Sonos Amp

One of the things we like about Sonos is that it doesn’t release iteratively updated new products every year; it uses firmware updates to add new abilities regularly to existing models, and then introduces generational hardware changes when it’s time for something new. And Sonos seems to be having a burst of such creativity at present, having recently announced a musical lamp and musical bookshelf in a cunning collaboration with IKEA (see our last issue), and while Australia waits for those to arrive, there is a new range of architectural speakers (in-wall, in-ceiling and outdoor designs) produced in collaboration with Sonance.

And there is this new Sonos Amp. In many regards the Amp is the most traditional of the new products; the first Sonos product back in 2005 was the ZonePlayer 100 amplifier, which evolved into the Connect:Amp, which the new Amp replaces.

The main role of the new Amp is the same — it contains all the Sonos streaming abilities along with amplification, so that all you need do is plug the speakers of your choice into the back.

But there are three key features which point to the expanded goals of the new model. Firstly, as with the new architectural speakers it has clearly been designed with a major nod to custom