Sonos Connect Purchase

[Bumrah]

Hi guys

First post in a while but wondered if anybody can offer some advice/thoughts? I hope this is posted in the right place, it;s Sonos related but also separates related!

I currently have a Cyrus 8vs 2/CD8X/CA Dacmagic 2 and Rega R3 combination which i am really happy with, apart from sometimes the CD8X sounding a tad bright.

I also have a Sonos Play 3 in the same room which i listen to for convenience as i can control it all via my iphone/IPad and i now have all my music ripped into Apple Lossless onto a Buffalo NAS which works really well.

Due to the convenience of the Sonos/iphone combination i find myself listening to the Play 3 more than my Cyrus/Rega setup, however this has nothing to do with sound quality as there is quite a difference between the two. I find the Cyrus/Rega setup quite a bit better though i can appreciate how good the Sonos is for the size and cost of it.

I also have all my music ripped to 320K AAC on my PS3 and have this as a source to my CA Dacmagic and i find the quality to be very good actually, again better than the Sonos Play 3, but i would rather not have to boot up the PS3 all the time and it doesn;t really have a good user interface or playlist support etc.

Anyway what i was contemplating was getting a Sonos Connect and then having this plummed into the Cyrus, either using the Sonos built in DAC or even using the CA Dacmagic. I will experiment to see if there is much difference.

Does anybody have any experience of the Sonos Connect in their setup and how good they can sound etc? I really like the Sonos kit and the iphone controller is brilliant. The plan would be to stream Apple Lossless from the NAS to the Connect.

Thanks

 

[John Duncan]

If I had a spare 250 quid lying around I'd buy one in a heartbeat and use it as my main source...

(Though having said that, I find the bluetooth pairing of iPhone running Spotify to StreamMagic 6 + BT100 almost as convenient...)

 

[The_Lhc]

I've got a Connect, the digital output is bit-perfect but apparently has quite a lot of jitter, so if you have a DAC that's good at jitter rejection it should sound very good. I've got no complaints about mine at all and it'll give you the same Sonos experience as you get with the Play:3 but with the quality of your own setup.

 

[matt49]

At last count I had 8 Sonos boxes, 4 of them Connects (or ZP90s in old money). I quite like Sonos. :O

I think putting a Connect into your system is a no-brainer. You really like Sonos's ease of use. (And why not?) A Connect just brings that ease of use to your main hifi system. It provides a good quality digital signal via coax or optical, and you already have an external DAC. Presumably you could use your Play 3 in another room. Spotify Premium is nicely integrated into Sonos. The SQ is excellent.

Some people (myself included) think that Sonos can be improved with after-market modifications, and IME this is worthwhile if you're spending serious cash on your other kit. But that's not to suggest that Sonos out of the box is anything less than excellent.

:cheers:

Matt

Edited to make sense

 

[Bumrah]

I've got a Connect, the digital output is bit-perfect but apparently has quite a lot of jitter, so if you have a DAC that's good at jitter rejection it should sound very good. I've got no complaints about mine at all and it'll give you the same Sonos experience as you get with the Play:3 but with the quality of your own setup.

Well i quite rate the Dacmagic that i have and i hope that it is good enough at jitter rejection for this not to be an issue. It certainly sounds good with the PS3 as a source so i can't imagine the Sonos will be any different?

Thanks

 

[Bumrah]

At last count I had 8 Sonos boxes, 4 of them Connects (or ZP90s in old money). I quite like Sonos. :O

I think putting a Connect into your system is a no-brainer. You really like Sonos's ease of use. (And why not?) A Connect just brings that ease of use to your main hifi system. It provides a good quality digital signal via coax or optical, and you already have an external DAC. Presumably you could use your Play 3 in another room. Spotify Premium is nicely integrated into Sonos. The SQ is excellent.

Some people (myself included) think that Sonos can be improved with after-market modifications, and IME this is worthwhile if you're spending serious cash on your other kit. But that's not to suggest that Sonos out of the box is anything less than excellent.

:cheers:

Matt

Edited to make sense

That's a lot of Sonos Matt!

Have you had any experience of using the Sonos DAC and just analogue into an amp? I have read a few reports online, some saying the built in DAC is very good and others saying to use an external DAC. I would have thought the Dacmagic would sound better but you never know.

Yes the plan would be to then put the Play 3 in the new kitchen (Just had a cellar conversion done) so that would be really good.

Cheers

 

[matt49]

That's a lot of Sonos Matt!

Teenage kids!

Have you had any experience of using the Sonos DAC and just analogue into an amp? I have read a few reports online, some saying the built in DAC is very good and others saying to use an external DAC. I would have thought the Dacmagic would sound better but you never know.

Yes, I ran a system like that for years: Sonos ZP90 via analogue into Arcam A65. I thought the SQ was just as good as from the Arcam CDP that I had in the same system. And a couple of days ago I plugged a Connect into the line-ins of a second-hand Sugden amp I've just bought. Sounded lovely.

But since you have the DAC, you might as well use it.

 

[professorhat]

Have you had any experience of using the Sonos DAC and just analogue into an amp? I have read a few reports online, some saying the built in DAC is very good and others saying to use an external DAC. I would have thought the Dacmagic would sound better but you never know.

I switched between plugging the Sonos into my Onkyo 905 AV receiver and using the DacMagic and the latter was definitely better IMHO. It's not a direct like for like for you since I was using the Onkyo's DAC rather than the Sonos in-built one, but thought it might help a little at least!

 

[iQ Speakers]

I use A Sonos ZP80 (a Connect in really really old money!!) with analogue out sounds superb. Went into Richer Sounds and tryed the Sonos through a Dacmagic no real significant improvement though im not convinced the guy new what he was doing!

