The Sonos multi-room music system is a way to have multiple wireless speakers located around the home that can all be controlled using a single controller.  But these speakers wouldn’t be much without great music right?  As it turns out, the Sonos system also has access to your own home music library, thousands of internet radio stations, and several great online music systems such as:

• iTunes
• Last.fm
• Pandora
• Rhapsody
• Audible
• iheartradio
• SIRIUS
• Wolfgang’s Vault
• Zune Marketplace

All of these music choices are sent out to each of your wireless speakers separately or in unison.  Now, in order to connect all these wireless speakers together, Sonos has created a great little accessory called the Zone Bridge.  It is a small white box that plugs right into your wireless network and allows all of the speakers and your controller to talk – instantaneously.

The Components

So, what do you need to set up your own multi-room music system?  Here is an example of simple entry level system:

• ZonePlayer S5 (two)
• Controller
• ZoneBridge

Sonos does make other products that you can use, but these 3 things are sufficient for the most basic set up.  If you want to use your own speakers or have in-ceiling ones, it’s no problem.  Sonos has different wireless receivers based on your desires.

Music throughout your home does not get much better than this.  If you are looking for a home music system that not only takes advantage of the latest technology but one you can use with your iPad, then here it is.

The layout is extremely well designed and easy to use.  On the left, you have your “Zones” which are the ZonePlayers. In the middle of the app you have the current music being played and on the far right are your music choices.

All of the music services work great, including Pandora.  The great thing here is that you could sign into Pandora and it loads up all your stations.  If you have network attached storage or your computer is turned on and sharing, then it will locate your home music library. If you use the Mac iTunes library, it will find it and list all your music just as you would see it in iTunes.

Other features we love from the Sonos iPad Controller app are the timers and alarms.  You can easily tap on “timers” and it will let you set a sleep timer up to 2 hours as well as set an alarm.  So it’s like having a wireless alarm clock as well.

If you have one iPad or two or more, each one can control the ZonePlayers.  This is nice because you might want to have Internet radio playing in the Living Room but Rhapsody playing in the Master Bedroom.

This is the perfect example of taking an amazing multi-room wireless music system and pairing it with an app that actually makes sense.  It brings together two amazingly innovative systems: the iPad and the Sonos.  The app does not crash. It is intuitive and it works so well you really won’t want to part with it.

Conclusion

From the minute the Sonos arrived to the time we loaded the new iPad controller app, we have not only been impressed but amazed.  Sure, it’s a speaker system.  But it’s more than that.   It’s a well thought out speaker system that changes how you listen to music completely.  It’s a system that just about anyone can use.  And most importantly, it shows off the value of the iPad and makes it that much more useful in your everyday life.