Sonos v Separates

[MMcC]

Hi

This is my first post and any help will be greatly received.

Essentially I am looking to buy my first "decent" hifi system and have a budget of c. £1k. My present hifi is something called a Technics HD350 which is fairly old.

I already have a Sonos Play3 - which I like - and one option is to purchase 2 x Play5 (Gen 2) to play as a stereo pair.

The other option i have identified is to purchase a Marantz CD6005, Marantz PM6005 and Q Acoustics Concept 20 Speakers. This package is available for c. £800.

I live in a remote location and it is difficult for me to travel to a hifi shop where i might be able to compare these two alternatives.

Hence any thoughts would be gratefully received. I appreciate there is an element of comparing apples and oranges here - what i am really querying is the difference in sound quality between the two.

If you have read this - thanks for taking the time to do so.

 

[tino]

Hi

This is my first post and any help will be greatly received.

Essentially I am looking to buy my first "decent" hifi system and have a budget of c. £1k. My present hifi is something called a Technics HD350 which is fairly old.

I already have a Sonos Play3 - which I like - and one option is to purchase 2 x Play5 (Gen 2) to play as a stereo pair.

The other option i have identified is to purchase a Marantz CD6005, Marantz PM6005 and Q Acoustics Concept 20 Speakers. This package is available for c. £800.

I live in a remote location and it is difficult for me to travel to a hifi shop where i might be able to compare these two alternatives.

Hence any thoughts would be gratefully received. I appreciate there is an element of comparing apples and oranges here - what i am really querying is the difference in sound quality between the two.

If you have read this - thanks for taking the time to do so.

It might be interesting to hear if anyone has experience of the new Yamaha NX-N500 powered speakers. These can be configured to be part of a MusicCast multiple zone system and have inbuilt Bluetooth and DLNA / DSD streaming capabilities, The initial reviews are very favourable, and I'm sure they would be competetive with a Sonos or traditional hifi setup soundwise (and considerably cheaper to boot)

 

[knaithrover]

I have 2 hifi systems (see signature below) which are both very nice sounding set ups, not high end but not bottom end either. I have recently bought a Sonos Play 5 to use in the kitchen so I can give a comparison from my point of view. The Sonos is a great gadget, it looks nice, doesn't take up much space has decent functionality, sounds good - it goes loud and very very deep. The Sonos however isn't anywhere near as good as either of my 'proper' systems, it fills the room yes and has a very warm bassy sound but it lacks the clarity subtlety and finesse of my other set ups. I do like the Sonos very very much but only for casual listening it's a very nice premium toy but it's definitely not my idea of hifi.

 

[The_Lhc]

I have 2 hifi systems (see signature below) which are both very nice sounding set ups, not high end but not bottom end either. I have recently bought a Sonos Play 5 to use in the kitchen so I can give a comparison from my point of view. The Sonos is a great gadget, it looks nice, doesn't take up much space has decent functionality, sounds good - it goes loud and very very deep. The Sonos however isn't anywhere near as good as either of my 'proper' systems, it fills the room yes and has a very warm bassy sound but it lacks the clarity subtlety and finesse of my other set ups. I do like the Sonos very very much but only for casual listening it's a very nice premium toy but it's definitely not my idea of hifi.

Hmm, warm and lacking clarity is not the impression that one gets from reviews of the play:5 (dare I say a kitchen is possibly not the ideal place to make that sort of judgment?) and the op is thinking of a stereo pair of them. Without hearing both systems it's all but impossible to answer though.

The cost of the separates system just about leaves enough for a Sonos connect as well, so you shouldn't miss out on the functionality either way.

 

[knaithrover]

I have 2 hifi systems (see signature below) which are both very nice sounding set ups, not high end but not bottom end either. I have recently bought a Sonos Play 5 to use in the kitchen so I can give a comparison from my point of view. The Sonos is a great gadget, it looks nice, doesn't take up much space has decent functionality, sounds good - it goes loud and very very deep. The Sonos however isn't anywhere near as good as either of my 'proper' systems, it fills the room yes and has a very warm bassy sound but it lacks the clarity subtlety and finesse of my other set ups. I do like the Sonos very very much but only for casual listening it's a very nice premium toy but it's definitely not my idea of hifi.

Hmm, warm and lacking clarity is not the impression that one gets from reviews of the play:5 (dare I say a kitchen is possibly not the ideal place to make that sort of judgment?) and the op is thinking of a stereo pair of them. Without hearing both systems it's all but impossible to answer though.

The cost of the separates system just about leaves enough for a Sonos connect as well, so you shouldn't miss out on the functionality either way.

Apologies if my experience goes against 'reviews'....heresy!! I did say it was my view and I can only go by my what my ears tell me. The Sonos is a style system and I would say it was designed to be used in any living space particularly bedrooms/kitchens where space can be at a premium so the kitchen to me is an ideal place to make a judgement. Let's face it the Play 5 is a very posh boombox and that's it's strength, it's not a hifi.

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

Never trust a magazine nor a portal review is the first thing that must be learned into hifi. Build up your experience and you will see through obvious lies going on there.

I share around the same impressions than the first poster about one (for me unknown) type of sonos I heard. It's not bad, but is not competing eyes in eyes with a correct souding hifi setup. But it makes music and have lots of little things that the modern hifi enthousiast likes. As written, a great gadget.

The hifi world didn't evolved incredibly since the HD350, except in prices and margins, that went up between 4 and 20% a year on a regulary base. If I'm recording right, the HD350 has a nice transparent separate pre+power, not that powerfull due to space restirctions, but fans of technics will be of better help in those matters. I just know that the mid-old technics stuff is research by knowing hifi enthousiast for their excellent price/performance ratio on the used market.

