Sonos announced an addition to their hardware lineup today in the form of a new wireless dock.
If you have a Sonos whole-home audio solution you probably already know that your iPhone and iPod touch can be used as a free remote control on your Sonos. And you’ve been able to plug your iPod into a Sonos S5 (review) via the audio input to play back music on your Sonos speakers. Now, with the Sonos Wireless Dock (WD100) you can control and stream music from an iDevice (iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, or iPhone) over your wireless Sonos mesh network.
The Sonos Wireless Dock is expected by the end of October and will retail for $119.
At first I thought it was redundant, but now I realize it should allow me to pipe ANY audio from iPhone to Sonos. So those missing services, like Slacker and XM Online, can be enjoyed via Sonos. Although I wish we could move away from their proprietary mesh network – I’d rather stream direct from my iPhone in my hand or lap.
Dave,
Can’t use get XM Online already? I use my online Sirius account through Sonos right now.
While I know it will be useful for some, I’m not sure I personally will pick up the dock for my setup. I’m waiting for a clock radio Sonos for the bedroom. Something that integrates the Sonos into my clock radio stuff. That I would buy.
Nope, Sirius XM never merged the two online services. So Sirius Online works but XM Online won’t. Kinda silly. But considering XM Online and Slacker are my top two streaming services and absent from Sonos, this might be a good bandaid until the various players get with the program. And, yes, a Sonos clock radio could be very nice…
You could always plug an aux-in to the Line-In RCAs on any of the zone players. This thing is pretty nice though as a mesh extender for your wireless zones if you need one. Sort of makes the BR100 obsolete as an extender. I’m hoping Sonos integrates the AirPlay functionality from Apple at some point. And I’m still waiting for the Sonos iPad add. Did that ever get released?
@ andy,
What benefit would there be for Sonos to integrate AirPlay, doesn’t that go against their whole mesh network (and I would think that AirPlay would be a direct competitor to Sonos if it starts getting installed on many devices)
@DamianP,
First, I think AirPlay is going to be huge and has been under-reported as a feature…
Second, as it relates to sonos, you better adopt this feature sooner than later or your competitors WILL have an advantage over you. It’s clear that Sonos’ advantage is in the ZonePlayers, as evidenced by them building a free sonos iphone app.
Third, if integrating AirTunes is a is a software upgrade on the ZPs for existing devices they could charge for it, if not, they can roll it into new devices and loyal customers would buy a new one.
The more I think about this new Sonos product it seems that it is not really that great since you could accomplish this with the RCA Line In.
Also, it’s not entirely clear how this particular device works since you would have to select what zones you are streaming to so on either the iphone sonos app, or the Sonos controller — so it is potentially very awkward. I’m sure Sonos has figured this out, but, it’s not clear from the PR.
I suppose I could buy an additional iPhone dock (~$40?) and go the RCA route, but this Sonos dock is a bit more elegant. Also, the Sonos dock could live on your nightstand with the S5 across the room – control without getting out of bed. But, frankly, I’d prefer Sonos just integrate the two missing services I need.
I do agree that Airplay could be a big deal. And provide some serious Sonos competition. We’ll see how it plays out… in terms of app support and third party accessories.
It’s not the same as plugging in RCAs. Place it on any counter, plug in power and that’s it. You can charge idevice and wirelessly stream your content. You’ll also be able to conrol it from another wireless device or computer, so you’ll probably be able to view the metadata. You could drop a friends ipod in, and be viewing and playing the ipod library from anywhere in the house.
@DaveZatz- it’s not the same as an RCA plug-in, for the reasons that Jflo mentioned, as well as the fact that it extends the mesh network and increases the range of, or at least adds overlap for the sonos system throughout the house.
I picked up this system last week and love it! Wireless is that next frontier for music the way 3d is for TV. It is awesome to be able to hear music anywhere in the house.