Truly wireless - Battery Powered PLAY unit

The Pioneer can be linked up via DNLA or Airplay, BUT the sound is quite poor in comparison to the Play 1 or Play 3.  I've only listened to one, maybe others are better or the one I listened to was poor, but the Pioneer pales into insignificance next to Sonos.  There are a couple of other makes, notably Samsung and Bose that are about to introduce items and there are a few other Wifi enabled speakers.  Some are very expensive and others are pricey and poor sounding.  Sonos offers a great price/performance in my opinion.  If only the "Connect" components weren't so expensive I'd have some of those... maybe one day when I have saved up???

I'd very much support seeing this. I have most of the Sonos products but am definitively missing the portability and convenience of a battery powered player (akin to the Bose Mini Soundlink). Damp proof like the Play:1 so I (and I suspect many other could use it in the bathroom (no power sockets) or outdoors without the need for trailing cables. Even better would be the addition of a bluetooth connection so you can throw it in a suitcase when staying away and stream music from your iPhone without the need to be connected to your home Sonos System

We definitely want to see such a device added to the Sonos family. I'd trip over myself to buy a device that integrates into my current Sonos set up but is free'd from the mains cable so it can be used in the bathroom or outdoors. Do it properly and add bluetooth functionality too so we can throw it in a suitcase and enjoy Sonos sound quality on the road streaming directly from our devices without the specific need to be connected to a wireless network and full blown Sonos environment (see Bose Mini Sound link). You'd clean up with that guys

We definitely want to see such a device added to the Sonos family. I'd trip over myself to buy a device that integrates into my current Sonos set up but is free'd from the mains cable so it can be used in the bathroom or outdoors. Do it properly and add bluetooth functionality too so we can throw it in a suitcase and enjoy Sonos sound quality on the road streaming directly from our devices without the specific need to be connected to a wireless network and full blown Sonos environment (see Bose Mini Sound link). You'd clean up with that guys
if Sonos just adds a little DHCP server to its firmware, the wifi connection to Sonosnet can be used for that purpose instead of bluetooth

We definitely want to see such a device added to the Sonos family. I'd trip over myself to buy a device that integrates into my current Sonos set up but is free'd from the mains cable so it can be used in the bathroom or outdoors. Do it properly and add bluetooth functionality too so we can throw it in a suitcase and enjoy Sonos sound quality on the road streaming directly from our devices without the specific need to be connected to a wireless network and full blown Sonos environment (see Bose Mini Sound link). You'd clean up with that guys
For sure. I don't have a burning preference for how they might choose to do it. I understand this aptX bluetooth encoding is pretty impressive and obviously WiFi would be great too. Any option to free us from the dependancy on the sonosnet has to be a good thing - So much so, I'd accept a simple line in jack at worst( on something slightly more portable than a Play5) 

I too would like to see a Play: T product to be used for people who travel. Here is a user story to clarify my thoughts: As a business traveler I want to travel with a small SONOS player Play:T that fits in my laptop travel case so I can listen to SONOS music when I am stuck in an airport, in a hotel room or play in the background during a presentation or training session. Play:T may support battery and USB for alternative power option when wall outlets are not available and headphone jack so I do not disturb other travelers.

I too would like to see a Play: T product to be used for people who travel. Here is a user story to clarify my thoughts: As a business traveler I want to travel with a small SONOS player Play:T that fits in my laptop travel case so I can listen to SONOS music when I am stuck in an airport, in a hotel room or play in the background during a presentation or training session. Play:T may support battery and USB for alternative power option when wall outlets are not available and headphone jack so I do not disturb other travelers.
Nice user story! I would add the word "rechargable", I personally think it would be preferable to have the unit recharge while connected to power e.g. have a detachable base (or docking station) on the unit which has the cable connection to the wall or USB but you could just pluck up the speaker and bring it with you to another room or out to the garden without interrupting the music leaving the base behind. When travelling you would bring the base/charger unit with you.

I'm trying to think what the sweet spot would be for price. If I wanted the quality to be somewhere from a play3 to play5. Guessing the price would be $400 for battery and sound like a play3

I vote for one too. This wouldn't be a replacement for any sonos equipment either like some state that sonos might fear. Personally it eludes me why people think sonos should make a break away from the sonos network version, that's just pie in the sky and redundant. If your away from home your ipad or iphone or laptop or android or whatever can dish up your content and you can use a jawbone or whatever. This is about a realistic request for a battery operated on-the-sonos-mesh network at home or office. For me I have zone with a connect that serves as 2 main as some call "None supported" purposes. The input is fed by an Apple Airport express to pipe Airplay into my sonos. This works great I might add. The output goes to a whole house fm transmitter I picked up from amazon, which works great too. I have a lot of tools and all these power tool lines from the big box hardware stores also sells portable radios that also fit their tool's rechargeable batteries. So my whole house transmitter transmits over fm to my portable battery powered boomboxes with very cool replaceable detachable and rechargeable easily acquired battery packs. So I can play my sonos and and control the content in my portable players outside, by the bbq, garage, garden, pool, you name it. All the places where there isn't outlets,

Now for the how a sonos portable player would improve this design; the hardware store tool manufacturers have done great to address the weather resistant, portable, descent sounding boomboxes with ipod docks, but they don't sound as good as sonos. They just can't because they aren't digital, they are receiving the sonos content over FM. I'll tell you it's 80% then nothing though. If sonos came out with a weather resistant play:1 or play:3 with a replaceable rechargeable battery pack, and nothing more, to stay within range of the sonos network, it would benefit both users and company sales, not take away from other sonos sales. I could see people at first diving in thinking I'll just get a portable sonos and I won't need all of those others, they'll get the bug anyway and buy buy buy just like the rest of us! So come on sonos, build this thing so we can buy it!!

Alternatives:
Until sonos does come out with this, reasonable alternatives that feed from line out from a sonos connect or Play:5 (Note lining out from Play:5 does mute that speaker while plugged in)

1) whole house fm transmitter: Use with your choice of FM radio, such as the boomboxes from the big box hardware stores that run off tool batteries. Works great as long as it's a good quality transmitter, costing just under $100 can be found on-line. Pros: no lag, the music is in sync with your other sonos speakers. Extends sonos zone to your selected fm frequency. Integrate in existing equipment you may already be using in your garage, tool shed, yard ect.. Cons: Not sonos, doesn't sound as good as sonos.
2) whole house bluetooth transmitter. Again line in from connect or Play:5. Extend sonos zone to a bluetooth device. Look for the 150+ foot range blue tooth transmitters. Pros: Good sound quality, can transmit to really great bluetooth speakers already on the market. Cons: lag, these can have a bit of a lag so they won't be in total sync with your other speakers. Might not matter out by the pool or off in the yard.
3) Airplay: Follow me on this one, it's a stretch but possible. Connect a pc or mac audio in to the output of a connect or play:5, use a 3rd party software tool like Airfoil and transmit to Airplay device. Many descent airplay wireless speakers already out there. I haven't done this, but no doubt there will be lag from Airplay, probably about the same as bluetooth. This isn't an ideal solution but hey, for some it maybe an option.

All being said, just build one sonos!