Ever since I have heard of the Sonos system from Engadget, I have wanted myself one. It has been perhaps three years following the growth of the Sonos system and for some reason, despite my tendency to grab gadgets off the shelf first day, have not given myself a chance to get one. Why? Who knows, but after spending a good month with one, I can clearly say that will no longer be the case!

The start-up, based in Santa Barbara, managed to attract so much attention for its relatively expensive audio-only Digital Music System because it’s essentially the product everybody’s been hoping Apple would make: a simple, elegant solution to streaming hard-drive-based music to multiple rooms via a series of networked ZonePlayer base stations and an awesome command module.

When I got the Sonos System, I was a little intimidated by all the parts and pieces and wires. However, the system is rather easy to set up actually. In addition to its on board amplifier, my review system came with two speakers as well. Simply connect the ZonePlayer to your audio system, and then connect the other ZonePlayer to your network using Ethernet. You also get software, which you install on your computer. Everything is a simple walk through so not much thinking to do on your part, which is something I like. Keeping it simple is the key to success.

After finish, pick up the controller and it begins to search for its components and once found, you can begin naming them: Living Room, Bedroom, Kitchen, Den, Etc… The only possible snags you may run into when setting up the Sonos System involve whether you have unusual network scenarios such as lack of an Ethernet connection or an over-protective firewall. In either case, Sonos has plenty of documentation to solve most types of problems. My network was rather convoluted, but to my surprise, never encountered a big problem. After browsing through the website several times, I noticed the Sonosnet which appears to be their own wireless network solution which is convenient.

Sporting what can only be described as iPod-style touch-sensitive scroll wheel and a full color 3.5″ diagonal LCD screen, the Sonos Controller is really what sets apart this Digital Music System. It combines ease of use, style, and a suite of flexible options and controls. Once you have configured your system, the Sonos Controller is your all-in-one tool for sending your desired sources to their appropriate destinations. The Controller itself has a very simplified interface. The scroll wheel has an ‘Enter’ button inside, play/pause, and stop buttons. At the top right there are hard buttons for selecting a zone, backing up in the menu, and bringing up the available music choices. The left features volume and mute controls, while the bottom has three soft function buttons that interact with the LCD screen contents.

What I really enjoyed about the controller is that it is automatically backlit, meaning that it has a built-in sensor that engages a backlit when it is being used in low light environments. It also automatically disengages backlighting to conserve battery power when the Controller is well lit. The buttons just popped to life as I was walking and just as suddenly went back to normal once I reached a well-lit room. Once you pick it up, it “knows” and seems to come to life. A great feature that I actually played with longer than I should have!

Listening to music on the system is just as wonderful as the aforementioned “knowing” feature which, of course, I spent more time doing than picking it up and putting it back down again . Each Zone can either stream music from your music library, any of the ZonePlayer line inputs, or the Internet by a number of free internet radio options provided free by Sonos. When playing music, you have total control. You can select zones, or even link zones so that more than one ZonePlayer can play the same source. I can tell this would be perfect for party scenes.

I am no audiophile, however, the music sounded just right from every zone, and every source in which I had it connected. One thing I almost forgot about is the software that I installed on my computer. Pull up that software and the controller application is quite similar to using the Sonos Controller, though it offers a more organized, expanded view of many of the options. This is probably due to a larger amount of screen space I was working with. You have a ‘Now Playing’ view with Music, Volume, EQ, and Queue controls; and a Music Library pane for displaying your playlists, tracks, line-in sources, and /or Internet radio stations. It is amazing!

Speaking of controllers, I also have my handy dandy iPhone. Look for the full iPhone application review here, however, all I can tell you is that it does not disappoint. Have so many controllers laying around, it was difficult to pick one I wanted to use. I always have my phone, so I mostly used my iPhone after playing with each option.

The Sonos System is brilliant in every way. With my interesting setup before Sonos came into my life, I simply had a computer in the living room connected to speakers and a computer in my bedroom also connected to speakers, and my laptop which would sometimes go to rooms that I did not have a computer. I would use iTunes which connects to all my computers and plays music from my networked hard drive. After the Sonos System, I can say that my solution did not work as a true multi-room solution should. I look back and think to myself, “why have I gone so long this route?”

