Sonos DAC

Thanks for the update. The Bel Canto is reported to be a warmer sounding DAC than the Benchmark. Your experience seems to support that report.
Down the road, you may wish to have the richer, fuller sound, but also a more articulate sound. If so, keep an eye open for the ZP80 power supply upgrade ofered by Audio Horizons. I mentioned it in an earlier post to this thread. I think it is well worth the investment.

James,

One thing that greatly helps the Sonos is a jitter reducer. I picked up a Genesis Digital Lens (GDL). this really improved the soundstage, bass, and cleaned up the highs. I hear the Monarchy DIP works well too.

After using the GDL a while, I picked up a Cullen Modified PS Audio DLIII DAC. This also was a marked improvement. This really brought out the fine details, and again improved the bass.

I then took out the GDL, and the sound was still nice, but the sound is better witht the GDL.

The DAC you got sound like it is a good improvement. If you want to experiment, pick up a used GDL or DIP.

Cedar,

Even with the changes, I mentioned, the Sonos/GDL combo isn't quite as good a transport as my Denon 3930 player. I am guess this is due to the power supply. I have seen you comment about the Power Supply upgrade for months now. Do you have any info when this will be ready? I would love to try it as I think I have the Sonos jitter issue under control.

Thanks,
Darrell

That's a good question. I contacted Joseph, the owner of Audio Horizons, to ask. I've been using protoypes of the power supply for several months and have posted my praise of it elsewhere. So, how about offering it to other people?

Joseph told me that he has reached his targeted performance level but that he is not yet satisfied with cosmetics of the unit. The power supply is external and includes an IEC input, too, so that power cord can be improved. He has been been waiting for cosmetic samples of the power supply enclosure - the box into which the power supply circuit and connectors are mounted. He told me the supplier has been slower than expected but that samples should arrive next week.

I hope the product will come soon because I'm confident that you and other Sonos owners will like it very much.

The Digital Lens is a good solution, but it was made for CD's, not streaming audio, and as a result it expects the music to stop after 10-15 tracks. If you have a long playlist, it will overrun or underrun the FIFO and start popping. A better solution is the Pace-Car which has a similar function to the Digital Lens, but can provide a clock to the Sonos. This will never underrun or overrun no matter how long the playlist.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

So I just learned the hard way about how poor the support is for WAV files within Sonos. I ripped my entire collection (300+) CDs and setup my Sonos system only to find that the only way to play tunes is navigating a file folder structure. Ugh!! I really wish I would have read the Sonos primer on their site first.

So now my question is...convert to FLAC or Apple Lossless. Given that I also have a few iPods, wouldn't Apple Lossless be the one to use? From what I've read, there is absolutely no advantage to FLAC from a metadata(tagging), file size or audio quality perspective. Is that right? Seems like most people use FLAC just because they don't want to support Steve Jobs and his quest for world domination. :-)