Recent content by gowiththeflow

Our neighbours have a single Sonos One as their only audio system, other than the sound bars, fitted underneath the huge TV's in both the longe and kitchen/orangery (posh name for a massive single story extension). Despite the very large rooms and floor area, they think the Sonos One is all they...

I’ve been using Roon on my Formation Duo system and it’s great, apart from needing to run the Roon Core software on my iMac. I considered buying a Nucleus or a NUC PC, but couldn’t justify the cost, especially with new developments like Tidal Connect and the prospect of the Formation products...

An update to this thread. B&W have now released a new Formation “Music“ app which introduces direct connection to a number of streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz., plus the Tune-In radio portal. This app will be expanded over the next few months, to take over the functions of the original...

I'd also like to hear opinions from someone using that combination. I've had both the LS50 2 and the Formation Duo's here and the B&W's were definitely better in terms of sound. They are more refined and went deeper, but are slightly laid back in the upper treble.. I thought the KEF's could...

I've included the hub and remote, as the current promotional price includes them.

The "Meta material", i.e. a moulded plastic disc, is only one part of the upgrade to the driver assembly, but it has been seized on for the marketing PR guff. So don't get distracted by that. What they appear to have done with this new version of the driver, is to eliminate much of the upper...

Buchardt are shortly introducing their A700 floor standing speakers, with 6 drivers and the same technology as the stand mount A500's. It'll be interesting to see how these are received. As I understand it, they're also developing an "in-house" wireless hub, to replace the version currently...

The do not currently cost twice the price. The A500 cost 42% more than the LS50W-II The LS50W-II price is 70.31% of that for the A500. Most of KEF, B&W and some of Dynaudio's speakers are made in China, as are Hegel amps and many other well known audio manufacturers electronics. z

If you're thinking of adding a streamer, then it might be worth looking at the LS50W-2 actives. This new version of the wireless actives had had a much bigger makeover and improvement compared with the passive versions, including direct access to more streaming services and Roon, with a...

I'll keep the brands anonymous. I bought a pair of speakers about 6 years ago, from a reputable HIFi shop who carried a lot of upmarket and High-end gear. They originally had cost around £4000. I declined the dealers kind offer to sell me some vastly overpriced speaker cables to go with them...

10 months on from this announcement and the promised update to the app hasn't materialised. EVA Automation, who acquired a controlling interest in B&W 4 years ago and brought the Formation wireless technology to the speaker brand, have gone bankrupt and departed the scene. Another group, Sound...

Apart from upgrading the app to allow direct access to a range of streaming services, from the likes of Tidal, Qobuz etc, the other upgrades that the Formation Duo could benefit from are some form of basic DSP room adjustment, similar to that provided by Dynaudio and KEF; and a modification to...

There’s no reason why the Sonos platform for legacy products can’t be sustained. It’s the constant “updates” and changes that are the problem. Updates to rectify bugs are not a problem, it’s the adding of new features and changing the app (mostly just for the sake of it) that’s the issue. The...

No chance I’m going to accept this 30% trade-in offer and buy more Sonos kit after this announcement. It’s terrible value if your existing equipment is in A1 condition and working well, plus the prospect that any new replacements are only going to last 5 years or so, before Sonos pull the plug...

All my Sonos kit, apart from a Play 3, is affected by this. I suspect the Play 3 and original Play 1 will be next, along with the Soundbar and other AV oriented products. There’s a big message here. Don’t buy Sonos products, unless you only want them to work for 5 years and are prepared to...