Compact Disc Player compared with Sonos Connect

Edbo2

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Is there a discernible difference in sound quality between a CD player and Sonos Connect as an input. I have a Cyrus One Amp fed by a Sonos Connect and wondering if I should buy a CD player? Does any member have both and can advise.
 

Infiniteloop

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Edbo2 said:
Is there a discernible difference in sound quality between a CD player and Sonos Connect as an input. I have a Cyrus One Amp fed by a Sonos Connect and wondering if I should buy a CD player? Does any member have both and can advise.

Some people will tell you that as it's all digital, there cannot possibly be any difference in SQ. Others will tell you that there is indeed a difference.

Only you can make up your mind. Do some listening and let your ears decide.
 

MajorFubar

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Infiniteloop said:
Edbo2 said:
Is there a discernible difference in sound quality between a CD player and Sonos Connect as an input. I have a Cyrus One Amp fed by a Sonos Connect and wondering if I should buy a CD player? Does any member have both and can advise.

Some people will tell you that as it's all digital, there cannot possibly be any difference in SQ.

I'm not sure anyone truly believes that, or has suggested it. A stream of bits may well be a stream of bits no matter where it comes from, but the difference in the DAC and analogue circuitry between that in the sonos and any other digital device (be it an outboard DAC, CD palyer, digital input on an amp, or whatever) leaves plenty of opportunities for differences afterwards.
 

andyjm

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Infiniteloop said:
Some people will tell you that as it's all digital, there cannot possibly be any difference in SQ.

.. and I would suggest you ignore those people.

The connect is a couple of generations old. It suffers from poor jitter performance, and has never been considered the pinnacle of audio performance. If you feed it into a DAC that has jitter mitigation circuitry then it is as good as any other digital source, but as (I believe) you are using its analogue outputs, then you may well be able to do better.

Jitter aside, as pointed out above, much of the performance of the digital audio system has nothing to do with digital, but is driven by the analogue filters and circuitry after the digital to analogue converter chip inside the player. Here again, the connect isn't considered the best.

If you want to hang on to the convenience that Sonos brings, but want to see if you can improve the sound, I would suggest feeding the digital output of the connect into a good, modern DAC and then into your Cyrus. You should get the best of both worlds, streaming and high quality.
 

Edbo2

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Good advice given by all. The answer is to buy a good CD player for the Cyrus. I have a Play 1 in the bedroom so the convenience of Sonos is not totally lost. Then the Connect could be plugged into the midi system
 

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