Sonos Home Controller review

Tired of relying on the pop-packed radio to provide you with all of your listening pleasure? Bored of waiting for the bevy of commercials that seem to loop between each song? Ready to control your own music destiny?

Sonos is a multi room sound system that interfaces with your home wireless network and allows you to control your iTunes, Napster, Pandora, and Last.FM music libraries, enabling music playback in multiple rooms. Sonos bundles come with a controller (the CR 200) as well as two ZonePlayers, which can be controlled via the remote or your desktop/ laptop. 

Following the fingertip trend of making use of touch screen tech, Sonos has recently released an updated remote control for its home Hi-Fi heaven, the CR200. On the unfortunate side of things, it’s a pocket scorcher. Running at around £270, this upgrade has given pause to almost all Sonos owners who acquired their systems when they came with the clunky, outdated older brother of the CR200, the CR100.

Luckily for those who are caught in this sticky situation Sonos created a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The app allows you to perform all of the functions of the normal CR100 and 200, but at the highly likeable cost of free.

There are two types of ZonePlayers: the ZP120, with its own dedicated 110W amp, and the ZP90, which is able to connect to your home theatre’s sound system. These ZonePlayers allow you to set up zones in your house.

These zones are areas where the music will be played, and Sonos' Home Controller app allows you to wirelessly control all the zones that you have set up in your house, either individually or as a whole. So you can be listening to Virgin Radio on your living room couch, and put a little Barry White on in the bedroom with out having to dislodge your bum from its comfy couch cushion.

With the controller app, you can easily browse through a huge variety of online music libraries, podcasts, and radio stations, not to mention your own music library.

When you open up the app it will connect to your wireless network and sync with your network of ZonePlayers. You are now at the helm; you can see your entire Sonos kingdom and what each zone is playing.  You can select a zone or click the “zone group” button to control the whole of your system at once. Now you can search for songs or access your bookmarked artists as simply as scratching an itch.

With your top tune selected, you’ll be taken to the “Now Playing” screen. Here the album art, track name, and album name are displayed in a stylishly laid out screen. Happily, if someone got the Barry White hint in the bedroom and happens to be calling your name, there is a mute button that you can tap which will silence the music in the selected zone. You can also get to the list of zones, bookmark songs and view your “queue” from this screen.

In the top right of this screen there is the ever important “Music” button. This button will bring you to a hub of your music options. Presented options are: Music Library, Sonos Playlists, Radio, Line-In Sources, and System Settings. The Music Library tab will take you to your own iTunes, allowing you access to your tunes even if your computer is off! Radio allows you access to a cornucopia of international radio stations, as well as internet radio services like Pandora and LastFM.

We have found this app to be a smooth running, easy to handle alternative to the pricey, but sleek CR200 that Sonos offers. With a nice user interface and pleasing visuals, this app is a great compliment to a great home audio system.

Sonos Home Controller info

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Platform: Apple iPhone/iPod Touch

Cost: Free

Version: 1.0

Developer: Sonos

Website/Demo: Sonos website

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