Alternatives to SONOS

[tomlinscote]

 

[tomlinscote]

Hi all,

Am going to get myself a NAS system and was wondering if there are decent alternatives to the SONOS systems, I am not too fussed about multiroom but if its there....., budget is going to be around the same price as the zone player 90 or connect as it now known, so say less than £300.

The ability to stream from the NAS and listen to internet radio are the key points plus sound quality as the NAS files will be WAV or similar (not fussed about album artwork etc as the device will be connected to the stereo not via AV and TV)

Cheers in advance

Tommo

 

[bigboss]

http://www.teufelaudio.co.uk/raumfeld-audio-streaming/streaming-starter-sets.html

 

[The_Lhc]

Am going to get myself a NAS system and was wondering if there are decent alternatives to the SONOS systems, I am not too fussed about multiroom but if its there....., budget is going to be around the same price as the zone player 90 or connect as it now known, so say less than £300.

So what's wrong with just using Sonos?

The ability to stream from the NAS and listen to internet radio are the key points plus sound quality as the NAS files will be WAV or similar (not fussed about album artwork etc as the device will be connected to the stereo not via AV and TV)

How do you imagine you'll be controlling the device, most of them are GUI based, in which case not having album artwork gets irritatiing pretty quickly.

 

[gregvet]

It's not out yet, but the olive one looks interesting (and if you go for the hard drive option, could replace the NAS as well)

http://www.myoliveone.com/

 

[tomlinscote]

Mmm looks intertesting, I see from your sig you use the SONOS kit, how do you find the sound quality and do you connect it directly to your amp?

- for BigBoss, I posted before seeing the other replies!

T

 

[tomlinscote]

I have read on here that the Sonos kit suffers from SQ issues (jitter etc) hence the qn is there something with a better SQ or is the Sonos decent enough ie CD quality (with the right file type obviously )

As for the artwork etc I just want to be able to pick an album by ttitle or artist and then track to play, or just on random if feeling lazy, I would not be bothered for example to have an ipad showing my the album cover art who wrote the song and when.

T

 

[iQ Speakers]

Hi I use spotify at 320,my ZP80 is directly conected to my amp sounds pretty good to me.

Indeed i bought a CA 640v2 to see if I was missing some sound quality, soon sold it. Also ripped some CD's in Loseless still could not tell.

But then i dont have the best kit at the moment, Just to say the Sonos is brilliant.

 

[John Duncan]

Below 300 quid, and in the absence of the much-missed Squeezebox Touch, I don't think I could see past a Sonos tbh. It's functional, the app is good, Spotify is built in, blah blah. If you're worried about ekeing out the last drop of sound quality, you can add a DAC or even the extremely cool and genius Arcam Sonlink:

(cue gasps of horror from The_LHC...)

 

[Phileas]

I have read on here that the Sonos kit suffers from SQ issues (jitter etc)

Don't believe everything you read on here.

I'm sure the Sonos sounds as good as anything else plugged into an amp.

 

[tomlinscote]

"Don't believe everything you read on here.

"

WHAT? So not everything on this forum is the gospel truth? It is a good job it is Friday so I can find a pub and drown my sorrows :rofl:

Ok so if you can improve the sound using a DAC like that Sonlink one maybe that would be an option for later when funds allow and for the moment just experiment with NAS plus Sonos, oh and rip all my CDs into a decent format!!

T

 

[matt49]

I have read on here that the Sonos kit suffers from SQ issues (jitter etc) hence the qn is there something with a better SQ or is the Sonos decent enough ie CD quality (with the right file type obviously )

FWIW I think it will depend on your other equipment. If you're going to pipe Sonos through, say, a £500 amp and £500 speakers, I think it's unlikely you'll notice any issues with SQ. But if you're going to use a high-end DAC, amp and speakers or very revealing headphones, then Sonos might not give you as much transparency as a streaming option from the likes of Naim or Linn. (And yes, I've tried Sonos with a number of options at both ends of my hypothetical scale, and compared it with Naim and Linn streamers.) Others may well disagree.

