Sonos Connect or Mini Mac

[iancass]

I am looking for a new (to me) solution to play my music that I have stored on my NAS. As I have never had a Sonos Connect or a Mac Mini I just wanted to see other people thoughts who may have had one or the other. At the moment I have my Macbook Air plugged into my Dac via USB but I would rather use it as my day to day laptop, its running Jriver which is pulling the music from my NAS and I have a Jriver App on my Ipad, sound wise I am very very happy with the results. I am quessing the Mac Mini would give me the same thing but without a Screen? The Connect is a lot cheaper but I am not sure the App is as good as Jrivers! plus Sonos is a tiny bit closed when it comes to what it plays and how. Not after Airplay neither, by the way I really like the Jriver App I have on my Ipad, would be curiious to know if there are better ones out their? I am probably answering some of own questions : ) but my girlfriend isn't the best person to chat about these things with although she does makes some sense sometimes.

 

[cheeseboy]

what nas do you have? Some may already have the functionality built in.

As for a playback device, there's a couple of options.

Yes, you could us a mac mini.

You could also use a raspberry pi running rune audio or volumio. There's also the option of a little NUC pc, all of which will do the same job as the mac mini but at a fraction of the cost.

 

[iancass]

I have a WD My Cloud. I have been looking at raspberry pi ( a lot) but I am not sure how it would work on my Ipad (if it can) and how good it would be comapred to some user interfaces I have used, that said its a lot cheaper! I didn't know about NUC pc, I am quessing its a Windows version of a mac mini? that could be an option!

 

[cheeseboy]

I have a WD My Cloud. I have been looking at raspberry pi ( a lot) but I am not sure how it would work on my Ipad (if it can) and how good it would be comapred to some user interfaces I have used, that said its a lot cheaper! I didn't know about NUC pc, I am quessing its a Windows version of a mac mini? that could be an option!

ahh ok, the cloud is quite a basic (not in a bad way I might add) nas, so doesn't have any of the features that say a synology does to allow you to run directly from there.

With the pi, you can load on Volumio http://www.runeaudio.com/ then the control is done via a web browser, or a compatible client app. So for rune audio for example, they have some clients here http://www.runeaudio.com/clients/

The nuc is kind of like a mac mini yes. You can put whatever you want on it, it doesn't have to be windows, but the footprint is very small, smaller than a mac mini in fact. You could try something like vortexbox or daphile if you didn't want to go down the windows route, and again, like the pi, you'd control it from either a web browser, or a client app. Or if you wanted to go windows, you could Jriver and keep they control app you like.

Dell have also released a very lovely mac mini style micro pc which are very nice (I've got one in front of me atm) http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/optiplex-3020m-desktop/pd if you wanted something a bit more complete than an NUC.

I'm not trying to stear you away from the mac mini or a sonos, as both are very good, and there's quite a few people on here that use them both with great success, I'm just offering you a few other options if you feel so inclined, or wanted to save some cash 🙂

 

[iancass]

Thanks for all the options, some I haven't thought of so its quiet useful to know. At the moment I am just going through the motions of swapping boxes. I am happy with having my music on a NAS, its just the box in between that and my Daac.

 

[iQ Speakers]

The Sonos is hassel free, totally stable and sounds good. The most important factor is its longevity in being upgradeable and totally supported by Sonos.

 

[iancass]

Dosen't support Qobuz or Tidal, only Spotify or Deezer Elite. The apps nothing special, limited to what resolution you want to push through it. Besides all that its great.

 

[The_Lhc]

The apps nothing special,

What more would you like it to do?

You could have a look at the Bluesound node, it's more expensive but supports 24-bit audio, don't think that supports Qobuz or Tidal either but it does support Spotify Connect. I didn't like that app at all when I tried it, had a few quirks, eg, I added a single track to the queue and found it had added the whole album, which I then found next to impossible to remove from the queue. There's an app that's nothing special, the Sonos app by comparison has years of development behind it and the latest release has addressed a lot of issues people had with it.

 

[MajorFubar]

A dedicated computer like a Mac Mini will do what your laptop does at the moment plus allow you to take advantage of any current or future streaming solutions that have either a dedicated app or a web-based interface, such as Spotify, Tidal, iTunes Radio (should it ever see light of day over here), etc. Other types of hardware aren't necessarily so flexible out the box or future-proof. Conversely, if all you ever anticipate using it for is streaming music from your NAS, a Mac Mini or indeed any HTPC isn't necessareily the most cost effective or elegant solution.

 

[fr0g]

There is also the Denon HEOS Link. That supports Spotify Connect also and is cheaper than the Bluesound.

Spotify connect is the way to go if you use Spotify as you simply run the normal app on your phone or tablet, which is light years ahead any of the rather spartan apps, whether it be from Sonos, Squeezebox or whatever.

 

[jmgooding]

Not sure if I've missed something here - but I can confirm that Sonos does support Qobuz and Tidal (and Spotify). I used to run all three until MrsG saw how much all the subs were costing!

I think the app works fine - best feature is that you can search across all services at once and build playlists with tracks from different sources. I think that's neat.

Only downside is no hi res support - but no big deal for me.

 

[iancass]

I have had the Bluesound Node before up unitil very recently. Sound Quality was the best I have heard to date at this price point, app wasn't bad eaither but wasn't great. moved it on for other reasons. I was playing music from my NAS (Redbook & HiRez) & streaming Qobuz & Tidal.

I have had Apple Airport Express, Sound Quality which I know is subjective was very poor to my Ears. I bought an ATV3 recently as its been reduced and although I like the idea of Airplay, but the sound quality once again nothing I would use for any kind of serious listening. I was streaming Tidal with it.

I have had Sonos Play 5 and Play 1s (so i kind of have an idea what the app is like) once again okay for my girlfriends listen style of 192kbps streaming files but no good to me.

The best listening experience I have had to date with computer audio has been straight from my Macbook Air with Jriver on my Ipad, but I want my laptop for normal daily use.

I can't afford a aries auralic at the moment or the likes so the Mini could be the next best thing.

 

[The_Lhc]

I have had Sonos Play 5 and Play 1s (so i kind of have an idea what the app is like) once again okay for my girlfriends listen style of 192kbps streaming files but no good to me.

Why do so many people think that all Sonos make is the Play units? For what you want the Sonos Connect is the correct device and plugged into a decent DAC it won't sound any different to any other device. Sure it won't do 24-bit but it'll do 16-bit lossless and has many more streaming options than just 192kbps stuff.