sonos

Dazzle your ears with KEF's X300A powered speakers

KEF's new X300A is a nifty desktop speaker, but it can also be used as a hi-fi or stereo home theater speakers. Granted, it's a bit pricey, but it sounds a lot better than say, a $699 Sonos Playbar. The X300A is a bona-fide high-end speaker system, so it sounds clearer and all around better than all the high-priced sound bars I've heard to date. After all, performance goals for most sound bars are pretty low, they just have to sound better than the iffy speakers built into TVs, and that's easy. Compared with a decent … Read more

Sonos shipping matte black Sub for $599

For those of you who've had your eye on the Sonos subwoofer -- or Sub, as it's officially called -- but have held back on purchasing due to its rather hefty $699 price tag, take note that Sonos has begun offering a matte-black version of the same speaker for $100 less, or $599.

When releasing the swanky-looking, glossy black version of the Sub last year, Sonos had promised to deliver a matte version, and here it is, albeit in limited quantities. According to a PR rep, "Sonos has made a limited quantity available for purchase via Sonos.com, … Read more

Sonos Playbar review: A sound bar for Sonos disciples

Sonos perfected multiroom digital music for the home. It wasn't the first company to take on the task, but Sonos' system is so easy to use and undeniably superior that it's easy to recommend, even at a premium price.

Now Sonos wants to conquer the living room with the Playbar ($700). In many ways, the company's first sound bar is a success. Its understated looks fit Sonos' design ethos and it's ingeniously designed so it can lie relatively flush when wall-mounted or placed on a TV cabinet. The Playbar is also one of the only sound … Read more

Instagram-Twitter feud fudges photos

Wednesday's CNET Update won't cut you off:

Instagram and Twitter aren't playing nice, and it's annoying users. As the two services compete in the photo-sharing space, Instagram stopped supporting a key Twitter feature that helps display media inside a tweet. The casual user won't notice anything different on the Twitter website. But on Twitter's mobile app, you will notice that Instagram photos are no longer properly formatted to fit.

Why would Instagram spoil the appearance of photos shared on Twitter? Because Facebook-owned Instagram is growing its website and wants you to stay on its … Read more

Sonos adds AirPlay-like streaming from iOS devices

Sonos has released updates to its iPhone and iPad apps that allow iOS 6 users to access their device's onboard music library and stream it through their Sonos system.

While the Sonos doesn't add AirPlay as such, the update lets the user access iTunes from within the Sonos app menu, something that most streaming and DLNA apps don't allow for non-AirPlay devices.

The device's music will appear on the menu under "This iPhone," and will list songs, playlists, and podcasts.

Sonos describes this as a major update; it follows two other recent updates that … Read more

Sonos deals for Cyber Monday and beyond

At CNET, we've long ranked the Sonos family of products near the top of our favorite wireless audio gear. The secret to the bulletproof wireless streaming of the Sonos -- it operates free of dropouts -- is that the audio streamers uses their own proprietary mesh wireless network, which is separate and distinct from your home's Wi-Fi network. Up to 32 separate Sonos units can operate in your home, wirelessly communicating with one another -- and without the constrictions of Wi-Fi.

But there's one hitch: while the Sonos system is wireless, the first Sonos unit in your … Read more

Sonos gets Murfie CD-ripping service support

Sonos has announced support for music service Murfie, which is a site that enables users to store their physical CD collection offsite and stream or sell the CDs through the cloud.

Users can stream their ripped CDs or, for a dollar, download them in a number of formats including FLAC. Until today, the only way a Murfie user could stream a collection was via a Web browser, but the dedicated Murfie plug-in means you can use your Sonos controller wirelessly around the house.

Murfie works by enabling users to mail their CDs in and rip them and have them stored … Read more

Sonos adds Amazon Cloud Player

Sonos has announced that its streaming-music players now support Amazon Cloud Player, which joins other supported services including Spotify, Mog, and Songza.

In July, after an agreement with the four major record companies, Amazon announced iTunes and Windows Media Player library "matching," meaning users of the Amazon Cloud Player service can upload their libraries to the cloud.

Amazon is offering two versions of the service: Cloud Player Free, with which customers can store all MP3 music purchased at Amazon, plus import up to 250 songs from their PC or Mac to Cloud Player, and Cloud Player Premium, for an annual fee of $24.99, which permits customers to import and store up to 250,000 songs.

The Amazon Cloud Player replays MP3s in 256Kbps, while in contrast the competing Spotify service streams in a higher-quality 320Kbps Ogg Vorbis format.

Earlier this week, Sonos also announced support for playlist service Songza and that it would be providing exclusive mixes from artists such as Slash, Counting Crows, Tori Amos, and Montgomery Gentry.… Read more

Control music at home with Android

Here's the dream. You want to walk into your home, cue up some music on your phone, and have it start playing on a nearby speaker. No cables, no docks -- just instant, effortless, wireless music.

For iPhone owners, there's a very clear, prescribed solution: AirPlay. But my phone is Android. It's supposed to have more "does" but what exactly am I supposed to do?

Well, there are a bunch of options out there for Android users looking for an Airplay alternative, and in this How To, I'm going to walk you through my … Read more