Sonos multi room music systems for internet radio

[ajay124]

I would like to know more about the Sonos range of products for using with my iMac desktop for listening to internet radio..How do they compare with the Logitech Squeeze box?Or with the CA Dacmagic and MF VDAC.
Would a Sonos Zone Player 120 connected to the iMac be able to drive Dynaudio Audience 122 reasonably well in a 10/12 feet room?Would a decent integrated amp be a better option than the Zone Player 120?Would appreciate all advise especially from actual users regarding sound quality and ease of operation.
Sonos - Products

 

[venkatcr]

I would like to know more about the Sonos range of products for using with my iMac desktop for listening to internet radio..How do they compare with the Logitech Squeeze box?Or with the CA Dacmagic and MF VDAC.
Would a Sonos Zone Player 120 connected to the iMac be able to drive Dynaudio Audience 122 reasonably well in a 10/12 feet room?Would a decent integrated amp be a better option than the Zone Player 120?Would appreciate all advise especially from actual users regarding sound quality and ease of operation.
Sonos - Products

Your are comparing too many diverse products together.

The Sonos and Logitech and wireless media extenders in the sense that they can transmit and receive a song from one place to another through a wireless system, usually in digital format. The DACMagic and MF VDAC are just DACs and cannot be compared to the Sonos and Logitech. A DAC is used between the receiver of the wireless system and the amplifier.

Products such as Sonos and Logitech have gained popularity for their convenience. Usually they are used with small bookshelf speakers in various rooms so that you can have music across the house from a single central source, usually a computer.

But their true value comes when they are used purely as a transport mechanism and attached to good amplifiers and speakers. That is, if you want high quality music across the house.

The Dynaudio 122 is a 200 watt speaker with a relatively low sensitivity of 88dB. The Sonos 120 may not be able to drive it well. The Dynaudio deserves a powerful Class A amp that the Sonos is not.

Cheers

 

[santhosh]

Manishk13 has very recently bought almost one of everything in the Sonos Product suite. He had come home to check out my Home Theater and was kind enough to bring the Son0s suite with him on my request. I did not get to listen to the Sonos but from the looks and feel, I could make out that this product was very well built and the architecture is also very good.

Here is what I gather from Manish and a little bit of reading on the Sonus site. The constituents of the Sonos Zone System are:

• Sonos Zonebridge:
  The Zonebridge when connected and configured to your Home Network Router, creates a wireless mesh across your home and allows you to add 30+ Sonos connections
  
• Sonos Zp90: This is a zone player and provides various output s (optical, RCA etc) and you will need this one if you already have an amp or AVR
  
• Sonos Zp120: If you have a pair of smallish/easy to drive speakers and no amp to drive it, buy this one. It has a receiver and an amp builit into it
  
• Sonos S5: If you want to quickly add another Zone without having to purchase speakers or amplifiers, buy this. Not sure about the SQ on this one, but should be good enough for Background listening.
  
• Sonos Remote Controller:
  Touch screen remote that works with all Sonos products. One remote with multiple systems is possible. If you have an Iphone or an Iphone Touch, you can install the free remote app and give this one a miss.

If anyone has specific questions, Manishk13 should be able to help.

I have a Logitech Squeezebox Duet and am eager to know more about the SQ on these Sonos products. Anyone has more info, please share here.

 

[heliumflight]

I listend to the Sonos at Sound of Music and what I gathered from it was the sheer user friendliness and easy of use. When you inserted a Cd into it, it ripped it, attached an albumb art cover and played for different zones where your music system was setup.

--
helium
Amp: Lyrita SET 2A3
Speakers: Vintage B&W DM4

 

[ajay124]

@venkatcr
You're right! Lets leave CA/MF and even Logitech out of it.
I am specifically interested in Sonos.The general consensus seems to be that it is easy to use,nicely built,designed to pare well with Apple products.
Option 1-- is connecting my iMac to a The Zone 120 Player which has a built in digital 55 WPC at 8 ohms Class D amplifier.How would the sound quality
and amplification compare to an entry level Denon,Nad,Marantz integrated amp?Would it be able to drive the Dyn Audience 122 reasonably well in a
small room 10/14 feet. at low volumes - Max 10 'o'clock'?
Option 2 --is connecting the iMac with Zone Player 90,Cyrus 8 VS2 Amp and Dyn Audience 122.What extra benefits would I get by adding a Zone 90 Player
to this single room setup?
*This setup is specifically for internet radio.No CD's on this one.!

 

[venkatcr]

Option 1-- is connecting my iMac to a The Zone 120 Player which has a built in digital 55 WPC at 8 ohms Class D amplifier.How would the sound quality and amplification compare to an entry level Denon,Nad,Marantz integrated amp?Would it be able to drive the Dyn Audience 122 reasonably well in a small room 10/14 feet. at low volumes - Max 10 'o'clock'?

This depends very severely on the speakers you use. If you use speakers that have high sensitivity and low wattage you will be fine. Something like 90dB, and say 50-75 watts. In my mind, the amp must always have more power than what the speakers need.

