Sonos to Amp - is simplicity better?

I heard a shootout of some very expensive DACs where, at least for part of the shootout, a Sonos streamer was used as the source feeding the DACs. You could easily hear the differences between the DACS, so the Sonos is certainly good enough that other components matter and can improve the sound.

I have (last I counted) 11 Sonos zones in my home/yard and I believe that I've tried just about every combo you can try. Note: The older zone players didn't offer digital out, so I can't comment re: those units.

I have run the newer Connect units into a couple of high quality pre-pros (Onkyo, Theta), a highish quality AVR (Integra), and a couple of good to very good stand-alone DACs (Cambridge DACMagic Plus and Benchmark DAC One). In the case of both the AVR, and the pre-pro, I use Audyssey digital room correction. If there's a difference between the DAC performance, I guess it's obscured by the Audyssey DRC software (at least to my ear). because I couldn't tell the difference when toggling between the analog and digital output from the Sonos.

Both the Theta's internal DAC and the Benchmark offer a choice on a more apples to apples basis - no DRC at play. The Theta internal DAC, like the Benchmark, sounded better to me than the internal Sonos DAC. However, I found it to be a pretty subtle difference. The internal Sonos DAC tends a bit toward the lean/dry side of the spectrum, IMHO. The Theta the Benchmark both shared the lean/dry character with the Sonos, but both registered with me as both more musical (and possibly more resolving, tho that could be a stretch) than the internal Sonos DAC. The sound of all three DACs are - to my ear - cut from a similar cloth, but the Sonos, while "playing in a similar sandbox", trailed this pack by a small margin.

The DACMagic goes the other way - generally thicker and fuller sounding than the others. It allows some variety in reconstruction filters, so there's more than one possible comparison between it and the Sonos, but In all cases, the DACMagic offers that somewhat fuller sound. Here the differences are more easily audible, but preferences will probably vary listener to listener and possibly on a system to system basis for a given listener.

Were the Theta or Benchmark on-line in my system now, I'd definitely utilize either of those DACs over the Sonos internal DAC. They're all similar in flavor, but the Theta and Benchmark find a more satisfying variation of that flavor for my taste. However, neither of those units are still in use at my home now. So, today, I use the Sonos digital out on only two zones - into the Onkyo Pre-Pro in my main system and into the DACMagic that feeds a quality stand alone system in my family room. The other 9 zones use either the integrated power amp section in the Sonos or the analog out.

BTW, IMHO, the audio quality of the powered zone players can easily be bettered with analog out into a good external amp, provided that the chosen loudspeaker is sufficiently revealing/difficult to drive to lay bare the shortcoming of the Sonos power amp section.

Marty

I think all the above are correct. How can everyone be right? The DAC in the Sonos is direct and more "honest". External DACs whereas all they do is convert digital to analog are overall better. I've been battling this question for years myself. I think I prefer the Sonos Internal DAC going into a tube preamplifier. The marginally inferior DAC is bettered by the dynamics and filtering of a preamplifier. This is all my opinion. I currently use a external DAC on one system that has the more sensitive speakers and use the built in Sonos DAC on the speakers with lower sensitivity. I get the best results with a tube preamp on both. Again, IMO

Thought this thread is a little old, I thought I could second Hudsonpatrick's use of a tube pre. I recently popped an old one in, between my dac and amp, and it makes the Sonos "listenable" to me.

I was 50/50 before that addition, now I'm actually enjoying Tidal.

My dealer loves Sonos as a source component, but, always uses a better DAC feeding into a preamp.