The Sonos Digital Music System consists of amplifiers with built-in wifi, which form a wireless mesh network across your home (up to 32 rooms). This lets you listen to your music from anywhere in the house - with the same song playing everywhere, or different music in different zones.
The icing on the cake is the iPod-like handheld controller, with a colour LCD screen, which lets you easily search for music and pump it around the house. The Sonos gear is simple to setup and a joy to use, with reviewers raving about it.
Until now the Sonos system has let you listen to your digital music collection, from a computer or network drive, or to online subscription services such as Rhapsody, Napster and SIRIUS.
The latest Sonos 2.7 free firmware update now gives you access to 15,000 radio stations plus the free Pandora and Last.FM streaming music services, which let you program your own online radio stations. In other words, the world's most awesome music player now works with the world's most awesome free music services.
Sonos is also working with internet radio and podcast aggregator
Radiotime, making it easy to find stations and podcasts in your area or around the world. You can even listen to real-world radio stations which offer a streaming service, with 34 Sydney stations available.
The handheld controller features an iPod-like click wheel and gives you access to all of the system's features, making it easy to search for music on the fly and pump it around the house. You can also control your music from a Mac or Windows box, although none of the Sonos features rely on a computer to be up and running.
The handheld controller feels a bit big and clunky in the touchscreen iPhone age, but Sonos has addressed this with the release of a free iPhone/iPod touch controller app.
The app lets you access all of the Sonos features, including searching online services, but is more user-friendly than the Sonos controller because you can use the iPhone's onscreen keyboard. The app offers more functionality than Apple's Remote app for AirTunes, such as the ability to stream different music to different rooms and adjust the volume in each room.
The iPhone app narrows down search results as you type, taking less than 30 seconds to find and play any track on Rhapsody - much faster than turning to BitTorrent. Suddenly the concept of "owning" music seems obsolete, as does the concept of "stealing" music.
Sonos' only drawback is the hefty price tag ($AU2199 for a starter kit), but the addition of streaming radio and an iPhone app makes it easier to justify splashing out on the world's most amazing multi-room audio system.