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Upgrade over Sonos ZP90?

Hi there fellow a-goners.
I am in the process of upgrading my system. I use my faithful Sonos as a digital source and have been perfectly happy with it up-to-date. However, I understand that there are better digital transports out there. What I need is a transport that would be as user-friendly as the Sonos, but will exceeded in terms of sound quality and have the ability to do high res. I intend to use it as a transport with an external DAC and my DAC does not have USB input, so it’s either coaxial or Optical inputs (I have a Reimyo DAP-777 and a CHORD DAC64).

I was looking at aurender, auralic Aries, and Linn Akurate DS1.
I also have an Oppo 105D i use it strictly for video, as my experience with it as an audio  transport has not been good: Sonos sounds better.
I am a cost minding type of guy, so I am looking for a used piece preferably under 2000 us. Thanks for your help and looking forward to your advice.
ja_zz
gkr7007's avatar
gkr7007
150 posts
 
I just did the wyrd4sound mod.  Ripped all my cd's to FLAC and the sonos now upsamples from 44.1 to 96.  The background is now super quiet and the clock they use beats the hell out of the stock one.  Very happy with sound of the downloads and I never play the cd's anymore.  Better through FLAC.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,430 posts
 
@gkr7007, 

Thank you for posting your experience with Wyrd4sound mod. I have been on fence to do this upgrade for a while. The stock Connect box through my Oppo 205 DAC using a S/PDIF cable sound pretty good. 

What DAC you’re using with your Connect? And what output you’re using, S/PDIF or Toslink?
ja_zz OP
124 posts
 
One of my Sonos ZP90s was modded by Cullen Circuits (the 24/96 upclock mod). Was playing great (and much better than the stock) when I got it initially. But when the upgrade bug bit me a few years later (now exactly), I started experimenting and found that the stock ZP90 outplayed the modded version.
Must be something wrong with it...
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