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What does Sonos Connect 'do' to a recording?

I have Sonos speakers around the house outside of my listening room where my primary system is. My wife really enjoys it and for casual listening I'm happy with it too. I stream via Amazon Music, normal resolution.

I stream Amazon Music into my main system through an older Apple TV module which I understands is not an optimal way in regard to sound quality. It also cuts out for half a second from time to time with some regularity. Sonos never cuts out.


I have a Sonos Connect that I could run into the pre-amp of my main system, possibly with Amazon's hi-res option.


The question is, does the Sonos Connect 'do' anything to the files transmitted through it to the pre-amp? (As you can tell I have very poor understanding of the various components of steaming.) In other words, would it be more or less desirable than the Apple TV as a streaming device? Is there anything about Sonos Connect that would make paying extra for Amazon's hi-res option not worthwhile? It is my understanding that the new Sonos app, S2, will handle hi-res files now and that the Connect is compatible with S2.

Any insight into this would be much appreciated.

George
n80
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
Update: I've got the old Sonos Connect tied into my primary system. It runs into the Oppo via Coax. AppleTV runs into the Oppo via optical.

I don't hear a huge difference between the AppleTV and Sonos streaming Amazon HD but would give the nod to the Sonos. AppleTV cuts out from time to time. Sonos almost never does.

The reason I kept the AppleTV component is that when I'm searching for music and recommendations the Amazon HD interface is better than the Sonos interface.
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@n80

a few important facts on the sonos connect that may help you... i climbed the full learning curve on this some time ago

the cutoff date is 2015 - where 2015 and newer connects will be s2 software compatible, 2014 and older not - year and month of manufacture are the 1st 4 digits of the serial number underneath the units on the bottom plate

sonos has not implemented any higher res streaming than current 44.1khz as yet on s2 platform -- but that may be coming, or so it is rumored

in its current form, wyred 4 sound has a mod for the sonos connect streamer where the digital section is upgraded by ej sarmento at w4s and the digital bitstream of the modded unit is 96khz, which in effect gives you the first (and most important) tidal mqa unfolding, if you care about that, some folks do

also, instead of modding the connect (for $499 i believe, which is alot for a $300 streamer), w4s can also sell you a box (a remedy reclocker, for $299 i believe) which does the same thing outside of the sonos unit, connected with spdif cabling...

i have no affiliation with w4s, just a happy customer...
n80 OP
2,116 posts
 
@jjss49 Thanks for the info. It is helpful. However, I have found that for my ears 44.1khz is probably enough and jitter is just something I've never been able to detect or at least separate from other elements that might degrade SQ.

Possibly A/B testing in my system or listening to someone else's would reveal some of these things to me but I'm not sure of the benefit of pursuing that.

I will say that Sonos+Amazon HD played through the Oppo DAC sounds almost identical to a CD played through the same Oppo. Maybe some subtle differences but I'd be hard pressed to say which was better.

All of which is to say that I'm happy with this configuration other than finding the S2 app quite a bit more buggy than S1 ever was.
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