Seeking highest quality audio for Sonos based system

[admin_exported]

Dear experts,

I'd be very grateful for your advice.

I'm looking to set up a two room audio system based on playing music from a hard drive. My budget is about £800-£1000. I currently have an iMac with my music on it - mostly cd rips. In a separate living room I have a router, time capsule, tv and ps3

I want great audio in this living room and will later potentially want to expand to elsewhere in the house.

Good strong bass is important to me.

So, in the living room I'm looking at getting an nad326 amp, monitor audio br2 or b&w 685 speakers plus Sonos zp90 to link to the nad amp and a zonebridge to connect to the router. I plan to store and stream my music from the time capsule also connected to this router. I plan to rip files in the best quality format I can: flac or perhaps apple lossless- whichever works.

Later i plan to also get a Sonos s5 to extend the system to the bedroom or study.

My questions are:

Does this sound like a good idea?

Alternatively would I be able to get better audio quality with a separate hard drive/media pc/nas of some kind with all my music stored on it - that's wired directly into the amp? It seems logical to me audio would be better this way than if streamed.

Many thanks for any help.

 

[Anonymous]

Please ignore the budget bit- I can pay more for the living room set up: up to about £1300

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Cant really comment much on the streaming as I just stream directly from Napster, generally because I'm lazy and cant really tell the difference anymore between something coming off the internet (controversial).

If you are looking at lossless though I would probably want to put a DAC between the ZP90 and amp to give you that edge. I auditioned some Br2s a while back and they were extremely bullish, no problems if bass is what you want.

On that note I have an S5 in the kichen and it sounds better than my multi-channel amp setup being fed by the ZP90 in the lounge. The integrated sub is always a crowd pleaser.

Generally Sonos is awesome. I love it. The ability to stream any track from Napster using my iPhone around rooms in my house is just great. And the S5 is simply stunning.

Go for it.

Cheers

Jon

 

[Dan Turner]

Jack,

You're thinking along the right lines. You might want to rethink using the time capsule as the storage device though - I did this for a while and although it does work, it's fraught with potential issues (especially if you're also using it to back-up your Mac). You're better off with a 'proper' NAS, or just using your Mac if you don't mind having it on all the time (or have a scheduled wake/sleep).

I would also echo that a DAC between ZP90 and amp is probably the only other think you might want to consider if you want to ensure optimum quality.

Good luck - you will love Sonos.

Cheers

Dan

 

[kinda]

If I'm understanding correctly and your router will be near the ZP90 player then you don't need a zone bridge - the ZP90 will attach straight to the router.

If you can get an amp that plays files from the network then you could cut out the Sonos, but a number of amps won't have the multi-room flexibility and integration of Sonos, and you'd pay more for a network-enabled amp.

I'd check out the output from the Sonos DAC before going for a standalone DAC, or an amp with an expensive DAC. The Sonos isn't bad.

I'm not sure if in your system you're planning to control the Sonos from the Mac? If not you'll need a controller, or an Android / or iPod Touch/Pad/Phone to run the free controller app.

I've had Sonos for a while and it's great, but remember if it's important to you it doesn't do hi-def audio files. CD quality is the maximum.

 

[kinda]

If I'm understanding correctly and your router will be near the ZP90 player then you don't need a zone bridge - the ZP90 will attach straight to the router.

If you can get an amp that plays files from the network then you could cut out the Sonos, but a number of amps won't have the multi-room flexibility and integration of Sonos, and you'd pay more for a network-enabled amp.

I'd check out the output from the Sonos DAC before going for a standalone DAC, or an amp with an expensive DAC. The Sonos isn't bad.

I'm not sure if in your system you're planning to control the Sonos from the Mac? If not you'll need a controller, or an Android / or iPod Touch/Pad/Phone to run the free controller app.

I've had Sonos for a while and it's great, but remember if it's important to you it doesn't do hi-def audio files. CD quality is the maximum.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jon. That's v helpful

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jon. That's v helpful

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks- very kind of you. I have an iPhone so controlling won't be an issue. However my router is not next to where the hifi will need to go. So I think Sonos with zp90 is the way to go. CD quality is good enough for me. Good dvice re DAC. think I'll wait and see.!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks dan. Think I'll get a proper nas and maybe later a dac if unhappy with sound quality.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks dan. Think I'll get a proper nas and maybe later a dac if unhappy with sound quality.

 

[The_Lhc]

Thanks- very kind of you. I have an iPhone so controlling won't be an issue. However my router is not next to where the hifi will need to go. So I think Sonos with zp90 is the way to go.

If you can't plug the zp90 directly into your router you'll need to get a zonebridge as well.