At the time I bought the Sonos, we had actually disconnected our stereo system, no room for it, in favor of one of those compact systems. It was far from excellent, but it did the job while cooking. But we don’t really have one room where we would do most of our listening; the rooms in our house are all pretty small (perils of a Victorian), so we tend to roam. Hence my desire to have a decent, compact, and synchronized system in many rooms. The Sonos was perfect for that, and we’re still extremely happy with it.

Another difference between the SqueezeBox and Sonos is the display and remote control. The SqueezeBox has a terrific display on the player, and a very ordinary remote control. The Sonos takes a different approach, and puts all the display stuff into the controller (pictured in the hands above), which is far more sophisticated (and far more expensive). The controller is fantastic, allowing you to navigate your entire music library, displaying playback information, etc. It’s where half or more of the magic of Sonos is, and can roam with you throughout the house. So a display on the players is not really necessary.

I think if we lived in a house with a “great room” or other central living/activity area, a SqueezeBox attached to a good stereo system could be a better way to go. But for our little pocket rooms and activity patterns, the Sonos is perfect.

Did you compare the Sonos to Yamaha’s MusicCast, or other amplified and ala carte solutions?