Aristide Atlass:
You have 2 optical (toslink) inputs and the usual analogue RCA pair inputs on the left speaker. The left speaker also has subwoofer output and the "slave" output for the right speaker. Both speakers have on/off switches and both need to be plugged into electrical power.
The AVI's integrated DAC is very good, so you can use the optical inputs with confidence, and avoid the hassle of external DAC.
You can connect to the AVI's optical inputs direct from laptop, from airport express, Sonos or any other streaming device (or from CD transport). I have mine in the office den, connected to my iMac and to my Sonos system. Absolutely delighted.
Volume and switching between inputs is managed exclusively through the AVI remote.
I have no idea if that beats the kit you have or not, and am not sure there is any advantage in "flogging" your stuff unless you are on a mission to save shelve space. But when building from scratch (in an additional room for example), AVI ADM 9.1 certainly makes sense, as it is a very cost effective, very high quality and very compact (real space saver, as completely self contained in the speakers).
A couple of down sides: no way to connect a headphone (means I have added another box - a Beresford 7520 - connected to my iMac's usb and to my Sonos's digital coax output), and there is no standby function, which is a hassle for energy conscious users (need to remember to manually switch off each speaker, from the back of the speakers, which sets limitations on how you place them).
I rip from my iMac to a my iTunes music folder on a NAS (TimeCapsule), to which the Sonos points as well.
Aristide Atlass,
could you just confirm that you stream from your Time Capsule to your Sonos? If so, how exactly do you do that? Do you know whether it's possible to stream from a Time Capsule to an Airport Express? I thought that this isn't possible.
-- Sorry to hijack the thread for a minute.
Hedgehog