Cisco Linksys Wireless Home Audio Premier Kit--Includes One Director with IR Remote, One Player with IR Remote, and One Controller Review

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(More customer reviews)I ordered this the day of the release and somehow received a previously opened box, someone at Amazon decided to check the system out and try and re-package it to look unopened. However it's pretty obvious when the all the plastic sleeves that the remote and extenders were packed in had torn tape and wrinkles, cords not packed right, etc., not to mention the whole box being re-taped shut.
On to the system. Well there were a lot of things to like about the concept of this system, however Cisco must have outsourced the implementation because it pretty much failed across the board.
The touchscreen is inaccurate (yes I calibrated it) and unresponsive at times, though the QWERTY screen had nice size keys you have to type slow for it to register letters properly, and sometimes it would highlight the letter showing you pressed it, but the letter wouldn't actually register in the text box. You cannot power down the remote besides removing the battery. The remote failed to find the other components even though they show up properly in the packaged EasyLink software. The remote showed 2/3 signal when 3 feet away from my Draft-N DB router, and 1/3 signal when roughly 25 feet away. Both the remote and extenders failed to access my shared music folders, and would return the message "System Busy" nearly instantly like it never even tried to connect.
On to the extender with the display. Although Cisco claims that you can setup your system sans PC software, it completely failed to do so. The use of the side buttons to control the unit through the display is cumbersome and not well planned. Since they are universal you have to press one before the on-screen graphics are displayed to show you the action assigned to each button. When you do this, the system performs whatever function is assigned to it, so it may exit or skip, since you can't see the assigned action until you press it first. The button graphics at times block the left 1/3 of the text box used for searching and to enter your network password. Therefore you are unable to change to the proper letter because you can't see what your doing. The volume scroll pad around the power button is also poorly designed, you have to touch and leave your finger there for a second before you can scroll otherwise it doesn't register the move. You also have to scroll really slow so it can keep up, oh and don't accidentally press the power button while your doing it (the scroll pad is quite small). The backlight behind the power button is also really bright and annoying especially the orange when powered off at night. If they were smart they would have put the same scroll pad from the remote which also has up, down, left, right and center click, instead of the worthless power/volume setup.
On the extender without a display, it makes no sense to ship a secondary remote with it that has anything besides power, play/pause, volume and prev/next. instead they ship a full remote identical to the secondary that comes with the displayed unit beside changing the color of the home button, it's absolutely pointless beyond the simple controls I listed above since you can't see what you're doing. Unless they expect people to memorize the interface or something else ridiculous.
Overall, after hours of wasted time all I got was some Rhapsody out of the one unit with the display, I hooked up some bookshelfs to it and it sounded good for what it is. The PC control interface was pleasing to the eyes, it displayed each zone and would show album art within each zones frame. It was also easy to link the extenders into party mode with 1 or 2 mouse clicks, however it does take 30 seconds or so for the units to sync to one-another. Otherwise the system as a whole was a great concept, but complete failure. The remote interface was simple and easy to navigate, but if Cisco can't fix the touch interface and address its sluggishness via firmware, what good is it. Cisco stripped any sort of diagnostics or manual setup from both the extender/remote menus, as well as the PC software, so when their proprietary setup doesn't work you have no work-around. I used their walk-through install (after manual attempts failed) which includes a self-diagnostic, and according to it all my components installed properly, well so it said. And yes I re-installed and tried again, I also checked that my firmware was up to date, still no inter-system com's, nor access to my music.
Well that was my experience, not too swift! For a $1,000 I expect a proper product that works as designed, not with the major failures and flaws. These days processing power is cheap enough that no new device with empty memory/storage should run so poorly, I can't imagine it handling any sizable music collection without freezing. For this Cisco wasted enough of my time that I felt compelled to type my first product review.
Please remember you mileage may vary, I hope for others sake that my hardware was in many ways defective.

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Experience your music all around your home - sounding great and at your control, without wires. The Premier Kit is a great way to start your Linksys by Cisco wireless home audio system in any two areas of your home. It includes one director/wireless-N music player with IR remote control, one player/wireless-N music extender with IR remote control and one controller/wireless-N touchscreen remote.

