21 Comments


  1. Kai, I agree that the SqueezeBox from Slim Devices is probably the best alternative to the Sonos; especially considering the price. When I originally conducted this comparison, it looked as if Roku was really taking off (Windows Media Extender support, WMA-DRM, works with iTunes, distribution through RadioShack and BestBuy, etc.)

    Since then, SlimDevices has quietly and steadily improved their product line. They’ve released new models that don’t look like alarm clocks. The SlimServer PC software is unquestionably amazing; the extendability through plug-ins is something I wish Sonos embraced. The ability to view RSS feeds and stream music from archive.org makes this Sonos owner jealous. Now that SlimDevices has been purchased by Logitech, I see an even brighter future for them. The hands-off approach taken by Logitech when they purchased Harmony Remotes bodes well for Slim.

    Overall, I’d still recommend Sonos because of the controller; it really sets it apart from the competition. But it is very expensive. For anyone not interested in paying the Sonos premium, the SqueezeBox is the best alternative out there. Roku does have a lower-cost model, but it is missing so many features as compared to the SqueezeBox that I don’t the cost offset is worth it. In my limited experience, the Roku is also buggier and less well-supported.

  2. I was looking to buy an M2000 and stumbled across this somewhat old review. The one thing that is not mentioned is the fact that the slimserver software can be controlled with any device with a server connection. Instead of paying $400 for a Sonos remote, you can use a PSP, iPod Touch, laptop, etc as a remote. They are cheaper and have a lot more uses…

    If you use a laptop, you can also install Visual MR to control the firefly server.

    Personally, I want a display on the actual player. That is just my preference. With a Roku, you get the best of both worlds.

  3. If you want a display on the player, a Sonus is not the answer. Sonos devices can be controlled via the Sonos Desktop software from any PC/Mac. It can also be controlled by any Universal Plug and Play (uPnP) aware device, such as the Universal Electronics Nevo line of remotes. There is no doubt that the selection of remote control options is limited. However, out of all of the options for controlling a Roku/Sonos/SqueezeBox, the Sonos remote control is best do to the scroll wheel and excellent graphical user interface. The tradeoff for the excellent hardware is the price.

    If you’re looking for a non-Sonos music player, I’d strongly recommend the Slim Devices SqueezeBox over the Roku. It supports Slim Server much better (meaning that it officially supports it) and there is also a new remote control in development that is much more Sonos-like than anything Roku or Slim currently offer. When I originally conducted this review, I thought the market was headed toward a DRM-capable player such as the Roku, but I must admit that I was wrong. The flexibility of the open software behind Slim (and their new remote control) make it a much better choice in my opinion, unless you really need support for Windows Media DRM.

  4. “If you want a display on the player, a Sonus is not the answer”
    Which is exacly why I am ruling it out as a choice. I have a Roku M1000-B, that I picked up for $99) and can control it very easily with Slimserver software and an iPod Touch. The screen on the Touch is 480×320 pixels, so it looks better than the Sonus controller. It can also be controlled with the touchscreen, which many people would prefer over a scroll wheel. The Slimserver/Roku/Touch setup is actually perfect if I want to have a handheld controller of my music with a digital display. The search function is amazingly fast (less than a few seconds) even with 21,000+ FLAC files. Also, for the same $399, I get a lot more with an iTouch than with a Sonos controller.

    The one feature I like with the Sonos is the Rhapsody support without a computer, but I am not real sure how it works. Does it allow you to scan their complete library and play any album like Rhapsody does with a computer? I have Rhapsody and the M1000 only allows access to what the computer has in MY library, not the entire Rhapsody library. Of course, it can play channels that I setup with my favorite artists, so it still has a lot of functionality, but the Rhapsody without a computer setup of Sonos is interesting.

    I thought about a Squeezebox, but I am not sure the display is much larger than the M1000 and I mainly want something I can read from the couch (about 14 feet away). Is the Squeezebox display that much bigger than the M1000 Soundbridge? The M2000 has a huge display which is why this article raised my interest.

