Cheaper Better Sonos Alternative

For some time now I have looked upon the wireless multi-room audio solution from Sonos with envious eyes. Mentally purchasing most of their offering many times over. However today by chance I spotted that my setup is better than their offering and a lot cheaper.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Sonoe Zone Player & Sonos Controller"][/caption]

If your not familiar Sonos offers an array of boxes that will allow you to wirelessly play you mp3 collection through out your house. One such box is a very smart looking remote which is very Ipodesque with a circle click wheel, but with a screen about 3 times the size ideal for showing album artwork etc.

Recently I have returned back to my Xbox 1 and XBMC due to the media playing being not entirely up to scratch on the ps3. Should note not entirely pants, just a bit not great, (actualy the reason is it wont play the latest xvid and after spending much time converting Sex In the City, i thought it was much easier to use XBMC). Now XBMC will play anything you throw at it, including HD content as long as your using the Mac port (or Plex2) PC port or any of the ports other than the Xbox 1 one. But Video codecs aside, as I'm supposed to be talking about XBMC as a Sonos alternative. XBMC will collect your MP3's into a library much like the Sonos software, crucially this is where you find the first improvement.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="iPhone XBMC Remote screenshot"][/caption]

XBMC will allow you to say Screw you to your ID3 tags and browse music by folder, Brilliant for that 4tb of music you have that is 99% unknown artist, unknown album. Where you store all your badly organised music is up to you as well as you can have multiple sources using multiple protocol including DLNA ( though i personally haven't tested that one)

Next the remote the XBOX 1 remote isn't brilliant, however what is brilliant is the new Iphone XBMC remote app, that will set you back £2.99. This allows you to control XBMC without a screen turned on, if that is you want im personally shielding my son from the hectic visualisations. Like the Sonos remote the Iphone XBMC remote will allow you to view the album art control the volume and create a nice play list on the fly, or a terrible one what ever floats your boat.

The Sonos system is designed to be multi-room so you can add more Zone Players to have your house wired for sound. Like wise with XBMC you just need to add more xboxs (or pc's mac's, linux boxes and more recently apple tv is now a supported platform) into each room, and Iphone XBMC remote will connect to each instance and play what you like to your hearts content.

Also worth noting: XBMC does come with a web interface for the Iphone http://<xbox ip>/iphone however it wont handle you music collection very well if you have a huge amount.

So the price comparison, seeing as the XBMC and Iphone dont come with speakers or an amp, we shall compare the Sonos ZP90, and a Sonos Controller

• Sonos ZP90 = £249.99 RRP ( which as your aware stands for really random price )


• Sonos Controller = £279.99 RRP
  
  
  
  • Total: £529.98 ( though if you shop around you should be able to better this)
  
  
  
  

My Alternative XBMC based solution

• Second hand 2G Iphone £170 (ebay)


• Xbox 1 £50 (ebay though seen them go for alot less)


• Iphone XBMC remote £2.99
  
  
  
  • Total: £222.99
  
  
  
  

Bargainous!

This falls over in two key places, but remember the video support!!!

1. Sonos supports a party mode where all rooms in the house will play the same music at the same time, as seemingly easy feature to implement but actually requires the Controller to sync all the buffers on each zone player to ensure there isn't an Echo effect.


2. The XBMC install on a XBOX1 (required to make it a cheaper alternative) requires medium levels of nerdom.