Best Sonos ZP-80 Mod?

Marty,

The digital output is variable. The volume control affedts all the outputs. You can check this in the Sonos website forums. One tread claims that this does not degrades sound quality unless you reduce the volume more than, I think, 48dB.

It's great that you are happy with all your ZP100s. My only point is that you can significantly increase the quality without loosing convenience by using a ZP80 feeding an amplifier. In my experience, the quality jump going form ZP100 to ZP80+amplifier is significantly larger than going form ZP80+amplifier to ZP80+DAC+Pre+Amp. BTW, I also have different horses for different courses :-)

5 years or less from now, transports will be will be considered as impratical as turntables - but not as revered of course.

Computor audio will surpass the best transport before then, and what we are seeing in this thread I believe is the genesis of that.

That said I am desperately looking for something to replace my $5000 transport - but the technology is not quite there I fear.

Meanwhile who can guide me on choosing between the Cullen and Empiracle mods?

Acastano

I guess I was misinformed! 2 years ago, when my house was being built, I put this question to the tech folks at Sonos for exactly this reason. I was putting Cat5 throughout and was considering the possibility of a wired Sonos system. The company assured me that the digital out was fixed level. Either that's changed or they screwed up.

On the one hand, that is a very significant fact. Slipping a modestly priced reclocking DAC between the ZP-80 and my Pathos/Cremona system might make some sense. However, I still can't see going the supply mod/pace car/DAC route. As to potential improvement - your point is taken. As to the cost/benefit, I'm still not so sure,

Marty

Saffy, I feel your pain. I'm frustrated that a better file based solution isn't out there, because it certainly isn't a technology limitation that I can see (or, at least, it shouldn't be). All I want is something that is easy to use and will lay a pristine digital file at the doorstep of a quality D/A chip. Why can nobody seem to do that without massive modifications, adding even more devices and clutter to the signal path, or adding a noisy and (possibly) expensive computer to the system?

Sonos got the usability part right IMO. I wonder if the network topology is proprietary or if anyone can make a device that works on it? Wouldn't that be an interesting partnership between, say, Benchmark and Sonos? One unit that pulls in the file, converts it, and outputs it to my amp. Minimal devices, shortest possible signal path.

I guess I'm asking - instead of moding a Sonos box to get a better output, why not mod a DAC with the necessary Sonos network chips/card to make it the source? The basic principle is no different than a good CD Player with an internal DAC. Any engineers willing to give this a shot?

Like Tboooe, I too am trying to get that last bit of audiophile quality out of sonos. I have a thread that just petered out asking about best jitter reducing scheme for wireless distribution (sonos). I have heard all sorts of options, and the latest are the mods to the sonos itself because jitter from the sonos is the biggest issue (supposedly), and apparently the modders believe you just can't get best sound by trying to solve jitter via reclockers in an outboard dac. Not to be a cynic, but I'm guessing that before they came up with the sonos mod, they might have argued that a superduperclock100 in the dac was all you needed. This is why we need the guinea pigs to ante up with their experiences so we can get some consensus.

So i'd love to see this thread get back to the original question: who has exp with these mods and are they any good? Are they better than simply dropping in a good dac with great jitter control and maybe upsampling to put it over the top?

BTW, I have three sonos zp80's in three different systems. I'm using an apogee minidac in my small bedroom system, and an apogee in my bigger living room setup: B&W 803 s2 with Acurus DIA100. I have also picked up a BelCanto dac2 to compare to the apogee. I started with a benchmark dac1 but the apogee squeeked out a win there. Its neck and neck with the BC. (as you can see, the apogee is a great bargain unit at $750 streetprice, and it's nice and small, but you have balanced analog out via xlr) In my HT setup, I'm going direct digital out (marty: volume works in dig out) to a pioneer vsx49tx, and letting the pioneer dacs do the rest. Sounds pretty darn good, each of them. So the question remains, what is the best and yet most reasonable solution to getting sonos to equal a good cdp. Just my two cents...Jeff (ps- I think I'm going to try the cullen modded ps lll or maybe the northstar dac next).