As I've not tried them, I can't say anything about the Raumfeld and Olive offerings (except that the Raumfeld looks very classy).

I hope that helps.

Matt

 

[matt49]

Below 300 quid, and in the absence of the much-missed Squeezebox Touch, I don't think I could see past a Sonos tbh. It's functional, the app is good, Spotify is built in, blah blah. If you're worried about ekeing out the last drop of sound quality, you can add a DAC or even the extremely cool and genius Arcam Sonlink:

(cue gasps of horror from The_LHC...)

Just can't keep my eyes off that little box. Pure hi-fi porn. :jawdrop:

 

[bigboss]

I'm perfectly happy with the sound quality on my Sonos. Jitter is a contentious issue. There are scientific papers (the link of which I posted on this forum few months ago) which show that jitter needs to be many times worse than Sonos to be noticeable. Get the Sonos first; if you're not happy with sound, you can always add a DAC later.

Ive got 2 ZP90s (or Sonos Connect). One is plugged into my AV receiver, & the other is connected to a pair of powered speakers (Audioengine 2). Both systems are brilliant.

 

[unison]

I have just bought a secondhand zp80, plugged it into my Cyrus dac, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. especially my free trial of spotify. sounds very good.

I

 

[unison]

a number of dealers are offering a home trial of sonos, so you could try it yourself?

 

[relocated]

As you can see I use an Apple TV, which comes in for more criticism[ from people who think they know all there is to know] than Sonos ever does and that works perfectly fine. So, just like Phileas, I have no reason to believe that you will have any problems with Sonos, even without an outbooard DAC.

 

[professorhat]

Ive got 2 ZP90s (or Sonos Connect). One is plugged into my AV receiver, & the other is connected to a pair of powered speakers (Audioengine 2). Both systems are brilliant.

Ha - ditto on my setup

 

[spockfish]

Just buy a second hand Squeezebox Touch

But on a more serious note: imho the Sonos has only *one* problem: no HD support. Luckily enough recently the new brand Bluesound entered the streaming party, and they do HD.

Keep in mind that wrt usability the Sonos and Squeezebox Touch are in a way better leaugue than the average DLNA-based streamer.

 

[DocG]

But on a more serious note: imho the Sonos has only *one* problem: no HD support. Luckily enough recently the new brand Bluesound entered the streaming party, and they do HD...

... at a considerably higher price than £300, though. Just like Simple Audio.

Not sure I'll ever miss HD on my Sonos, BTW.

 

[John Duncan]

Just buy a second hand Squeezebox Touch

But on a more serious note: imho the Sonos has only *one* problem: no HD support. Luckily enough recently the new brand Bluesound entered the streaming party, and they do HD.

Keep in mind that wrt usability the Sonos and Squeezebox Touch are in a way better leaugue than the average DLNA-based streamer.

Not sure I agree totally. My StreamMagic's app is pretty good and the Naim app is great. The thing missing from the *average* streamer is Spotify integration, which works extraordinarily well on Sonos. However, if you can get round that (via Airport Express or Bluetooth, for example, as I do), then there's not much in it IMO.

 

[Ajani]

Probably a bit over budget, but I suspect worth mentioning is a new line of High Res, Sonos style products from Bluesound (NAD).

http://www.bluesound.com/products/node

https://hifisolutions.nl/merken/bluesound

 

[bigboss]

Interesting! Some discussions about pros and cons here:

http://forums.sonos.com/showthread.php?t=34179

 

[Overdose]

An interesting product it seems, offering a similar package to the Sonos, but also with a ripping station.

A pity though that the product is pitched at the price it is. It still leaves a hole in the market from when the Squeezebox was discontinued.

They do seem quite expensive for what they offer.

"The Node sells for €449 in Europe (Sonos Connect is €349), PowerNode is €699 (Sonos Connect Amp is €499), Vault is €999 (no Sonos product like that) and the Pulse is €599 (Sonos Play5 is €399). No bridge needed (€50)."

The above quote taken from BBs link.

 

[The_Lhc]

I think the pity is that bluesound appear to be using their early customers as alpha testers for a system that clearly isn't ready yet.