Sonos radio streaming equalisation

[visionary]

I'm noticing that there seems to be more bass on BBC radio via Sonos than there is when streaming the same tracks from the NAS (ripped with iTunes as lossless).

Is there a reason for this? Anyone else experienced it? Not complaining, just curious

Thanks

 

[The_Lhc]

Try streaming from your PC and compare that to the Sonos stream.

 

[visionary]

Try streaming from your PC and compare that to the Sonos stream.

Thanks but not sure how that helps. Only way then is line in to sonos to get to the hifi inthe lounge?

 

[The_Lhc]

Try streaming from your PC and compare that to the Sonos stream.

Thanks but not sure how that helps.

Because it'll show you how much equalisation (and compression more to the point) the radio station is applying to its output (hint: it's generally quite a lot...). I'd be willing to bet if you played the same internet radio station from your PC to the hi-fi it'll sound almost exactly the same as the Sonos internet stream (allowing for additional equalisation your PC is performing).

 

[visionary]

OK thanks, I'll give it a try

 

[gowiththeflow]

Not all internet radio stations are pushing out that sort of sound. There are quite a few providing much better quality than you can get over broadcast to air radio.

 

[The_Lhc]

Yes, but he specifically mentioned BBC radio and I'd be pretty confident they still are.

 

[scene]

I think the difference might have something to do with the differences in the (quality of the) streams used for the two methods. With the iTunes ripped lossless version to NAS, I assume the op is using the highest quality available stream. Sonos uses RadioTime to aggregate its Radio and give it the ability to play the same radio stations globally (as far as I'm aware). IIRC, RadioTime's software (assuming SONOS uses this internally) picks the fastest and most reliable (in it's opinion) stream for a given source available over multiple streams. In this case, I would assume it is probably picking a faster, more reliable and probably lower bandwidth stream, giving the difference in quality.

 

[Andrew17321]

You can specify the radio stream which Sonos is to use. If you look up BBC Radio 3 in Sonos's options you get a medium bit rate. However, if you specify the web address for Radio 3 in HD, Sonos will use that.

Andrew

 

[scene]

You can specify the radio stream which Sonos is to use. If you look up BBC Radio 3 in Sonos's options you get a medium bit rate. However, if you specify the web address for Radio 3 in HD, Sonos will use that.

Andrew

I've been using sonos radio for ages and I never knew that - thanks 🙂

Wonder if the op uses the HD stream on the sonos if it will sound less bassy

 

[Andrew17321]

Scene, Found this on the Sonos Forums. I've learned a few useful 'new' things from these forms. Sonos works so easily and reliably that I tended to just use it without thinking about it, so tend to miss out on some of its facilities.

Andrew

 

[visionary]

Thanks to all for your input. Always some useful comments