Cheaper media player vs Sonos/NP-30?

[admin_exported]

I haven't seen many comparisons between the cheaper media players (Western Digital / Mede8er / etc) vs the Sonos/Cambridge NP-30 range. They seem to be viewed as two distinct areas.

What are the big differences from a quality / functionality perspective and is the extra cost of a more "hifi" type system worth it compared to the media players?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice on this.

 

[amcluesent]

Interface is terrible for music. No playlists, often no play of complete album, no indexingsearch on ambedded tags is typical

'Crash, bang, wallop' DAC

No support for gapless playback (OK, if you like Dark...side..of...the...moon)

Typically needs the TV to see the UI, most people playing music want the TV off

No zones, synced playback (many SonosSqueezebox owner have multiple players)

Limited music format support, often just mp3 and FLAC and dodgy support for hi-rez

etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. I assume those criticisms are aimed at the cheaper media players?

My understanding is that most of the Sonos/Cambridge level players have some sort of more functional downloadable controls, the uuplay type idea, so that is useful.

The problem with the Sonos/Cambridge though is that it wouldn't be able to play video, correct?