However im still curious about external DAC's and will probally try some in my setup probally an iRDAC.

 

[Bumrah]

That's a lot of Sonos Matt!

Teenage kids!

Have you had any experience of using the Sonos DAC and just analogue into an amp? I have read a few reports online, some saying the built in DAC is very good and others saying to use an external DAC. I would have thought the Dacmagic would sound better but you never know.

Yes, I ran a system like that for years: Sonos ZP90 via analogue into Arcam A65. I thought the SQ was just as good as from the Arcam CDP that I had in the same system. And a couple of days ago I plugged a Connect into the line-ins of a second-hand Sugden amp I've just bought. Sounded lovely.

But since you have the DAC, you might as well use it.

That's interesting Matt, seems to fit in with most of what i have read online. If i buy the Connect i will probably test it straight to the Cyrus via analogue and then via the DAC just to see if there is a difference. If there isn't i will probably just plug straight in, not to sound lazy but it would save me having to get up and turn the DAC on and off every time! (How lazy does that make me sound)

 

[ngibbs]

Make sure you set the volume in the Sonos to fixed rather than variable. Made a big difference in my system I found.

 

[davedotco]

I've got a Connect, the digital output is bit-perfect but apparently has quite a lot of jitter, so if you have a DAC that's good at jitter rejection it should sound very good. I've got no complaints about mine at all and it'll give you the same Sonos experience as you get with the Play:3 but with the quality of your own setup.

Well i quite rate the Dacmagic that i have and i hope that it is good enough at jitter rejection for this not to be an issue. It certainly sounds good with the PS3 as a source so i can't imagine the Sonos will be any different?

Thanks

I have always found the older Dacmagics to vary a lot, both in terms of different models but more specifically in terms of partnering equipment, sources most obviously.

I have no real experience of the current models though personally I would look elsewhere for something to partner a Sonos Connect, just for peace of mind in this case.

 

[PEAYEL]

Hi there, just thought that I would add my tuppence worth, as this is the way that I have developed our household audio pleasure.

Firstly I have paired a Connect with a Cyrus 8 DAC. My music and Podcasts are served from a 2TB Vortexbox based server, all of which comes out of a pair KEF Q5. I went this way because like you, we all found it more convenient using Sonos and the amount of variety on offer simply surpassed any thing else. We all listen 'seriously for pleasure' and whilst doing other stuff like housework to gardening to homework.

On the quality side of things the Connect DAC is good and for most listening will suffice (it was never aimed at being audiophile as the price point would have been too high - I talked to a Sonos Rep on this subject). What you could consider is that the three outputs on the Sonos are outputting simultaneously whatever is being played. With the 8 DAC I connected up the analogue, coax and SPDIF of the Connect and then trimmed the input list of the Cyrus 8 so that I could switch between the 3 sources (playing the same music) using the front panel buttons. I gathered the family (including my mother) and asked for their opinions as I switched. For us it came down to a matter of taste as to what sound was preferred. The Cyrus 8 digital inputs won (as expected), but no one could really say which they preferred. I thus use the set up as follows with all three connected:
1. Analogue input is used for low bit online Radio and Podcasts as the amp section does an excellent job making these enjoyable without fatigue.
2. Coax input is used for the majority of music as I prefer this sound. However there are some records that sound less pleasurable, which is when I switch to plan B..........
3. Optical input. An example of this was the new album by Elvis Costello and The Roots - Wise Up Ghost. Which sounds better through the optical input for some reason. I also use the optical input as an input for my Pure Evoke 2 for when I'm listening small but want to continue but listen big and fore when my wife is on BBC iplayer and my son is playing online on his PS3.

A further point about the Connect is that it has an analogue input which will broadcast its input to other Sonos units. Therefore, your CD player/Ipod or other component could be used centrally but listened to elsewhere in the house/garden. Also handy for when friends pop in and say have you heard this, I have it on my Ipod etc. This connection method is also great when you haven't ripped a new CD. You can play it on your CD Player connect the pre-out of the amp into the Sonos and....et viola it is available both on your quality hifi and on all other Sonos units. I have a friend in the States who will even listen to his old LPs this way as he refuses to re-buy on CD- He is listening to Lou Reed - Transformer and Rock 'n Roll Animal this week. He also takes an audio out from his TV, into his amp, out the pre-amp out and listens to TV all over the house - that one I find a bit weird though.

Thus I feel that you have many options with the kit that you have, and even if you have a bright recording, be able to make it more listenable by utilising the Sonos as it has some tone control in the software. You will be able to do A/B using the DAC Magic to your hearts delight. Your PS3 will also input through the system if you wish.

Finally, I Iook at it this way. If I'm listening properly, chillaxing.. Then I chose my input accordingly, however, if I want to listen to the UK Subs, generally sing my head off or play air-guitar then the Co-ax input is more than suffice. For when I'm listening to online radio (say the Australian News on their bush fires or South African news about the massacre of the black miners) then choose Analogue.

Through trial and exploration I have become a horses for courses kind of guy, but it excites me, we listen to far more than we ever did.

I guess you will too. All the best if you go ahead.

 

[Dougal1331]

Bumrah.

What a great user name!

 

[Bumrah]

Bumrah.

What a great user name!

Thanks Dougal.

 

[The_Lhc]

Bumrah.

What a great user name!

Thanks Dougal.

Bumrah the Ever-Living?

 

[Bumrah]

Bumrah.

What a great user name!

Thanks Dougal.

Bumrah the Ever-Living?

Absolutely!