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Logitech Squeezebox Radio Music Player with Color Screen (Red) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a long time owner of Squeezebox products and was pretty excited to find out about the little table top Squeezebox Radio model. I picked one up and thought I would share my thoughts.
The first thing you notice is how much heft this little player has. It is really well built and the fit and finish is superb. It has plenty of weight and solid rubber feet so that it won't skid around on your night stand or table top. The screen looks great and all of the buttons have a nice solid tactile feel. Compared to many other cheap wireless network streaming radios, this device feels an entire order of magnitude better in its construction quality. The only disappointment here is the lack of back lit buttons, for using the radio in low lighting. It's also worth noting that the entire radio has a high gloss finish that will be a magnet for fingerprints. Looks great though!
The biggest challenge for most consumers with this device will be the initial set up. You need to create an account at [...] in order to set up your new Squeezebox Radio. The device uses this connection to play free internet music services as well as download software updates, etc, to the Radio. I already had a Squeezebox account so this was not a huge challenge for me, but it might be for some people who might be confused that they need to set up an account before they can use the device. There is an option to set up the account from the device itself. Don't do this (it is slow and tedious)! Go to the website and set it up in a few seconds and then just type your login and password on the device.
Other than the laborious task of entering my full email and password for [...] the rest of the setup is very easy. The Squeezebox Radio supports push to connect wi-fi set up which is common on many newer model wireless routers. It's similar to programming a garage door opener. Simply point the Squeezebox Radio at your wireless network and for 120 seconds it will try to connect with the push to connect functionality. Then just push the connect button on your router and it's automagically all set up.
Once set up the Radio will update its firmware and reboot, a process that takes a few extra minutes. After that you are good to go.
In addition to the many built in free online services, you can also play your own music through the Squeezebox Server application. I run the Squeezebox Server application on my HP EX495 Windows Home Server but you can also run Squeezebox Server on any Mac, Windows PC or even Linux box (there are even installable distributions for many Network Attached Storage units). This allows the Squeezebox Radio (and any other Squeeze players) to access all of the music on my home network. It's absolutely wonderful to be able to take the little table top radio anywhere in the home and listen to your entire music collection.
Sound quality is very good, easily enough to fill a small to medium sized room. It gets quite loud with little to no distortion and the controls are easy to use to change tracks, change volume, etc. Wireless strength is superb. I get a full signal anywhere within about 40 feet of my router, and the radio works anywhere on my suburban property with no audio hiccups or dropouts.
In addition to the intuitive controls such as "home", "play", "stop", "back", etc, the unit also features six programmable "preset" buttons similar to what you have on a car radio. Setting these up is a bit more of a challenge than you would expect. You are supposed to be able to hold these down on any song, album, playlist, etc, that is being displayed in the radio menu and have it added as a preset. Unfortunately some items don't add correctly and must first be programmed as a "favorite". It turns out that you can only add favorites for some items (such as playlists) from the Squeezebox Server web based menu, which is quite inconvenient. I don't doubt that Slim Devices (the arm of Logitech that makes these devices) will fix this soon enough.
Other minor glitches include some weird alarm behavior (it will show the time of the alarm when it is going off but strangely won't show the current time, which is annoying if you have hit the snooze button a few times and need to know what time it is), some auto dimming issues (the auto dimming works great but gets almost TOO dim in a dark room to see the radio) and a few other very minor nits.
Slim Devices have a long history of enhancement and improvement of device firmware, so I would expect a lot of these issues to be worked out in the coming months. Additionally there will soon be a battery pack and small infrared remote for the Squeezebox Radio available as a $[...] add on purchase. Personally I think at $[...] the Radio should include these items, but considering the great sound of the radio, the high quality screen and the superb fit and finish it is justified that this device costs as much as it does.
Also worth noting is that if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone you can get the iPeng application $[...] from the Apple App Store which makes controlling and programming your Squeezebox Radio an absolute breeze. iPeng is really a must have if you have these devices and want a wonderful pocket control that works from anywhere in your home. Beats the pants off of what Sonus has to offer!
//Update 1 (Nov 2nd 2009)
Yesterday my SB Radio lost all of the preset buttons which is most annoying. It also turns out that many of the requests for fixes around the alarms functionality have not been addressed and don't appear to be scheduled to be addressed in the next release or two of the software. If your primary use will be a night stand alarm clock I would recommend holding off for now until Logitech addresses alarm functionality issues. If the issues are not resolved I will reconsider my four star rating as it should then be a three star product.
//Update 2 (May 13 2010)
Logitech has not only not fixed many of the initial annoyances with the SB Radio, but newer firmware has in fact made the product less stable and reliable. It still does an admirable job of playing your local music library if you run the SB Server on a PC or Mac in your home, but the network streaming functionality seems to be having issues and I've found the alarm to be terribly unreliable. I would now under the current circumstances rate this only 3 out of 5 stars. It's really a shame too, as the "Slim Devices" that originally brought us these problems was very open and communicative about issues and what was being done to fix them. Logitech has little interest in relaying useful information to its beta testers, err, customers and instead gives us the run around with if and when issues will ever be remedied.

