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The SonoWave Digital Media Player is an interesting device. It’s part boombox, part network-attached MP3 player and part wireless computer speakers. It lets you listen to MP3s and Internet radio stations wirelessly streamed from your computer and gives you all the control you’ll need in a small, portable device which delivers really good sound.
To find out more, keep reading…
What’s In The Box?
The SonoWave DMP itself is about the size of a really compact portable stereo, roughly 11″ x 6″. Also included is a small round-ish transmitter that plugs into your computer’s USB port, a couple stereo cables for AUX in and out, a USB cable, power cord and driver CD.
What’s Good About It?
The SonoWave is very portable and easy to use. The audio quality is pretty good for a unit this size, though if you’re interested in blasting it, you might want to use the AUX out and connect it to your home stereo.
Streaming Internet radio to a wireless device like this is a really good idea — you have the ability to switch between 6 presets or just use the “Tune” buttons to go up or down through your entire list of stations. The ability to play MP3s wirelessly from your computer is nice too, though it’s nothing new.
Other features include the ability to play whatever audio CD is in your computer’s CD-ROM drive and the ability to use the portable unit as a set of wireless speakers for your computer. Oh, and there’s an FM receiver built in as well, in case your favorite station hasn’t discovered the Internet yet.
What Could Be Improved?
There are a few things that are just plain clunky about the SonoWave. First of all, the ability to switch between Internet radio stations or to change which MP3 is playing diminishes quickly in proportion to your distance from the transmitter. The advertised range between transmitter and the portable unit is 300 feet, but in my house, the practical range is about 20 feet if there are any walls in the way. If I move 2 rooms away, the audio quality is still very good, but I don’t have any control at all.
The other glaring need is the PC software that you use to set your Internet radio presets and add your MP3s. It would be so much better use something like Winamp, Windows Media Player or iTunes as an interface, but you’re stuck using their proprietary client. The software that is included is clunky and not what you’d call user friendly.
Finally, the SonoWave DMP installs itself as the default audio device for your computer. That means that ALL sound goes through the unit after you install it. If you want to use your regular speakers again, you have to restore your sound card as the default in the Sounds and Audio Devices control panel. The downside of this is that you can’t use the SonoWave to play MP3s in another room while someone else plays the Ultima Online, because they won’t hear anything, and you’ll hear their Thunder spell going over and over again on top of your music.
GadgetMadness Verdict
If you really dig Internet radio and don’t like the idea of being glued to your computer to get it, the SonoWave Digital Media Player is a slick solution. It’s portable, compact and has pretty good sound for your Radio Wazee fix.
The SonoWave Digital Media player is available to pre-order from Merconnet.com
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