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Sonos Begins Shipping Pre-order Units

The company expects that all pre-orders will be filled within 10 days.

The Sonos Digital Music System is now available for purchase online at www.sonos.com and will be offered at consumer electronic retailers across the nation over the next several weeks. Sonos now offers an introductory bundle of two Sonos ZonePlayers and a Sonos(tm) Controller for $1,199.00. Since the system is scalable up to 32 zones, additional ZonePlayers retail for $499.00 and additional Controllers retail for $399.00.

“After nearly three years of hard work, we are proud to offer digital music fans the first product that allows them to enjoy their digital music library throughout their entire home and control it all from the palm of their hand. At a quarter of the cost of traditional analog whole-home stereo systems, we make multi-room audio available to a much larger audience,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “With focus on quality of design and ease-of-use, we have developed the Sonos Digital Music System for consumers who are looking for a stereo that gives them the control and flexibility that they have come to expect with their digital content.”

Sonos Digital Music System

The Sonos Digital Music System is comprised of two stylish components: the Sonos ZonePlayer, a networked audio player that distributes, plays and amplifies music in any “zone” in the home, and the Sonos Controller, a wireless handheld device with a full-color screen which allows the user to access, customize and control the music anywhere – from the bedroom to the backyard.

The ZonePlayer delivers great sound in every room through a powerful and compact 50 Watts/channel amplifier with component-quality audio specifications. The ZonePlayer can access and play a wide variety of music formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC (MPEG4) and WAV, stored on a PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage (NAS), and comes bundled with customizable Internet Radio stations. Built-in wired and wireless capabilities provide the consumer flexibility of installation at no extra cost.

The intuitive Controller, designed with a full-color LCD screen and touch-sensitive scroll wheel, provides consumers with simplicity – pick a zone, pick a song and hit play – unrestricted by line of sight. Consumers can play the same song synchronously in every room or play different songs in different rooms, queue-up favorites for the evening or rediscover their collection via random play; the options are virtually unlimited. The high resolution LCD shows what is playing in any zone at any time, including album art when available.

Read Designtechnica’s First Look

Ian Bell
I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?
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