In this posts I am going to review the Sonos zone player. There are two models on the market, the ZP90 and ZP120. Before I go into the specifics though let me just give you a quick overview of what the zone player does. You probably are familiar with Sonos’ multiroom wireless audio systems. These systems are brilliant for streaming music through a house. Sono’s systems are somewhat similar to Amphony’s iFinity wireless music system. However, there are additional features for managing music zones.
The zone player is the core component of the Sonos system. It actually has a double function. It will act as the link between the internet and the Sonos network. So you’ll need one player to connect to the internet and pull online music and convert the data into the proprietary Sonos network protocol. Then, you’ll need a zone player for each location that you want to stream music to. You simply put a zone player into each spot and connect it to power. If you are planning to use your local LAN cable to stream audio you also need to connect both the primary as well as each other zone player into the network. However, since Sonos players also have a wireless module built in, connecting to a LAN cable is optional.
Next you connect each zone player to a speaker. You can sync each player with the network by pushing a button on both the primary as well as each secondary zone player. This method is fairly similar to setting up the Amphony multi-room kit. After this synchronization you are all set. You can create music zones and change settings by using the remote control or by downloading an app onto your mobile phone, iPad or from your PC. Using a remote is a bit more expensive than downloading an app and running it on a portable device.