This would be my advice : stay with your actual pre+power and find a decent (not too power hungry) speaker, or searching for two techincs components (integrated+cd) of the good days (between 50 and 150bucks each depending on conditions and seriousness of the seller, don't buy for more). And invest all the rest in some good used speakers, the most important element in your hifi setup. The PM6005 is not a bad one either, a little bit too much of plastic on the front with bad potis. But it's my "maniac high end" opinion on every cheaper gear of today.

I don't know the q accoustics that are not distributed in our country. Can't say much about them, just, they are really small and light. It's not ideal for good sound reproduction.

For the speaker, If you are in England, you have probably lots of different speaker brands coming of the 80's that I have in my geographical region. So I will not be able to give you specific brand advice (except that the japanese had lots and lots of good stuff sold in those era). Excellent speakers in the late 80's and early 90's are always solid performers today and, sometimes, went under the radar of the wide public. My advice, don't buy a damaged speaker, and don't buy one that is using foam suspensions for his cone ; they tend to become porous when older. Technics, Mitsubishi/Diatone, Restek, Celestion, Sansui and lots of others are present on auctions and used portals for less than a thousand and will beat to a pulp every new speaker coming out for 3k.

 

[splasher]

Your proposed HiFi looks odd to me. The Marantz 6005 separates are great but why have you chosen the CD rather than the NA6005. If you're comparing it to Sonos, the NA6005 will give you music streaming (including hi-res), Spotify Connect and Internet Radio.

 

[jmjones]

A friend and I recently demo'd a Sonos surround system using Playbar, Sub and various combinations of Play speakers. An entertaining afternoon and massive technological overkill to save a few wires (he has more money than sense). A "standard" surround system and stereo set blew the Sonos into the weeds for about half the price. He eventually stuck with Cyrus and Quad for stereo.

I'd go for the stereo set with added Sonos bridge arrangement every time. Best combination of performance and functionality.

 

[MMcC]

Many thanks for all of your responses.

 

[bigboss]

I have 2 hifi systems (see signature below) which are both very nice sounding set ups, not high end but not bottom end either. I have recently bought a Sonos Play 5 to use in the kitchen so I can give a comparison from my point of view. The Sonos is a great gadget, it looks nice, doesn't take up much space has decent functionality, sounds good - it goes loud and very very deep. The Sonos however isn't anywhere near as good as either of my 'proper' systems, it fills the room yes and has a very warm bassy sound but it lacks the clarity subtlety and finesse of my other set ups. I do like the Sonos very very much but only for casual listening it's a very nice premium toy but it's definitely not my idea of hifi.

Hmm, warm and lacking clarity is not the impression that one gets from reviews of the play:5 (dare I say a kitchen is possibly not the ideal place to make that sort of judgment?) and the op is thinking of a stereo pair of them. Without hearing both systems it's all but impossible to answer though.

The cost of the separates system just about leaves enough for a Sonos connect as well, so you shouldn't miss out on the functionality either way.

Apologies if my experience goes against 'reviews'....heresy!! I did say it was my view and I can only go by my what my ears tell me. The Sonos is a style system and I would say it was designed to be used in any living space particularly bedrooms/kitchens where space can be at a premium so the kitchen to me is an ideal place to make a judgement. Let's face it the Play 5 is a very posh boombox and that's it's strength, it's not a hifi.

Have you heard the 2nd generation Play:5?

 

[bigboss]

To the OP, definitely demo your options. The second generation Play:5 is a seriously good speaker and a vast improvement over the first generation. With built-in trueplay, it's even better!

 

[knaithrover]

I have 2 hifi systems (see signature below) which are both very nice sounding set ups, not high end but not bottom end either. I have recently bought a Sonos Play 5 to use in the kitchen so I can give a comparison from my point of view. The Sonos is a great gadget, it looks nice, doesn't take up much space has decent functionality, sounds good - it goes loud and very very deep. The Sonos however isn't anywhere near as good as either of my 'proper' systems, it fills the room yes and has a very warm bassy sound but it lacks the clarity subtlety and finesse of my other set ups. I do like the Sonos very very much but only for casual listening it's a very nice premium toy but it's definitely not my idea of hifi.

Hmm, warm and lacking clarity is not the impression that one gets from reviews of the play:5 (dare I say a kitchen is possibly not the ideal place to make that sort of judgment?) and the op is thinking of a stereo pair of them. Without hearing both systems it's all but impossible to answer though.

The cost of the separates system just about leaves enough for a Sonos connect as well, so you shouldn't miss out on the functionality either way.

Apologies if my experience goes against 'reviews'....heresy!! I did say it was my view and I can only go by my what my ears tell me. The Sonos is a style system and I would say it was designed to be used in any living space particularly bedrooms/kitchens where space can be at a premium so the kitchen to me is an ideal place to make a judgement. Let's face it the Play 5 is a very posh boombox and that's it's strength, it's not a hifi.

Have you heard the 2nd generation Play:5?

Indeed I have, it's the 2nd gen one that I own. I hope you guys don't think I'm dissing the Sonos I'm not I absolutely love mine, for what it is. A reasonably priced separates system is a lot better to my ears.

 

[bigboss]

Aha, but have you heard 2 Play:5s in stereo mode?

 

[The_Lhc]

Many thanks for all of your responses.  

I wouldn't actually listen to any of us. Listen to the speakers, make your own decision, it's the only way you can really be sure you're making the right decision.

 

[knaithrover]

Aha, but have you heard 2 Play:5s in stereo mode?

Yes I have and they sounded great, obviously better than a single. Still not as good as my Nad amps into half decent speakers though. I will be getting a 2nd one at some stage I couldn't quite stretch to £900 at the time for a system to listen to while eating my breakfast.....