Sonos ZonePlayer S5

Music's been digitised for quite a while now and technology should, in theory, make it really easy to access your tunes just about everywhere. In practice however, it's a far more complicated endeavour than it should be – as anyone who has attempted to set up a media sharing system in their house can testify. To succeed, you need an understanding of LANs and IP networking, both of which are riddled with arcane concepts that at times defeat even the most hardcore of geeks.

It was with this in mind that I opened up the boxes with wireless music players and speakers from Sonos. I pulled out one small ZoneBridge BR100 transmitting device to plug into my Wi-Fi router, and two ZonePlayer S5 speakers to play back the actual music. To run a Sonos system, you need at minimum one ZoneBridge and one ZonePlayer S5.

All I had to do was plug the ZoneBridge and ZonePlayers into the mains, install the Sonos Desktop Controller on my Windows 7 PC and set the ZoneBridge and ZonePlayers into discovery mode by pressing a button. When the Desktop Controller finds them you're set to go, and can start adding music to playlists and listening to it anywhere in earshot of those ZonePlayers.

Once connected, I expected the configuration to take a long time. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole process took roughly ten minutes.

Seriously, this is how easy all set-ups should be: minimal cabling and no fiddling with settings. What's more, the design of the Sonos components eschews the usual garish blinking lights, stickers and Flash Harry chrome bits. In other words, the Sonos devices don't stick out like sore thumbs and consequently, have high family-friendliness especially as there's no network cabling to hide. There's an Apple-like vibe of quality and simplicity behind Sonos' design and it's apparent in the ZonePlayers having just two controls: a rocker button for adjusting the volume, and mute button.

The easy set-up and simplified design doesn't mean Sonos has skimped on the features: this is a modular system that allows you to add up to 32 players in different zones. People can play the music of their choice in each individual zone, which is quite frankly brilliant.

I'd imagine that 32 ZonePlayers all blasting out different music would be akin to Psi-Ops aural torture. With two ZonePlayers, the feature worked great – for example, letting us listen to music in one room and BBC Internet radio in another.

What's more, you can simply unplug your ZonePlayer and shift it elsewhere, even outside, and listen to music as long as you're within roughly twenty metres of the ZoneBridge.

On the back of each ZonePlayer, you'll find 3.5mm line-in and headphone connectors. More interestingly, you'll also find a two-port Ethernet switch. This can be used to provide network access over the proprietary wireless SonosNet 2.0 encrypted peer-to-peer mesh network.

The bridging Ethernet connection is more useful than you might think. While you probably wouldn't plug a laptop into the back of a ZonePlayer S5 other than for emergencies (it's inconvenient, and the connection seems limited to around 12.5Mbit/s), it's great for jacking in portable hard drives and networkable home entertainment gear.

Sonos put no fewer than five speakers inside the compact ZonePlayer S5: it comprises two tweeters, two three-inch midrange drivers and a single, 3.5-inch woofer.

The speakers are driven by five Class D amplifiers, no doubt chosen because of their small size, energency efficiency and low heat output. Sonos doesn't quote the power output, but ZonePlayer S5s are more than loud enough for most situations.

I liked the sound the ZonePlayer S5s produced a great deal. With a maximum sampling rate of 48kHz, voices are nice and clear, without sounding harsh or forced as sometimes happens with small speakers. There's ample mid-range too, with musical instruments sounding defined and separated.

Despite the small size, the ZonePlayer S5s provide rich and taut bass reproduction, albeit naturally not as thumping and rumbling as you'd get from a separate sub-woofer. When the ZonePlayer is not in use, it's totally quiet and without rumble, hiss or pops.

The small size of the ZonePlayer S5 means stereo channel separation diminishes as you move away from the speaker, but Sonos has a trick up its sleeve here: add another ZonePlayer S5, to make a stereo pair.

Two ZonePlayer S5s in stereo pair configuration produce a great soundscape, in phase and without any perceptible lag despite the wireless connection. If you like your music, I recommend you double up on ZonePlayers for each zone.

Sonos followed up on the great hardware with excellent software too. The Desktop Controller software is easy to use and you get both a Windows and a Mac OS X version. Better yet though, Sonos has developed Android and iOS versions of the Controller that let you play music and provide the same functionality as the Desktop variant, via your Wi-Fi enabled phone. I tried both the Android and iPhone versions, and they worked without a hitch.

It doesn't stop there though: Sonos has bundled a bunch of global and local internet radio stations in the Controller, and also music services such as Napster, Deezer, Pandora, Last.fm, and Spotify. The usual geo-blocking rubbish makes it tricky to get some services – Napster, for instance – but it's not insurmountable.

Now, I was going to give the ZoneBridge and ZonePlayer set-up full marks as there really isn't anything major to detract from the overall positive experience. Then I discovered that the pricing in New Zealand is out of whack with what people pay in Australia and the US.

Here, the ZonePlayer S5 retails for $999 including GST. Australians can get it for NZ$770 however, and Americans for NZ$483.

Likewise, the ZoneBridge BR100 goes for NZ$218 in Australia and NZ$120 in the US. Kiwis are charged NZ $275. Adding it up, the review set up costs $2,273 in NZ but Australians can buy it for NZ$515 less. Americans get the entire kit for less than half of what Kiwis are expected to pay.

In fact, shop around and on Amazon and you'll find the ZoneBridge with two ZonePlayers kit in the US for the same price as a single S5 in NZ.

Given the strength of the NZ dollar the local distributor could adjust the price of the Sonos downwards, as it's almost worth importing the gear yourself for a better deal currently. However, do that and you'll be left without warranty support. We're also told that Sonos gear brought in from the USA isn't certified for use in New Zealand and there may be some legal issues around the use and sale of imported devices.

The Sonos package is one of the best digital music solutions I've encountered and it's a shame about the big price gap between NZ and overseas. Otherwise I would recommend the ZoneBridge and ZonePlayers without hesitation.