[WM: We’ve had the Elan tour. We weren’t suggesting there was anything wrong with the systems other than cost. The Sonos system is anything but a "pieced together system." And, yes, we would hope the Elan touchpanel had similar functionality. After all, it costs 10 times as much. If you don’t believe our recommendation, visit a Tweeters or HiFi Buys and take one home for a test drive. You’ve got nothing to lose… and you could even become a dealer.]

Of course, no I’m totally into SACD and DVD-Audio which means I’m back to buying dual-discs and ripping them…so I may look at stripping the DRM from my itunes stuff and going to the sonos.

There is also a free open source java soft player that will run on any PC and let you access the same server. One of the big benefits of Slim’s architecture is it’s extensibility. There is an active development community writing plugins to do things like read RSS feeds or get weather graphics on the device’s front panel. An example of the power of plugins is that there is the ability to play ANY internet radio stream (including ie Real Audio) with a plugin that transcodes everything through mplayer. I can imagin an asterisk integration that would let users listen to voicemail through a squeezebox.

Both are good products, but I suggest you check out both before deciding.

[WM: By all means, try both. You can always return the Sonos unit(s). But, once you try the Sonos devices (especially the remote), you’ll never settle for a Squeezebox. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of an amp for each room in which you wish to use a Squeezebox. And then there’s the problem of finding sufficient real estate in each room to store all the components.]

[WM: You’re reading my mind. No Linux software yet, but stay tuned and keep an eye on their forums. The company is very responsive to user requests so it shouldn’t be too long. All of the Sonos software is self-updating … just like TrixBox and freePBX.]