Understanding Sonos products

In the past, the Sonos system was a bit more of a high end solution. In the last few years though, Sonos has released some products that might be a bit more affordable to the average consumer.

The concept behind Sonos is simple. With consumers amassing audio files digitally, there needs to be a way for people to play music throughout their homes. Enter Sonos. Sonos allows you to stream music from your computer or network attached storage (NAS) drive to any Sonos receiver in the house. With multiple Sonos speakers, you can even create zones so that you have different music playing in different zones.

In order to get started, you'll need one zone player (we have the Play:3 and Play:5 on hand but there are others) and one computer with a shared music folder. The first you'll connect directly to your home network via Ethernet cable, which means that to set it up where you want, you might need either an extra long cable or power line networking adapters. Another option is to use the Sonos Bridge. This device creates a bridge between the Sonos devices and we'll talk more about the setup in an upcoming episode.

While you can control Sonos playback through your computer, that isn't very convenient, so there are some wireless options. One of these is the Sonos Control, a fairly expensive unit made for the purpose of controlling all of your Sonos devices. If you don't want to spend the extra cash, you can get a free app for your iPhone, iPad or Android device. These will work so long as you're on the same Wi-Fi network as the Sonos.