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Logitech Squeezebox Radio brings a world of music—free Internet radio, subscription services, or your personal digital music collection—to any space in your home, over your Wi-Fi network.

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Sonos S5 Wireless Internet Music Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)Just got the S5 about an hour ago. Setup couldn't be easier. Step 1 - connect the power cord to an power outlet. Step 2 - hit the Mute and + button to get the S5 added as a new zone, Step 3 - hmmm....I don't think there is one. Just hit play and enjoy pure bliss.
This is my 4th Zone player (see my other gushing review of the Sonos system on the Sonos bundle page), and anytime my wife asks, "how many of these white boxes you really need?", the answer is always "one more".
Portability is the key feature of S5. Moving it from Kitchen to backdeck is just a matter of unplugging the power cord and replugging at the new location. It's all in one box. And the sound quality is not bad either. With all 4 zone players on party mode - some connected to very expensive Klipsch towers - I have ran around to compare the sound quality at various locations. The verdict - this little guy stacks up nicely against the big boys.
And the iPhone controller is not too shabby either. Don't see the need to buy the new touch controller (CR200).
Awesome product. Pure genius. Just get it.

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Turn your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad device or Android smartphone into the ultimate remote control. Download the free Sonos Controller app for your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad device or Android smartphone and you'll have complete wireless control of your S5 through your home's WiFi network. Scroll through songs, browse album art, tune in to radio stations and more. Plus, since you're not streaming the music from your iPhone, like you are with docking stereos, you can take calls and receive texts without interrupting the music. Get instant access to endless music. Touch a button on your device and ZonePlayer is playing music from your computer's digital music library. Touch another and it's reggae straight from Jamaica on one of 100,000 free Internet radio stations and shows. Touch your device again and you're tapped into Rhapsody , Pandora , Napster , Last.fm, and SIRIUS . "The music sounds fantastic." The New York Times Beneath its sleek all-in-one exterior, the S5 hides five independent speakers, each powered by its own dedicated digital amplifier. This means you get rich, room-filling sound that rivals or outperforms much larger, more complicated audio systems. And, because the S5 uses a 100% digital architecture, every note from top-of-the-range highs to mids and deep, true bass comes through in brilliant clarity exactly as the artist intended. Add multiple rooms of music without adding a single wire. Get a whole-home music system without spending a dime for installation. Simply add additional ZonePlayer S5 units throughout your house and the proprietary Sonos wireless network will integrate them all into a single wireless music system. You can stream the same music to all rooms or send separate streams to each unit. And you can control it all, including individual volumes from your iPhone device anywhere in the house. "The setup process is fantastically simple." The Wall Street Journal Just plug the all-in-one Sonos ZonePlayer S5 into your Internet route

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Logitech Squeezebox Touch Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased my Squeezebox Touch directly from Logitech, and have enjoyed it enough over the first few days of ownership to write a quick review.
To understand where I'm coming from, it may help to know I enjoy classical music, especially when its reproduced by a traditional stereo system with high quality discrete components. I own a British designed and built integrated amplifier and some tall floor-standing speakers from a Canadian manufacturer. Sound quality matters a whole lot to my enjoyment of music, and that shows in the care with which I select the components in my audio system.
I have owned a number of Logitech's previous Squeezebox WiFi streamers, including the Squeezebox Classic and some Duet receivers, so I am not new to the Squeezebox ecosystem. I keep my music collection as a large library of FLAC-encoded files, so as to avoid any potential losses due to codec compression artifacts.
On receiving my new Squeezebox Touch, I swapped out an existing "Slimdevices" branded classic Squeezebox in my main HiFi system for the new device. The Squeezebox Touch first discovered MySqueezebox.com as its source of music and asked me to provide login credentials, which caused it to upgrade its firmware from that site. After that, it rebooted and was able to connect to my local Squeezebox Server that I have running to serve music around the house. After that, I was able to browse my music collection and navigate to internet radio stations either using the touch interface or by using the supplied remote control.
I noticed that the interface automatically uses bigger fonts if you are controlling it from the IR remote and smaller ones if it finds you are controlling it via the touchscreen, which obviously makes sense when you are within an arm's length of the display.
As a first test, I played back a 96kHz, 24-bit high resolution copy of Marianne Thorsen on violin with the TrondheimSolistene playing Mozart's D-major Violin Concerto. At first I played the tracks via a Benchmark DAC1, which is a studio-quality monitoring DAC for use by mixing engineers. The sound was detailed, rich with a deep stereo image and musically involving. Next, I removed the Benchmark DAC from the signal path and tried again. Once again the sound was clearly better than a CD could provide and very close to that rendered through the Benchmark DAC. There has clearly been an improvement to the quality of the analog stereo outputs compared to previous Squeezebox versions, which was already pretty good.
I then went on to listen to Emanuel Ax, Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma playing some Mendelssohn Piano Trios. This recording was "only" in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality audio, nevertheless I was soon captivated by the musicality of the performance, and could find no significant short comings of the quality as rendered by the built-in DACs compared to the external, studio quality Benchmark DAC1.
Someone starting to use this system without prior experience of Squeezebox Servers or software might face something of a learning curve to begin with. I can't speak to that, but I appreciate that I was able to drop this new device into an existing system and, within a few minutes, start to enjoy some very high quality reproduction of my music library.
The advantages over the previous Squeezebox Classic are:
* Color, touch-controlled user interface and display
* Ability to play back high resolution music without loss of quality
* Excellent audio quality from the analog outputs; significantly better than previous versions.
Another possible advantage is to use the Squeezebox Touch as a music server as well as a client, by attaching a USB hard drive to the supplied USB port. I have not tested this functionality, so I can't comment on how well it works. This review was mainly focussed on sound quality.
Based on my short experience, I recommend this device highly. I think it is a worthy successor to the Squeezebox Classic, as it provides significantly more in terms user interface and sound quality for the same retail price as the older player.