I have not tried other music systems similar, but Sonos doesn’t get good ratings for just looking neat. It’s functional, it’s simple, it’s smart…it’s just awesome. Its uniqueness and attention to detail is spot-on. The Sonos LCD Controller is painstakingly cool, taking a well-thought-out music system and making it excellent. I dare someone to challenge me with a system that is just as fantastic as the Sonos System!

I want to thank Sonos for letting me review the unit. The unit that I had comprised of the ZonePlayer 90 (ZP90) to your home theater or stereo. I place the ZonePlayer 120 (ZP120) with built-in amplifier in the living room. I also had the ZoneBridge (sold separately) that went to my network. I reviewed the Sonos Bundle 150 with Loudspeakers which is a $1149.00 value. Of course, you can buy individual units to fit your needs, however, I would recommend starting at the Bundle 150 and that has a value of $999.00. Rather pricey, but I think it is a small price to pay for something so great.

I love music, so it comes as no surprise that I enjoy a good music discovery service. I am constantly on the prowl for music, and with my eclectic taste, the search is endless. Two popular services that I use quite often are Last.FM and Pandora. These two services are responsible for my lack of hard drive space, but I’m not complaining.

I have received quite a few questions regarding both services such as which one is better, what are the differences, and more. The answer is not so simple, and I say this because I like to use both, each serving its own purpose to work together helping me in discovering as much music as possible.

I’ll start with Pandora. Pandora was created by the music genome project and you tell it about some music you like and its starts playing music. Kind of like a personal radio station on your computer. Pandora’s recommendations are based on the intrinsic qualities of the music. Give Pandora an artist or song, and it will find similar music in terms of melody, harmony, lyrics, orchestration, vocal character and so on. Pandora likes to call these musical attributes “genes” and its database of songs, classified against hundreds of such attributes, the “Music Genome Project.”

I love using Pandora and it does what is does quite well, in my opinion. Now let’s take a look at Last.FM. Last.fm is a social recommender. It knows just a little bit about a songs’ intrinsic qualities. It just assumes that if you and a group of other people enjoy many of the same artists, you will probably enjoy other artists popular with that group. How so? Well, Last.fm does so by providing users an optional plug-in that automatically monitors your media player software so that whatever you listen to can be incorporated into your Last.fm profile and thus be used as the basis for recommendations.

Some people are able to tell you, without hesitation, which is better, but I cannot say which is better as I mentioned above that each gives me something stronger than the other can achieve. Last.FM is great. I listen to my music on iTunes. It “Scrobbles” my songs and there they are on my personal website. If you constantly listen to music, like myself, Last.FM starts realizing which sort of groups you match up with and what type of music you would listen to, based on what you are listening to.  It is a social network, so Last.FM is amazing at introducing you to people whom like the same music as you. Not only does Last.FM give you recommendations based on what you listen to, but users (potentially friends) give you recommendations based on music you listen to and what they listen to also.

However, where Last.FM stops working for me is when I want to find music based on music qualities. I really like Dave Barnes subtle  vocal tonalities, rhythmic patterns, acoustic remedies, etc, but can Last.FM help me find music like that? No, but Pandora can. That is where I use Pandora most; when I need to truly find music based on qualities that I like in a song. Most of the time, Pandora is spot-on when I give it an artist of song.

So I use both services. They are great, and I blame/thank them for my current collection of songs totaling a little over five thousand songs that I truly enjoy. Michael Arrington of Techcrunch states, “Each allows you to find new music that you are likely to enjoy. Last.fm does this through analysis of what you listen to and like (and what others listen to and like). Pandora encodes different aspects of music and determines what you might like based on those factors.Pandora is easier to use because it takes absolutely no setup and streams music on the site itself. Last.fm uses tagging and has social network aspects, but you have to download the player to listen to music.”

What Last.fm and Pandora do is hard, and the people who built these services deserve a lot of credit. Given the ambitious scope, it is easy to find examples where each of the services comes up short, but give them a try, and I am sure you will love both!

