Hi, im looking into buying a SONOS starter kit of a bridge (conneced to wireless router) and a Play 3 speaker for starters. If I then wanted to add a Play 5 speaker to the setup would I be able to have these play different tracks independent of each other, and set them up as 2 'Zones' I guess? Or would I need a second bridge or a ZP to do that, and if so, why? Thank you!
The one bridge will be OK to serve as many zoneplayers as you want. The bridge must be connected wired though as Sonos will not connect wirelessly to a router. The other zones will connect wirelessly to the bridge as it creates it's own wireless mesh, The rule is that 1 zoneplayer or bridge must be connected by wire to your router.
Just to confirm what the previous post says, your Bridge creates the initial wired link to your router (allowing Sonos to access your home network and Internet) and becomes the first device for the proprietary Sonos wireless mesh network. Unlike normal wifi this mesh network means that every new Sonos player (or bridge and dock) also acts as a wireless repeater to any nee Sonos device that cannot "see" the original Bridge. The other feature of Sonos is that upto 32 players can form your Sonos system and that each and very one of these can play their own separate choice of music at the same time.