    While I think Slim Devices has put themselves way ahead of Roku (their new Soundbridge upsamples everything to 48khz! Yuk!) in nearly every way, I am not sure it will offer me anything better than what I have right now with my setup. As I mentioned, the Roku works perfectly with the slimserver using the Nokia skin. I am also using the digital output on the Roku to feed a DAC, so the better DACs in the Squeezebox do not mean much to me.

  5. It all depends on how much time you want to spend working on devices vs. money spent for an elegant out-of-box experience. The beauty of a Sonos is that I’ve literally spent about 30 minutes total in the past 3 years setting it up, it works flawlessly, and there is no PC software to install/configure. It does multi-room perfectly and the controller / zones automatically connect to each other over a wireless mesh network. It’s a trade-off between between customization (using an iPod touch as a controller but having to navigate to the web page first) vs. ease-of-use (the dedicated Sonos controller that is always in Sonos-control mode.) Both have their own advantages.

    I haven’t tried the Rhapsody since the latest Sonos software update, which added advanced search. I was impressed with the initial integrated version but thought it really needed a search function. It’s apparently been added, but I have no experience with it.

    I think the Slim SqueezeBox display is pretty similar to the Roku M1000. The M2000 is definitely the largest display available and great for across-the-room viewing.

    And I agree, Roku made a huge mistake by cost-reducing their DAC to output only 48kHz when 99.99% of music is 44.1kHz. If you’re going to pick only one, why not the most common? Plus they completely abandoned their customers on the HD picture player, which I’m very glad I didn’t purchase.

  6. I like the SqueezeBox Duo, but currently it doesn’t work with SlimServer on a NAS. It works with SqueezeServer 7.0 but that doesn’t work on a NAS yet. What are my options?

    The iPod + Roku + SlimServer sounds interesting. Do I need to run SlimServer on the NAS for that? I know that the Roku can access UPNP which the Thecus N2100 has by default.

  7. You would need to run SlimServer the same way for Roku as for Squeeze. Roku will play music from a UPnP server, but that is not as elegant of a solution as the alternatives. I’d recommend getting either SqueezeBox Duo or a Sonos. Those both have awesome controllers. I’d guess that SlimServer will be updated before long to add more features; it’s under constant development. The Sonos can play files off of a NAS with no problems. Just enter the computer name, directory share name, username, and password. No special software required.

  8. Right now the SqueezeCenter 7.0 won’t work on a Thecus N2100 or any NAS apparently, and the Duo needs it. That leaves me with the old Squeezebox without the nice controller, or the Sonos. Which one has the better interface, and should I consider an iPod Touch or Nokia Internet Tablet as an alternative? Most of the time I’d probably prefer to use a laptop to control the music.

  9. Those would work, but require more work to configure and lack the refinement of a dedicated remote. It’s really personal preference of how much time you want to spend tweaking vs. spending $ on dedicated equipment, and how refined you want the remote to be vs. how multi-featured you want the device to be. I went for the Sonos because it is extremely compatible and very easy to use – pretty much no wasted time messing with it. If you already have a Squeeze, I’d suggest visiting their forum and see what the plan is for NAS support with the latest version. They may have plans to add that soon.

  10. Thanks for all the help Carlton. I think for me it’s between the SqueezeBox Duo and the Sonos, just because once in a while I’d like to be able to just turn the stereo on without having to worry about computers being on. Most of the time I’m sure I’d use a notebook to change tracks, but it’d be nice to have the option of using the remote.

  11. How about from a web interface perspective, which is better the SqueezeBox or Sonos? Most of the time I anticipate navigating music via a laptop.

  12. I use Sonos…it just works…and doesn’t require a dedicated PC/server.

    As I happen to have a server anyway, I use it to run the purple.org web controller linked in the comment above. It’s excellent and means, if I don’t have the Sonos controller available, I can control my Sonos from my Nokia phone or even from my Nintendo Wii!

    Of course, there’s nothing like the official controller.

