Sonos as a source in a high end system?

[skippy]

 

[tino]

 

[skippy]

New to the forums, for some reason it won't accept my text. Hopefully I can post it this way?

I'm curious as to how a Sonos connect could sound with high end partners? I currently have a Yamaha A-S500 and mainly use my Ipod. I recently auditioned a Naim Nait XS with an ND5... Impressed, but not blown away. With research, the common theme with the Sonos is the questionable on board DAC and the lack of 24/96 compatability. The news of the Stream Magic 6 from CA could be a solution, but at 3 x the price of the Sonos (here in Canada) would it be worth it? I've just ordered a Qnap TS-219 II NAS and I've re-ripped all of my CDs' in FLAC via dbPoweramp... Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

[CnoEvil]

Hi Skippy and welcome.

How much are you prepared to spend on the source, and what are your speakers....in fact what system do you see yourself ending up with?

 

[skippy]

Thanks

Like I said I have the Yamaha at the moment, but I'll probably go for the Nait XS. I have Dyanaudio audience 42's which I'm happy with.

As I've been using my Ipod I feel I have a nice steady upgrade path, when I get my NAS and set it up the first thing is a network player, Pioneer have the n-50 and whilst it's not wi-fi it's not a problem as the house has structured wiring so everything will be hard wired. The Stream magic sounds like it's a dacmagic/NP30 combo, then coming back to the Sonos, I can't help but think that they're going to release a new version with the upgrades (just reading what people have been saying on the forums). I can't say I would spend $3500 (2190 pounds( 1.6 $ to the pound)) on a network player (ND5), it sounds like this is the early stages of network media players so I imagine the all the the major companies will start producing 1st and next gen players in the near future, max I would probably want to spend is $1000 at this time. The Qnap and 2 x 2TB drives is $600, if you look at it as a high end cd player, it's good value.

I can get the Sonos for $400, I've read that a lot use an outboard DAC, but that will probably add another $1000, I'd be interested to see how far people have gone with just a Sonos connect, unmodded and no DAC?

Thanks again

 

[CnoEvil]

If you are putting together a good system, I think you should be looking at a Naim Network Player (ND5XS) or a Linn DS (Sneaky).

Before you settle on an amp, make sure you listen to a few around the price of the Naim XS
eg. Musical Fidelity, Creek and Electrocompaniet.

 

[Overdose]

New to the forums, for some reason it won't accept my text. Hopefully I can post it this way?

I'm curious as to how a Sonos connect could sound with high end partners? The news of the Stream Magic 6 from CA could be a solution, but at 3 x the price of the Sonos (here in Canada) would it be worth it?

If you are considering high end components, the cost of the Stream Magic, should be of no consequence.

However, I believe that a digital source is not so vital to the sound reproduction, even cheap units are fairly competent, so provided you have 'high end' speakers and an amp capable of controlling them properly, then yes, a Sonos would sit very nicely.