Multiroom: Incognito versus Sonos?

[wellsi]

Having a large part of the house renovated, I'm looking into simple 4 - 6 zone multiroom audio systems around the 2K mark.
They seem to fall into two camps:
- the wired "control all your hi-fi via a small easy to use remote / wall panel" type (eg Opus Octopus or CA Ingognito),
or
- the wired / wireless "access all your digital music on a PC or Music Server via a nice LCD display panel" type (eg Yamaha Music Cast or Sonos)

The Yamaha does this perfectly by being able to access your server with a visual display, but at £1700 for the server and £600 per client panel, it ain't cheap.

CA's £600 640H Music Server is set up for easy integration with their Incognito system, but who would want to access 500 CD files blind without being able to read what track you're selecting? Surely a Sonos-style LCD panel client controller is the missing feature from the CA 640 / Incognito set up?

This is pushing me towards the Sonos set up, but I don't see you how can access or control your other hi-fi with it. In addition, the Sonos system doesn't seem to have the simple ability for slave zones (ie two sets of speakers from one client), so you either have an additional speaker selector switch or a £300 client for every room...

Am I missing things or just pointing out the obvious here?

Cheers,
Ian in London

[Ed Selley]

You aren't missing much. Incognito is not specifically designed for the server- it will send anything through it so it is more flexible than the Sonos in that regard. If you were controlling a 640H you'd need to switch video as well with the VH10 to a relevant screen. Funky LCD touchpanels and the like we can do- but given they would have to control everything, they would be costly.

The Sonos is pretty, easy to use and comes with the ability to see what you are doing but it has no control over other components you might have and the price for several zones begins to stack up. Multiroom is always a compromise and these two components are different examples of this.

[wellsi]

Thanks for that Ed; agree with what you say.

However, it would seem the missing link from the 640 is an LCD panelled remote control, giving the same info that's on the LCD panel of the unit itself.
Surely this makes sense given the efforts you've made to ease the connecting of the 640 to the Coginito system?

That would give you the best of both worlds then...

[Ed Selley]

Originally Posted by wellsi

Thanks for that Ed; agree with what you say.

However, it would seem the missing link from the 640 is an LCD panelled remote control, giving the same info that's on the LCD panel of the unit itself.
Surely this makes sense given the efforts you've made to ease the connecting of the 640 to the Coginito system?

That would give you the best of both worlds then...

It would but it encounters 2 problems;
1) Price- an entirely custom solution would be very pricey, an off the shelf one would be cheaper but a "best fit" rather than exactly what is required. We have been looking at a pocket PC app for the server as a compromise solution.
2) Much of the functionalilty you talk about is available from the Opus 500 system with TXT box (which we also build). The price of the 500 system implies the overall cost difference in getting this feature running correctly.

[steelee]

640H really is rubbish and unreliable, how about the slim devices squeezebox 3 I am using 4 of them in different rooms and although each needs an amp and speakers the sound quality is fantastic plus you get internet radio and a great graphic display

[wellsi]

Well, most things are deemed rubbish in someone's opinion; I personally think anything that relies on PCs and Windows is potentially rubbish because it's at the mercy of the Windows operating system.

I'm using a Netgear MP101 that uses the PC as a server; didn't I have fun and games setting it up...
But I admit I hadn't looked at the Squeezebox so I will do now;

Cheers for the advice

Ian

[fourtears]

Have you considered using a tablet pc or PDA with appropriate software as a remote? I don't know if the CA stuff has an http server to make this easy but certainly a lot of people use PDAs to control squeezeboxes or the old audiotron. Don't get too hung up on having to run a PC as server, this can be gotten around by buying a relatively cheap network attached storage device that stays on all the time (and usually run unix so no windows worries). Some of these can be configured to run the server side squeezebox software (eg linkstation).

Personnaly I use the Sonos system with a linkstation acting as the server and whilst it does not control other hifi devices, it can route one input per zone around the house and you could then use a tablet pc to control both your hifi (via a network IR sender possibly) and the Sonos via the software remote.

[wellsi]

That's not an approach I'd considered; but a 400Gb Freecom Gateway is only £300.
Not ever used a PDA but I hear you can get an app called Nevo on some that will do the job; and presumably you could plug in good quality active speakers and away you go... (not mega hi-fi but it woudl probably be good enough...)

Cheers for the ideas

Ian