Logitech Taking on Sonos???

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/news/pressreleases/LogitechWirelessDJmusic.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 82px; HEIGHT: 100px" alt=[WirelessDJmusicsystem1] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/WirelessDJmusicsystem1_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Logitech today unveiled the Logitech® Wireless DJ™ Music System, which makes it easy for people to stream any digital music from their PC to any stereo system or powered multimedia speakers anywhere in their home and control it all from the palm of their hand. The transmitter plugs into a USB port on the PC and the Music Receiver/Dock is easily connected to a stereo system using standard RCA connectors, or to powered multimedia speakers using the 3.5 mm headphone jack output. Once the setup is complete, the Wireless DJ Music System sends music streams directly to the receiver, at a range of up to 50 meters (150 feet). The multi-room remote automatically connects to the PC and offers the same wireless range.

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[CharlyD]

Nice Remote!

Kudos to Logitech for what appears to be an outstanding remote for a digital music player! The remote for the the Sonos system, the apparent target competitor for the Logitech Wireless DJ system, offers a very intuitive user interface and can control any Sonos box in the system. Logitech needed to deliver similar functionality and appears to have achieved that goal at a much lower price.

But - from what I can glean from the very sparse descriptions on the Wireless DJ system, the architecture is not nearly as sophisticated and does not offer many of the features of the Sonos or other networked audio systems.

• The interface to the PC is as a USB device implying that it appears as an external sound device to the PC. This means that only one audio stream can be delivered-all receivers get the same stream. This also means that all PC sounds will be sent to the remote receiver(s). I hope Logitech has provided some means to easily switch back to your PC speakers.
• The communication to the remote receivers is in digital format at 2.4 GHz. This band is already densely populated with phones, microwaves, wireless networks, etc. I'm curious to see how this system holds up in a real world environment.
• There is no mention of DRM support. I suspect that the codecs (WMA, AAC, FLAC, etc.) sit in the transmitter at the PC. If this is the case, no DRM system would allow the decrypted stream to be broadcast.