Sonos Case Study

Here at Eye on Tech we’ve been thinking about the brilliant sonos system...again. We blogged a while ago about the sonos system and little has changed in the proceeding time, its still unique and we still want one.

So we thought to ourselves we know the sonos products can be expensive (unless you catch a bargain on spree4.) but how much would a full system cost? So we thought we’d have a case study. Lets say we are kitting out a 3 bed semi. We are sparing no expense but also not buying unnecessary high priced products when cheaper ones would be adequate. The sonos bridge will be connected to an existing wireless network that has an existing pc which will be used as the music server.

The house consists of 3 bedrooms, 1 bathrooms, 1 lounge, 1 dining room and 1 kitchen. We intend on placing a sonos wireless music system of some variety in each room except the 3rd bedroom.

First things first we need the sonos bridge that is simply placed with the wireless router. Than the lounge, in which we have an existing Hi Fi which we wish to connect to the sonos network. For this we will need the sonos connect which plugs into the hi fi as an auxiliary input. Next up the dining room which will need the power of the the Sonos play 5. The play 5 will be able to compete with the hifi in the lounge when playing different tracks, or compliment the hi fi when playing the same music. The Kitchen arguably the heart of the house and the place to be at any party. This was proabably the toughest call. You could argue again that the kitchen downright deserves a play 5. In the end we decided the play 3 would surfice, day to day the play 3 would only be used during cooking a play 5 seems excessive.

So now we head upstairs. The bathroom really has to be a play 3, anything else seems excessive for what is essentially a high functionality replacement for a shower radio. The bedrooms are much trickier. If we are talking a house with teenagers we may want another connect to attach to another non sonos hi fi, if its for lullabies for young children a play 3 would suffice for this case study we opt for the play 3. The master bedroom needs only a bare minimum of connection so again we suggest a play 3. Thanks to the presence of a media server on the nework and lets add sonos assume connection to a spotify account we dont require an iPod dock.

Finally how are we going to control the system? Sonos have now extended the support for their control apps. We are no longer limited to apple products or sonos' own custom controllers. Sonos allows the use of andriod phones and tablets as controllers. So the controllers are most definitly an optional extra. We do love the iPad control design though.

So whats the bill

Bridge	£34.00
Connect	£300.00
Play 5	£350.00
Play 3	£250.00
Play 3	£250.00
Play 3	£250.00
Play 3	£250.00
Total	£1,684.00

At around £1700 (or over £2k including an iPad) it isn’t small change, but not really exceptional for a high end music system. Sonos is an aspirational product, its not necessary something we would go without food to afford. If however you’ve got a spare 2 grand there are a lot worse things to spend it on.