Revolution is complete

SteveR750

Well-known member
So, I decided for several reasons that owning several £kkks worth of hardware that I increasingly didn't use, as away from home a lot with my job, not sufficiently intuitive for rest of family to use when I'm not around being two of the major reasons; to change everything. As you know, I thought the Hegel and the ATC were fabulous, but increasingly pointless in my situation. So, they have both gone, to a new owner somewhere who will no doubt enjoy their respective super performance, in place I decided to keep it simple, and modern, so in my ,lounge I have a paired Sonos Play 5, kitchen has a stereo pair of 1s, I have a 1 in my upstairs office, and another one in my wife's treatment room where she runs her business. The money left over went on a fabulous holiday for me and the wifey earlier this year, but I am amazed at the performance of the 5s. I've got them sat on some Apollo stands that I've owned for years, and had various standmounts on over the intervening years, and these things are way better than any of them, by some margin. The detail retrieval is on a par with the ATC, and the bottom end ridiculously extended for such a small sealed enclosure. The upside of course is that they are used around the house constantly, by my wife, elderly mother in law who lives with us, my sons; intermixing playlists and radio 4. Then only downside is they won't play my hi res tracks, most of which are pointless apart from a couple that were remastered, and therefore an improvement over the CD version, plus I had to buy a NAS to store the files on, as the wireless network is simply too busy.
 

ChrisIRL

New member
Apr 12, 2014
36
0
0
Visit site
P.S. I posted in another thread that people were finding the convenience and sound quality of more affordable modern sound systems to be sufficient for their needs. Congratulations on your new set up and may you long enjoy it.
 

lovstromp

New member
Nov 17, 2009
12
0
0
Visit site
Congrats!

I'm very tempted to go that route - maybe the Xeo 2's, now that I'm contemplating getting something to complement my head-fi rig.

How does Sonos work in practice? Browse by a phone app?
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
You download an app controller to phone, PC, tablet etc, add them to your network, and add acounts. I've got two spotify accounts, amazon prime, my FLAC files, and sound cloud and a bunch of radio stations all interchangeable - I can make a playlist that mixes flac, spotify, etc all into one big playlist (and save it for future). Additionally, I signed up for the Beta spotify programme, so can control sonos direclty from the spotify app. Works just fine, and easy to switch from playing on device, to whichever room or player that you wish too. Even my wife can operate it, which has a huge benefit to her obviously.

Downside is there is no password control, so anyone with the app who has access to your wi fi can control your network too, so think teenage boys taking over the playlists...
 

lovstromp

New member
Nov 17, 2009
12
0
0
Visit site
SteveR750 said:
You download an app controller to phone, PC, tablet etc, add them to your network, and add acounts. I've got two spotify accounts, amazon prime, my FLAC files, and sound cloud and a bunch of radio stations all interchangeable - I can make a playlist that mixes flac, spotify, etc all into one big playlist (and save it for future). Additionally, I signed up for the Beta spotify programme, so can control sonos direclty from the spotify app. Works just fine, and easy to switch from playing on device, to whichever room or player that you wish too. Even my wife can operate it, which has a huge benefit to her obviously.

Downside is there is no password control, so anyone with the app who has access to your wi fi can control your network too, so think teenage boys taking over the playlists...

Sounds even more tempting. I've gotten rid of my CDs and any new physical addition is ripped right away. When I got seperates some years ago, I found it pleasant to load CDs to the player and listen to full albums (which led me to think I may want a record player), but I want it easy at the end of the day.
 

ifor

Well-known member
Dec 3, 2002
114
12
18,595
Visit site
lovstromp said:
Sounds even more tempting. I've gotten rid of my CDs and any new physical addition is ripped right away. When I got seperates some years ago, I found it pleasant to load CDs to the player and listen to full albums (which led me to think I may want a record player), but I want it easy at the end of the day.

Are you telling us that the majority of your music is illegal, having been ripped from CDs you no longer own?
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
FWIW, 4 years on, all I have done is add the sonos sub, tuned it with an iphone, and the room acoustics being as unfriendly as they are, are now better mitigated than any passive system I owned. I haven't thought about "upgrading", other than adding tidal, then switching to Amazon HD. I'm still constantly impressed with the SQ from the system, the stereo 5+sub setup is a world apart from the play 1s
 
  • Like
Reactions: matthewpiano

matthewpiano

Well-known member
It's impressive that a relatively simple but good quality system has kept you so happy for so long, and that it continues to do so.

I'm never going to stop playing my LPs and CDs as I have large collections of both, but I am moving slowly towards any new additions being paid for downloads, as well as using Tidal much more for seeing whether or not I like something before I buy it. The simple system I have upstairs, of Bluesound PowerNode 2i and Dali Spektor 2s is one of the most enjoyable I've ever had and it really does do the disappearing act, leaving me to enjoy the music.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al ears
D

Deleted member 116933

Guest
Im always impressed by the Sonos stuff and about to buy some for my office. and a beam or arc to for the tv.

