MikeToll said:
It looks like there is not much in it so it would seems like a case of personal choice. There is a Naim dealer about 15 miles from me but a Cyrus dealer is more like 50 miles so there is no way of doing a proper comparison sound wise. The Naim dealer does do interest free credit so that may swing it but how do the sounds compare? By the way I am not really interested in a multi room setup.
David, you are very experienced so what do you think?
Hi Mike
The Sonos ZP90 is a great tool for discovering music - as well a internet radio, you have Spotify, Napster, Last.FM, 7Digital, AUPEO!, Deezer, Wolfgang's Vault, Stitcher, Hearts Of Space etc etc. The ZP90 is the best thing I ever bought as I have so much more music to choose from now, and I can discover more when I want to. While some of these music service and internet radio stations are of a lower bit rate, some are decent and will benefit from a good DAC. Unfortunately, the ZP90 doesn't have a good enough DAC to take advantage of these better sounding options. If you're just discovering music, it's fine, but to use it as a high quality source for serious listening, a better DAC is needed.
Sonos and specialist streamers will all stream music from your NAS drive. Again, the ZP90 doesn't make full use of the quality that is available. This is where streamers from specialist manufacturers come in. They have higher quality DACs and also higher quality analogue outputs, which is pretty obvious when auditioned through a half decent system that will benefit from it.
The Sonos has always had the best control app (still is), but Naim and Cyrus have a seriously viable alternative, and with the improvements that both manufacturers are constantly making will bring it in line with the Sonos one.
The good thing about the "specialist" streamers is that you have options. As well as stand alone streamers, they also offer ones with built in pre-amplifiers where you just need to add a power amplifier, and also ones with amplification that can be used as stand alone unit or as a second zone.