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Logitech Squeezebox Touch. The color touch-screen Wi-Fi music player that lets you discover a world of music—all through your stereo.

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Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System Review

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(More customer reviews)I have owned the Sonos 250 bundle for a week now and it works like a charm!
It comes with an extensive owners manual,easy setup and most importantly it simply works.
I returned a Squeezebox Duet for a refund after 25 days it was a too problematic (constantly on the phone with tech support),the controler had too much lag time booting up from sleep mode.
The CR200 remote controler is an awesome piece of work it is robust (as is the entire Sonos system),fast and has a very sturdy rubberized build with a big bright full color screen,very nice.
The build quality for all the componets is top notch and I mean TOP NOTCH quality.
One thing to note...the 120 zoneplayer will not connect to a receiver only speakers as it has its own built in amp I made that assumption,not a problem my mini Onkyo receiver will find other duty around the house.All this is to say if you intend to connect to 2 receivers STOP and buy two Sonos 90 zoneplayers and CR 200 separately.
The sound from the built in amp is equal to if not better my my mini 60 amp Onkyo system.
The Sonos 90 zoneplayer in the bundle connects to my big Onkyo receiver in the family room again the sound is awesome and of course it syncs with the other room or plays seperate selections in each room if you desire.
There is another Sonos 90 in my future for my mini Onkyo.
All in all you cannot go wrong here Sonos cost more then its competition but is a better value and worth every penny.
I went the low road (Squeezebox) and it was full of bumps and headaches, dig a little deeper and save yourself some time and headaches Sonos is the way to go.

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The BU250 includes two Sonos ZonePlayers and one Sonos Controller to let you enjoy the music files on your PC or networked hard drive anywhere in your house, thanks to hassle-free wireless networking capability. Controller offers a 3.5" color LCD to provide easy browsing of your PC music library and independent control of each ZonePlayer in your system.

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Sonos Controllers ? Wireless control of your Sonos Multi-Room Music System Review

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(More customer reviews)I have two CR100 controllers in heavy use for almost 2 years now. From that experience, I can say that they are solid and hold up flawlessly. I don't remember ever having to reboot. Personally I think that the size and weight are a plus for this purpose. The CR100 is well-designed: It does an excellent job controlling the sonos system. I like that it wakes up just by shaking it. On the downside: screen is mediocre quality and does not show full album and track names, searching large music libraries (e.g. Rhapsody) can be a challenge. Battery life is so-so, but good enough. And when compared to an Iphone or an Ipod, the CR-100 feels like a Chevrolet Lumina next to a Porsche: old-fashioned, clumsy, and looks a bit cheap for $399. But it does the job. The CR100 is at least 2x too expensive for what it contains. I'm waiting to an iphone app to control sonos. Technically that is possible and I would be willing to pay for that.
Update October 2008:
One of my CR-100 died spontaneously last week. This is disappointing: a product at
this price point simply should not die within 3 years of purchase. Since it was
out-of-warranty, Sonos replaced it by a new one for $100. Sonos tech support is
excellent and fast, but I have mixed feelings having to pay $100 to replace a faulty product.
Update November 2008:
The Iphone Sonos app is out! This totally obsoletes the CR-100, since the Iphone
with a brilliant touch screen is so much easier to use than the CR-100. Sonos did a great job
in designing this app: it is nearly flawless. Searching for music is much easier
using the keyboard interface than with the click-wheel of the CR-100.
And... its free. I expect Sonos to discontinue
the CR100 soon, since a $220 Ipod touch or a $200 Iphone does a much better job
at it than the $400 CR100. From any angle, the iphone is far superior.