But for me I love my Klipsch heresy 3's Sugden and chord setup so would have a hard time letting go.
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
I gave up ATC SC40 mk2 and a Hegel amp setup, with a JL Audio sub. The sonos system doesn't have the same level of midrange beauty, and won't stay as composed at high SPLs, but for sensible everyday musical enjoyment they are brilliant. Easily better value than buying a typical budget separates passive system, and by some margin. no NAD + B&W or even Roksan + ProAc that I've owned in the past are as enjoyable; I'm totally convinced with active designs, and room tuning.
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
I gave up ATC SC40 mk2 and a Hegel amp setup, with a JL Audio sub. The sonos system doesn't have the same level of midrange beauty, and won't stay as composed at high SPLs, but for sensible everyday musical enjoyment they are brilliant. Easily better value than buying a typical budget separates passive system, and by some margin. no NAD + B&W or even Roksan + ProAc that I've owned in the past are as enjoyable; I'm totally convinced with active designs, and room tuning.
active speakers with dsp - the future...
(by the way nice thread resurrection !)
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
active speakers with dsp - the future...
(by the way nice thread resurrection !)
I'm dreading jumping back in to the world of snake oil and directional cables.....:p

On a serious note, if I had a bottomless wallet then I'd have a pair of active SCM40s, but then there is the issue of integrated streaming and DSP. The Sonos stuff just works so well, and with the sonosnet flawlessly; but I'm sure that there are potentially much better systems to be had, but as ever the law of diminishing returns, and the need to justify eye watering sums of money for what are minute and ultimately unimportant improvements.
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
I'm dreading jumping back in to the world of snake oil and directional cables.....:p

On a serious note, if I had a bottomless wallet then I'd have a pair of active SCM40s, but then there is the issue of integrated streaming and DSP. The Sonos stuff just works so well, and with the sonosnet flawlessly; but I'm sure that there are potentially much better systems to be had, but as ever the law of diminishing returns, and the need to justify eye watering sums of money for what are minute and ultimately unimportant improvements.

"world of snake oil".
do you consider anti static cd polish in this category now ?!
 
  • Like
Reactions: SteveR750

jonboywalton75

Well-known member
Jan 11, 2012
237
101
18,970
Visit site
Love all my boxes of hi fi, but just bought an Audio Addon C5a, starting to think about hooking up more speakers around the house and plugging my turntable into the 5a.
Buying audio gear is great fun/expensive /tiring 😁🙄
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
"world of snake oil".
do you consider anti static cd polish in this category now ?!
Exactly! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't buy anything in the end, but I admit I did put the Peter Belt little black triangle stickers on my speakers and mains plug back in the day!
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
Exactly! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't buy anything in the end, but I admit I did put the Peter Belt little black triangle stickers on my speakers and mains plug back in the day!

as i understand it the paint on the cd label side contains metal that, in turn, creates the static charge that these products are designed to remove.

many claim these / such products work such as this bloke:-
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6Ci-sFHys
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
I don't know about/have never heard of, metal on the label side of a CD but, the reflective layer is a very thin coating of aluminium. As for that causing static and degrading playback? The word 'codswallop' comes to mind.

the metal is present in the paint on the label side of a cd which, apparently, causes the static charge. the various cd "mats" available supposedly prevent this static problem with elaborate patterns present in their design hence:-
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
Some questions on how the static charge is generated, the aluminium foil is sealed in by a polymer coating, so any static is generated because the coating cannot drain to earth. The other point that I'm uncertain about is how a mild static charge is going to alter the laser tracking, seems dubious to me given the proximity to other possibly unshielded components.
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
the metal is present in the paint on the label side of a cd which, apparently, causes the static charge. the various cd "mats" available supposedly prevent this static problem with elaborate patterns present in their design hence:-
I'd really like to see the validation test results on those claims. Measuring the micro vibrations and then quantifying those against an improved digital signal output would be worth seeing. The cynic in me suggests they don't exist, or at least verified by dubious method.
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
I'd really like to see the validation test results on those claims. Measuring the micro vibrations and then quantifying those against an improved digital signal output would be worth seeing. The cynic in me suggests they don't exist, or at least verified by dubious method.

be rest assured i would not buy one !
 
D

Deleted member 188516

Guest
Exactly! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't buy anything in the end, but I admit I did put the Peter Belt little black triangle stickers on my speakers and mains plug back in the day!

may i ask what are your views now on aftermarket mains cables ?
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
may i ask what are your views now on aftermarket mains cables ?
Probably unchanged, it's feasible that a cleaner power supply into the device can improve it's stability, but without traceable measurements, it's only subjective. If you asked me would I still hear the same effect, then maybe, maybe not. I've spent last 3+ years working amongst some capable scientists in the world of metrology, so I've learnt a lot about how poor humans are at quantifying things with their sensory systems only. That said, there is validity in the argument that if I can hear a difference, then there is a difference. After all, some famous historical figures have made their careers out of that rationale.

So, how many more embarrassing school photos are you going to dig out??:p
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts