Review: Sonos Play:3 speaker system

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="240" mce_src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7224/sonosplay3stacked.jpg" src="http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7224/sonosplay3stacked.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="151" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Sonos was nice enough to loan me the new Play:3 wireless speaker system that I mentioned earlier this week, and now I've had a chance to listen. It's good. Very good.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> If you're unfamiliar with Sonos, here's a bit of background. The company began in 2003 with an idea of providing whole house wireless systems for much less than custom install jobs. Sonos has been Mac-friendly from the start, a Sonos device connects to your iTunes library and then with several additional pieces you your music where you need it. Control can be through a dedicated hardware controller, or even better from a free iPad or iPhone app. Sonos makes what they call ZonePlayers that connect as a component to your HiFi, or models with amplifiers that can drive speakers. Last fall, my colleague Dave Caolo reviewed the Sonos S5, now renamed the Play:5, a standalone music player with built-in amps and speakers.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Now Sonos has an even lower priced entry, the US $299.00 Play:3. It's a one piece speaker system with digital amplifiers. The speaker enclosure is 5.2 x 10.5 x 6.3 inches and weighs a shade under 6 pounds. It can be plugged directly into your router with the supplied ethernet cable and it's ready to go. To use it wirelessly, you get a $50.00 Sonos Bridge unit and plug that into your router. Then put the Play:3 anywhere in the house, and your iTunes library is available, as well as thousands of internet radio stations. You can also access Pandora, and subscriptions music services like Last.fm, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Stitcher and more.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The Play:3 is a stereo unit, but the drivers are quite close together. I heard a clear stereo effect, but it wasn't a very wide image. Sonos allows two Play:3 units to be placed in a stereo pair mode, so you can separate them as widely as you like. The speakers can be placed vertically or horizontally. Sensors in the enclosure make some adjustments to the sound depending on how the speakers are oriented. The Sonos architecture is very mix and match. You can add a lot of playback units, and they can play music in sync all over the house, or you can have each play different things in different locations. The flexibility is unlimited.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> How did it all sound? Really well for such a small box. I listened to Jazz, some hard rock and some classical. Vocals, always a good test, were clear and defined. I listened to some Bach organ music and the stunning Saint-Sa</div> </div> </span></div>

Review: Sonos Play:3 speaker system

Sonos was nice enough to loan me the new Play:3 wireless speaker system that I mentioned earlier this week, and now I've had a chan...

Continue Reading>>

How to Manually Install SATA Drivers From a Repair Console

<P>Insert your Windows XP disc into your optical drive and restart your computer.</P><P>Press a key when the boot up message indicates you need to press a key to boot from the CD.</P><P>Press "R" to access the repair console option. Choose the Windows XP installation that you wish to fix. This is usually the first option provided, so press "1" and "Enter." Input the administrative password for that installation.</P><P>Type "Enable" followed by the name of the SATA drivers. These drivers are now enabled for that operating system. If you need to copy the drivers from a disc first, type "copy." Put a space and input the path of the file, followed by the file name. Put another space and type "C:\," a space followed by the file name. You can then enable that driver. For example, if your SATA drive name is drivers.sys on a floppy drive A:, type "copy A:\drivers.sys C:\drivers.sys." Type "Enable drivers.sys" to enable that specific driver.</P>

How to Manually Install SATA Drivers From a Repair Console

Insert your Windows XP disc into your optical drive and restart your computer. Press a key when the boot up message indicates you need to p...

Continue Reading>>

How to Use Windows XP Drivers With Linux

<P>Click "System."</P><P>Click "Administration."</P><P>Click "Synaptic Package Manager." Type "NDISWrapper" (with no quotes) into the "Search" text field in this window. When the icon for NDISWrapper appears, check the box next to it and click "OK" to install that piece of software onto your computer.</P><P>Double-click on your Windows XP driver file. It will open in the NDISWrapper software. Click "Extract" to install the Windows XP driver file on your Linux computer.</P>

How to Use Windows XP Drivers With Linux

Click "System." Click "Administration." Click "Synaptic Package Manager." Type "NDISWrapper" (with ...

Continue Reading>>

How to Print to PDF Drivers

<P>Launch a Web browser and go to the Adobe Postscript printer drivers for Windows download page. (See Resources.)</P><P>Click the Postscript driver that is applicable to your version of Windows from the list of drivers. The download page for your selected driver will open.</P><P>Click the "Proceed to Download" button, then click the "Download Now" button on the next page. The Download dialog box will appear. Click the "Save File" button. Select a location to save the file on your hard drive.</P><P>Double-click the downloaded PostScript file and the installation wizard will open. Follow the prompts from the wizard to install the print to PDF drivers on your system.</P>

How to Print to PDF Drivers

Launch a Web browser and go to the Adobe Postscript printer drivers for Windows download page. (See Resources.) Click the Postscript driver...

Continue Reading>>