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If you're a serious music lover, and you're looking for a quick, intuitive way to access your entire digital music collection, then look no further than the powerful, handheld Sonos Controller CR100. Tap into songs, albums, and even playlists from anywhere in your home, inside or out. That's because the Sonos Controller uses SonosNet, a secure wireless mesh network that extends the range of your controller throughout your entire home. Forget about running to your PC every time you want to pick a new tune, skip a track, or crank up the volume, just grab your CR100 and your music is at your fingertips.
Watch a demo of the Sonos Digital Music System.
The CR100 works in tandem with both of the Sonos ZonePlayers -- the ZonePlayer ZP100 or ZonePlayer ZP80 -- to control digital music throughout your home. In fact, you can use up to 32 controllers for each ZonePlayer. With multiple controller functionality, Sonos brings digital music control to every room and floor in your house.
Browsing and Queuing Browse your digital music collection by artist, album, genre, track, name, composer, or even playlist. The CR100 also empowers you to queue the right tunes for the right moment -- with this controller you can build, edit, and save playlists right from the palm of your hand. Of course, what you may want to hear might differ from your spouse working upstairs. Sonos has covered all the angles so you can have multiple music queues. Use any Controller to build a separate queue of music to play in each zone or a group of zones throughout your house. If you desire, you can pipe classical music into the kitchen while there's a rock opera blasting on the back porch -- Sonos gives you the tools to make music happen where you want to hear it.
The Screen and Controls The high-resolution, 3.5-inch LCD color screen makes everything on the screen bright and easy-to-see, including full-color album artwork, if available. You can view full-screen or thumbnail views of album art, plus detailed track information from this palm-sized device. Sonos designed the CR100 with a backlit screen and buttons, which makes it easy to operate in low-light conditions. You can even adjust the brightness of the LCD and buttons to suit your style or extend the battery life. The scroll wheel makes it easy to flip through large music collections and make selections, or you can power scroll by letters to jump ahead to find an artist, album, or track.
The Controller's button layout is intuitive and provides complete music management and control. Two buttons are dedicated to providing direct access to the Controller's main menus -- Music and Zones -- for quick, snappy control. The CR100 is also designed to conserve battery life with a movement sensor that automatically turns the Controller on when you pick it up, and a light sensor that only turns on backlighting when it is needed.
Also, be sure to check out the Sonos CC100 Charging Cradle, which serves as a handy charger and holder for the Controller.
Sonos In Depth The CR100 is just one part of a complete Sonos Digital Music System. To make your system complete, you'll also need a Sonos ZonePlayer. With the ZonePlayers in the rooms of your choice, you can play the same song in different rooms, or different songs in different rooms. You can have up to 32 Sonos ZonePlayers throughout your house -- from the bedroom to the backyard. Connect your first ZonePlayer to your router and all the others work wirelessly. Choose between the ZP80, which connects directly to your home theater or stereo, or the ZP100, which features its own built-in amplifier. Or better yet, choose both for the ultimate in multi-room music.
With the CR100 in hand, you'll have instant access to all your digital music, plus Internet radio, subscriptions to online audio services, and even music from your favorite CD or MP3 player. Turn off the upstairs music while you're downstairs. Change the song in the kitchen from the den. To start listening, just pick a room, pick a song, and hit play.
If you're just getting started with your Sonos system, you'll want to check out Sonos' ZP80 and ZP100 Digital Music System Bundles, which combine two ZP80 or ZP100 units respectively with a Sonos Controller. The bundles offer an easy, economical way to get in on the Sonos action. Then, when you're ready to expand you can purchase a ZP80 or ZP100 for more rooms in your home.
If you choose to extend your system with a ZP100 you can use your own speakers with it, or connect a pair of Sonos SP100 Loudspeakers, which are aesthetically and acoustically designed to look great with your Sonos Digital Music System.
What's in the Box Sonos Controller CR100, AC adapter, power cord, and controller documentation.

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