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Streaming via SONOS Bridge vs. iPhone

Hi. I'm fairly new to streaming (and this forum), using it mainly secondary to CD and vinyl for testing new music, background sound, etc. I have no real experience w/ SONOS. Currently, I stream mainly off my iphone using an id100 (docking device from Cambridge Audio) which bypasses the iphone DAC and transports the digital info via coax through a DAC (Rega) into my amp. Question is, how would this approach compare to using a SONOS setup (ie SONOS Bridge & Connect I assume) in terms of stream quality? In other words, does the SONOS approach, working through my internet router, improve streaming efficiency / quality...or is that really defined by the streaming service used (MOG in my case)?

Considering getting SONOS, and trying to understand if rationale goes beyond functionality and affects quality.

many thanks
grogslave
tonyangel
309 posts
 
If you want the utmost in the quality of the music, you must first start with high quality files. I don't know what the capabilities of the iPhone are. Will it play files with a 16 bit sample size and 44.1khz sampling rate?

If so, I suggest that you rip a few CDs (even if it's with iTunes), put those on your phone and play them. That will give you somewhat of an idea of what a Sonos will sound like.

In any case, what you are streaming from MOG is trash in comparison to what you get by ripping a CD in some sort of lossless format. If MOG is all you're going to listen to, don't bother with throwing any more money at equipment.

The benefit of the Sonos is that you can rip all of your CDs into a lossless format and get CD quality sound without having to mess with CDs.
grogslave OP
1 posts
 
thanks for reply. Agree on direct CDs or lossless being optimal (streaming is not my primary audio mode).

To clarify though, I would not be "playing" off the iphone but rather transporting the digital signal from the iphone to a standalone DAC. Question is, would using a SONOS set up (ie Connect) provide a higher quality of digital transport vs iphone, or not? My assumption is that digital transport quality is dictated by the streaming source (MOG, Spotify, whatever), not by the receiving device (ie mobile wireless or broadband router).
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
The Problem with Sonos is jitter. This will handicap it from the get-go. However, for both Sonos and iPhone, this jitter can be minimized using reclockers such as the Synchro-Mesh. The quality of the digital data from iPhone and Sonos will be identical. The problem is the jitter. A reclocker can even be added to the iPhone Dock to reduce jitter. Jitter is more important than even the DAC.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
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