The next-gen touchscreen Sonos controller is here, and as strange as it seems to say, it’s actually better than the Sonos app for iPhone/iPod Touch for controlling their multi-room music solution wirelessly. But it is expensive.
The CR200 is available by itself for $350 and as part of the Sonos 250 Bundle for $1000. You save a little bit on the bundle since the ZonePlayer 120 and ZonePlayer 90 are $500 and $350, respectively. If you’re not familiar with Sonos, it’s basically a very fancy (and expandable) Airport Express-like unit to get music throughout your house. Our previous review of the last gen ZP80 was good, but the ZP90 and ZP120?this gen?are much better. They’re both capable of streaming music either over your network, or wirelessly through a $100 ZoneBridge unit.
The main competitor to the Sonos controller isn’t actually the last-generation Sonos controller, it’s the free iPhone/iPod Touch app. With an iPod Touch coming in at $230 ($120 less than the CR200), using that to manage your music or internet radio and piping that through different rooms in your house seems like the natural (and cheaper) choice, seeing as the thing also doubles as an iPod Touch when not controlling your rig. Why would someone want to use the CR200? Because it’s good.
Somehow Sonos managed to get the multitouch as responsive and as usable as the iPhone. Scrolling, flicking and even typing are taken directly from Apple’s user interface designs, and thus, should be instantly familiar to just about everyone now. The screen is bright, and the blue theme throughout the controller is classy?unlike the blue iPhone app, which is just slightly tacky looking.
Chinazrh via from Gizmodo
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