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Q I want a great-sounding home theater system (preferably wireless) that won’t break the bank. I’m interested in the Sonos system (PLAYBAR, PLAY:1 rear speakers, and SUB). The only downside is that Sonos doesn’t support AirPlay—a deal-breaker for me since much of my music is on Apple devices (MacBook, iPad, and iPhone). Someone told me I don’t really need AirPlay to play my iTunes library through Sonos. Is that true?—Paul Fox

A Yes. The files in your iTunes library (and other shared music folders on your network-connected computers or NAS drive) can be read by the Sonos controller app, which is capable of importing iTunes playlists as well. As long as your iPad or iPhone is wirelessly connected to the same network, you can also tap wireless iTunes playback to stream audio from those devices to your Sonos system (requires iOS 6 or later). One caveat: the audio tracks streamed using wireless iTunes playback must be in MP3 or AAC format; AIFF and lossless formats are not supported.

As for AirPlay, if you prefer to use that protocol to stream music from your Apple devices to a Sonos speaker, you’ll have to pony up for yet another Apple gadget: an Airport Express ($99). The Airport Express is a Wi-Fi base station that’s capable of streaming music via AirPlay and conveying it via its analog stereo/optical digital output to a compatible speaker such as the Playbar. It also lets you stream iTunes Match tracks from an iCloud account—something you can’t otherwise do when using basic wireless iTunes playback to stream audio from your iDevices.