Sonos Pwns Airport Express
Not sure how many of you like streaming music throughout the house. Airtunes is an excellent option. But Sonos takes it to another level, with the ability to stream all audio content (ota /internet radio, and itunes) everywhere, and allows you to play different content in each zone. Why cant airtunes do this?!
It seems to me that a key announcement next week needs to be adding the functionality of separate and independent zones to airtunes, as well as streaming internet radio. Apple has the remote app, which is an incredible interface. I use it to manage streaming to my 3 home sources and as an appletv controller. But to have multiple independent zones would take the product to the next level. There are lots of people who have iphones and ipods, but will not purchase an airport express because it can not handle zones like it should.
Another issue i have with Airtunes deals with its performance. When you are playing audio through all sources, it does not sync up nicely. Usually, the airport express is perhaps 1/2 second or so ahead of the appletv. This creates cacophony. Its awful and needs to be remedied. I am not sure if Sonos has this same issue, but if they dont, Apple needs to figure out how Sonos did this an copy the tech.
I am sure that Apple can close the performance gap between airtunes and Sonos... they need to get off their butts and dedicate the engineering resources to doing it.
It seems to me that a key announcement next week needs to be adding the functionality of separate and independent zones to airtunes, as well as streaming internet radio. Apple has the remote app, which is an incredible interface. I use it to manage streaming to my 3 home sources and as an appletv controller. But to have multiple independent zones would take the product to the next level. There are lots of people who have iphones and ipods, but will not purchase an airport express because it can not handle zones like it should.
Another issue i have with Airtunes deals with its performance. When you are playing audio through all sources, it does not sync up nicely. Usually, the airport express is perhaps 1/2 second or so ahead of the appletv. This creates cacophony. Its awful and needs to be remedied. I am not sure if Sonos has this same issue, but if they dont, Apple needs to figure out how Sonos did this an copy the tech.
I am sure that Apple can close the performance gap between airtunes and Sonos... they need to get off their butts and dedicate the engineering resources to doing it.