So, after a lengthy, school-induced hiatus from The Tech Brief, I’m back with a long-overdue review of Meemix, another new personalized, Internet radio service. Having come across it shortly after falling head over heels for Pandora, my expectations were high, so Meemix had a lot to live up to.

Like other personalized Internet radio sites, Meemix uses an algorithm to determine what songs it will play for you. The algorithm makes its calculations based on song parameters and information about the user. Each song can be rated from 6 (Hot) to -6 (Not), and Meemix works with the high scored songs while driving the others away. It boasts creating its playlists based on an understanding of personal taste rather than simply finding songs that are similar to the ones you tell it you like. I’m not sure how that works, but that’s what they say.

So how does it actually work? Well after using it for a few weeks, I’m not too impressed. Until today, my first station didn’t deliver anything that I like aside from the song I originally fed it to create the first station and it always starts with a Linkin Park song. It took a few hours today for a string of songs that I actually liked to start playing, and the station always plays songs from several bands that I have repeatedly rated -6 at first. It rarely plays any of the favorites I’ve defined. My second station actually delivered a really great playlist almost immediately. Unfortunately, the interface completely died, so I couldn’t rate or save any of the awesome songs I heard that day. Since then it has frozen up on me repeatedly.

But the very shiny, Web 2.0 Meemix does have it’s good points, without a doubt. It’s easy to use and it makes it extremely easy for you to log and acquire the music that you actually like (so long as a song on that album happens to play). And—of course—it’s free, being ad-supported, and has the community and other features everyone expects from today’s startups. Undoubtedly, Jango will be one of its prime competitors, being another of the younger Internet radio services. I think Meemix has a lot of potential, but I don’t think I’ll switch to using it exclusively, just because I can’t really create stations that are as specific as Pandora’s unless it’s specifically genre based. Playing songs that sound like ones you like may be an old formula, but it works.

Meemix is in private beta at the moment, but you can learn more and request an invite at meemix.com.

The Nokia N810 hit the streets yesterday. With a new slide-out keyboard, built-in GPS, digital audio/video playback and Wi-Fi capability for VoIP calling, the Nokia N810 provides the functionality of a traditional computer but all in one sleek, stylish and portable device.

How long before traditional laptop computers are a thing of the past? The Nokia N810 provides a portable internet experience with a large color display, touchpad screen, slide-out keyboard, 400 MHz processor, Mozilla-based browser and up to 10GB of memory although 8GB of that is an optional memory card. Internet access is via Wi-Fi or over Bluetooth on a mobile phone. With up to 45 hours of music playback, storage for up to 7,500 songs* and built-in GPS, the N810 is a pretty loaded MP3 player.

The Nokia N810 comes with free maps preloaded for users to browse detailed locations, search for street addresses, find various points of interest (POI) as well as nearby Wi-Fi hotspots. Wayfinder offer a subscription based service for navigation over the Maps application; a 3-year license for $129.99.

The Nokia press release is here. Although some are calling this an iPod touch killer, at $479, I’m not sure I’ll be prepared to spend the extra just for a blue tooth connection. In fact, I think I’ll be waiting for the ASUS R50A to come out. Hurry up please Mr. Asus.

How about another social radio market to join? I use Last.fm and Pandora quite often and love them, especially the recommendation features. Jango is the new kid on the block, and it is not looking to bad at all.

Jango has been in beta for the past few months, and has recently opened up full access to its services. I must say, Jango is incredibly easy to use. When you go to the site you get a search box and a list of “stations.” Pretty simple, eh? You can choose a station, which is a selection of artists, or you can type in an artist’s name, at which point you are taken to a user page, without even having to sign up. I signed up though.

By choosing an artist’s name you in effect create a “station” based around them, which can be made up solely of that artist, or artists that are similar. Jango suggests musicians and bands that it thinks you might like based on your choice, and then you get to choose from Jango’s list and add that artist to your station.

So if you have used Pandora before, you will feel right at home. The concept is basically the same. I can’t tell you how many songs I have discovered using Jango and Pandora. I love it.

The site doesn’t have some things that Last.fm and Pandora do. It does not have a widget, for example although the company said that’s coming. So will I continue to use Jango? Sure! The more the merrier. Be sure to check them out. It is free and you don’t even have to sign up to try them out.