Sonos DAC

You'd still want a good external dac whether you mod the zp80 or not. I have a Bel Canto Dac 1 that sounds great and are a great value now. If you can afford a better Bel Canto, go for it, it's hard to go wrong with them.

I've owned the bel canto dac 2 in the past and loved the sound. However, I had difficulties with signal drop out which was frustrating. I may consider another unit now though.

I agree with some of other posts. I personally think upgrading the power supply and possibly the output stage will give you more bang for your buck. I even want to go so far as to modify the male power input on the back to a more standard 15amp IEC so I can get a good aftermarket power cord. I use my ZP-80 with an external DAC and it sounds much better than the stock DAC in the Sonos. The Sonos can have too much sloppy bass as well as a harshness. The instruments are not very well articulated either. With my Esoteric D5 DAC, separation is much better.

Tboooe

What digital cable are you using?, I’m kind of disappointed by the improvement I get when I connect my ZP-80 to an external DAC. I have used the DAC section of my moded Opus 21 and the top of the line Integra receiver (in my HT room), with relatively minor improvements. I wonder if the AQ VDM-3 (RCA to RCA) cable I’m using is not a good fit.

Anyone else has experience with different digital cables?

Just an update on my search. I purchased a Benchmark Dac1 for use with my Merlin VMS/Ars Filharmonia/Sonos system and found the sound quite thin and too revealing. I guess you can have too much of a good thing. I have now bought another Bel canto dac2 unit and it is working flawlessly. Sound is much fuller and rich. Think I'm done for now.