Sonos allows you to play content from basically any music service (Apple, Spotify, SiriusXM, Amazon Prime, your iTunes library, etc.) from any combination of your selected devices.

You pick the content, the specific devices that you want to start playing that content, and then the respective volumes of each device.

So, you can play one song in the living room and kitchen - they'll be synced perfectly - and another in the upstairs bathroom or whatever.

We had a Memorial day party for my daughter's 3rd bday - the effect of having the same playlist going indoors and outdoors, in perfect sync, was really subtle and cool. It's the kind of thing that used to require a lot of $ and effort.

One other neat Sonos thing - the CONNECT has a line-in function. So if you have a turntable, you can plug it into the back of the Connect, and then play your LPs in multiple rooms.

NOW... Sonos is in a weird spot, because Amazon and Google and Apple are all muscling in on their territory.

Previously, all of these voice-controlled assistants weren't really Sonos competitors, because premium sound was kind of an afterthought on them. That's not the case anymore - new Alexa and Apple devices talk up their advanced sound quality.

So Sonos has decided to to platform agnostic. They FIRST incorporated Alexa into what used to be the PLAY:1. And, given how the devices work with each other, you should be able to control ALL of your Sonos devices (even the non-Alexa ones) by voice if you're within earshot of ANY of your Alexa-powered devices.

That should also be the case after Apple releases the HomePod and Sonos adds Airplay 2 capability -- you *should* be able to say "Hey Siri, play Beggars Banquet on the Sonos in the living room" to the HomePod, and the Sonos *should* respond.

Of course, we'll see if that's the case.

But in the meantime, I'm holding off on buying any Sonos stuff - we're pretty deeply invested in the Apple/HomeKit vertical, and I want to verify that it will all work together later.

I'm a casual music fan, as opposed to an audiophile, so consider all this in that context.

I just think it's an incredibly user-friendly system. Easy to set up and a very user-friendly interface. Plays very nicely with whatever services you subscribe to (we mostly use Pandora and Prime -- and it might not work on Spotify free). The most complex thing I've done with it so far is set up a NAS drive to store my iTunes library -- to do that, I needed to use Sonos customer support, which they actually provided with a human over the telephone. Also, I completely suck at technology, so when I say something is easy...

In terms of sound quality, it might depend on the space. We have a house from the 1960s, which is basically a rectangle filled with smaller rectangles, so we have fairly small listening spaces. But the Ones sound good loud and are also pretty effective when you turn it way down for dinner background music or something.

I've also heard really great things about the Playbar for TVs, but that one is a lot pricier and we haven't done it yet. Also, our daughter's room is right above our family room, so less is definitely more when it comes to our TV sound.

1) Sonos Connect directly connected to our stereo, which lets us play Sonos through our Family Room stereo.
2) Sonos Connect Amp connected to Klipsch CDT-3650 in-ceiling speakers in our master bathroom.
3) Sonos Connect Amp connected to Bose 251 outdoor speakers in our back yard.

We can enable music through any / all of the speakers at any time. They can be playing either the same or different music simultaneously. All Sonos devices can be activated / managed through their app, so you can turn on/off, change station, and configure everything quite handily.

We have a wake up alarm in the master bathroom to turn on music in the morning. We have SirisXM, itunes, Pandora, and Spotify all configured within Sonos, so you can play music from any source any time you want.

We also happen to have a couple iPad minis on walls around the house for home automation. They're not necessary for us, but important for guests at the house when we're not around.

Really love this setup. Sonos Amps are not cheap, but what a great ecosphere.

For some music, like classical, you can get odd results.

For example (just an illustration, not a real example), you might say "Alexa, play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony", and you do get the Glorious Ninth, but played by the Sioux City Radio Orchestra rather than the Berlin Philharmonic. So you say "Alexa, play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Berlin Philharmonic", and you still get the Sioux City Radio Orchestra.