In the gadget room: Hooked on Sonos

As Lynne can attest, I buy and fiddle with too many gadgets, some of which can be incredibly disruptive. She, like most consumers, likes things to work and doesn't like change. Adding the Logitech universal remote was a good move, but very disruptive, mostly because it's really not as easy to use as one might like. But, you can only make controlling four separate devices so easy. Lynne not withstanding.

My latest disruptive technology is Sonos. I've had my eye on Sonos for a long time, but was always put off by the cost and I viewed it strictly as a device to move music around the house wirelessly. I'd heard very good things about Sonos, but never taken the leap. Then we got Sirius satellite radio a few months ago. We are using an indoor/outdoor antenna with mixed results. I'm really kind of a radio nut of often prefer it to TV or sometimes with the TV sound turned off.

With Sonos, I could stream the internet feed of Sirius directly into my sound equipment, but not have to worry about signal interruption. I figure, hey, I'm paying all this money for broadband, I might as well get maximum benefit from it. But, what I didn't realize was that Sonos would also give me access to hundreds of internet radio stations and services likek Pandora and last.fm which are free. Literally, there's nothing I can't find now with a few clicks of the Sonos controller. I now have this huge jukebox in my house. This has opened up a whole new world of entertainment. And, because I only bought one Sonos unit, I'm not even streaming music to any other locations. I expect to do that soon. Oh, and least I forget, you can also play your iTunes library directly from the PC you have it stored on.

Lynne has taken to Sonos pretty well because it's a lot easier to use (she can control it from her PC), and because the benefits are so great. She can find the kind of music she wants anytime. This has turned out to be one of the best gadget purchases I've ever made. I highly recommend it for those who like to listen to music and other radio content such as NPR. I bought mine at Echo Audio in Portland. I can's say enough good things about these guys and how helpful they are in solving your audio problems. They are truly understanding consultants who help you solve problems, not just peddle equipment.