  13. Scott: Squeeze has the best web interface. Sonos has dedicated software that runs on PC/Mac; it works very well because it is a native application and not a web app. There is also a third-party program that adds a web interface to Sonos: http://www.purple.org/sonos/ So I’d say the dedicated web interface is better on Squeeze, but the desktop app Sonos uses is slightly better overall and there it is possible to add a web interface in addition to that. Really, you can’t go wrong with either. If your time is worth more than the cost differential between the two, I’d suggest going for the Sonos because it requires the least amount of tweaking.

  14. I was somewhat disappointed by the SqueezeCenter web interface, it was very slow running just on my PC, so I wonder how slow it’d be over a network running on a NAS.

    Another option I’m considering is iTunes and the AirTunes or whatever it’s called. That way I could have all music on a NAS, and I’d control it via iTunes on a PC. Bonus if I could control it via an iPod Touch or iPhone. Apple pisses me off because they’re kind of proprietary, but whatever works I guess.

  15. I have only used the Slimserver interface (currently using version 6.3) with a Roku M1000. I currently have 18,724 files in FLAC format and it was extremely easy to setup. I downloaded the software, opened up the webpage, then told it to select the folder with the music and then chose an interface (ipod touch). Done… The Roku automatically sees the Slimserver on its screen. Using it with a NAS is more complicated and I have a media computer that is always on, so I have never tested it. Here is an article I posted on the combination of the Roku and the Slimserver interface (my guess is that it would work with a Squeezebox just as well):

    http://www.blog.uofmtiger.com/2008/01/05/ipod-touch-roku-perfection/

    At some point, I will record some video to show the speed (which is amazingly fast) when searching. I have an ipod dock next to my usual sitting area, so the thing is always charged up for surfing the web and controlling the Roku. Also, with the $20 add-on for the iPod Touch that Apple has added, I now have an icon for “SlimRoku” on the Touch’s home screen. When I am ready to listen, I turn it on, hit the icon, and I am ready to play. Not really all that complicated. However, I should mention that my Roku is hard wired to my router and I am not currently using wireless.

    For iTunes, there is an iPod Touch solution. A program called “Signal” will control your iTunes playlists when you have iTunes running on a computer. I found it to be very clunky and I have only used it one time, though.

    One other thing about the Roku is that it works great with a laptop program called visualMR and you can control just about any media server you want with it (Firefly, Rhapsody, Orb, etc..).

    Personally, I would go with the Sonos if you need an easy NAS solution. If you use a media computer, then I would go with something cheaper like the Slimserver Duet (if you need a dedicated remote) or a used Roku (stay away from M1001) if you can get by with an iPod Touch or Laptop to control it or if you are close enough to see the display.

  16. The Sonos system has very strong support for Rhapsody. Honestly, I rarely use anything besides rhapsody.

    It has :

    Playlist Support
    Full Browse of All of Rhapsody Library
    Search
    And Album Art

    I currently have 2 Zones, 1 driving 4 Inceiling speakers and the other Driving 2 Inceiling speakers. I am using 8″ Polks with the Sonos ZP100 and it drives them very well.

    This system has a very High WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).

    HTH

  17. Does the sonus support digital radio?

  18. “The Sonos system has very strong support for Rhapsody. Honestly, I rarely use anything besides rhapsody.” Thanks for the info. I understand that the Slimserver Duet will have similar functionality, so I am waiting to see some reviews of that setup. I have a media computer, so I can browse that way, but it would be cool to be able to browse the full Rhapsody library with my TV off..

    One other server that works with the TV off is a PS3. With one of the newer firmware upgrades, the user now has the choice of outputting audio via the PS3 or PSP when using “Remote Play”. I tested this with a Tversity/PS3/PSP setup and it works remarkably good. It does not have the search function (that I could find with my limited testing), but it is very quick…much faster than controlling a Roku with the PSP.

  19. I was somewhat disappointed by the SqueezeCenter web interface, it was very slow running just on my PC, so I wonder how slow it’d be over a network running on a NAS.

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