As I said before, the Sonos MAY fail completely with the Audience 122. At 88db, and 200 watts, these speaker would need very powerful amplifier with close to Class A specifications. Sonos is a pure Class D amplifier.

Option 2 --is connecting the iMac with Zone Player 90,Cyrus 8 VS2 Amp and Dyn Audience 122.What extra benefits would I get by adding a Zone 90 Player to this single room setup? *This setup is specifically for internet radio.No CD's on this one.!

The only difference between the 120 and 90 is that the 90 does not have an inbuilt amplifier. Otherwise they will perform similarly.

In terms of playing just for Internet Radio, the Sonos may be a expensive proposition. I reckon it will cost close to $2000 for a minimal set up.

Cheers

 

[heliumflight]

It was a great opportunity to audition some equipment truly in the hi-end brands. The Sonos itself costed Rs 5L

Below is the the chain I listened too.

Amp: JAdis
Power Amp: NAkra
Sonos Media Server system- the way of the future
Cd player: Meridian Ref 8000 (used as a transport)
DAC: Nakra
Speaker: Rockport Mira (Zone1)
Speaker2: Vienna Accoustic (Zone2)
Speaker3: Avant Garde (Zone3)

* I have some pics for the pleasure of HFV members, if interested...

--
helium
Amp: Lyrita SET 2A3
Speakers: Vintage B&W DM4

 

[ajay124]

@venkatcr
The most sensible solution seems to be merely to connect the iMac/Cyrus/Dynaudio.I have tried it.Its not just great in that small room,its overkill!So maybe all I need is a decent pair of speaker cables and interconnects.I am using Chord Carnival Silver Screen in my bigger system so maybe I get another pair of the same.What interconnect would you suggest from the single output of the computer to the dual input on the Cyrus?
@heliumflight
I have heard the same setup at Sound of Music -Jadis/Nakra/Meridien/Rockport/Vienna Acoustics.I finally bought the Vienna Beethoven Baby Grand although from a different source.The rest of the stuff in the Sound of Music audition room was very nice but incredibly expensive.

 

[venkatcr]

What interconnect would you suggest from the single output of the computer to the dual input on the Cyrus?

Get a high quality 3.5mm TRS stereo jack to two RCA jack cable. This is available from most cable manufacturers.

Cheers

 

[ajay124]

I am also looking at Logitech Squeezebox Touch/Duet/Boom.Boom seems to be a truly independent 'stand alone' internet radio player,although a battery option would have been nice.My wife is not interested in hooking up the radio to amps,speakers or even the computer,so we are considering Boom.
How difficult is the setup?
If you select the internet mode on the Boom do you need to keep your computer on for listening to the internet radio stations?
Apart from Shoutcast and Live 365 does it also catch BBC and the other stations available on iTUNES?
How good is the sound quality?
Indian prices for the Squeeze Box Boom on the net range from 11000-19995.Sonos on the other hand would require a Zone Bridge(99$)+Zone Player S5(399$)+Controller CR 200(349$).Much more expensive.

 

[ajay124]

Got the Logitech Boom yesterday.After about 30 minutes of trial and error and a bit of head scratching we finally had it up and running.And it is really very nice.Sound quality is a lot better than my late(lamented)Hitachi Worldspace reciever.And once the registration/connection to the router/downloading the squeezebox server is done everything works very smoothly.We have added most of the stations we like from Live 365,Sky FM,Nostalgie,Bach 24/7 to our favorites and the squeezebox is booming!With the Squeezebox Server all my personal CD'S converted to Flac files on my laptop can easily be played on the Boom.
Price paid 15,925/- from Logitech,India.
The new models-Touch and Radio are also great options but will probably take a looooong time to reach the Indian shores.We went for Boom because my wife wanted a standalone radio with built in speakers.But for myself I may consider the Touch for hooking up to my amp and speakers.Tried connecting the Boom to my amp through its headphone/sub woofer out.Did not like the sound-'Noisy',plain and dull.But the Touch has a colour display,touch screen,digital out as well as a 24 bit Dac.

 

[ajay124]

Amazon has knocked down the price of the Boom from 299$ to 199$!I guess Logitech is now concentrating more on its new models-Radio and Touch priced at 149$ and 299$ respectively but not available for sale in India even on Amazon.Why do electronics mostly reach India in the form of older,on the verge of being discontinued models?
But I am happy with the Boom.More stations and better sound than my Worldspace.No monthly charges.Won't vanish the way Worldspace did....

 

[manishk13]

Hi

I read this a little late but pls read for whatever its worth:

- I got all components of sonos (sonos s5, z90, a120 and the remote) through amazon. It was expensive but to me ot gives real worth as my house is networked when it was built and I was looking to exploit it

- Its real value (apart from internet radio ) comes from dumping all the music on central NAS (whioch was I have done with my 500 CD collection ) and enjoying theough out the house

- One can go on adding 32 zones

- If you add a source ANY WHERE in the house, it will be accesses from anywhere else

- Remember I use it over WIRED ETHERNET as conduiting was done, so I get peace of mind and no dropped music , so I cant comment on wireless

- Set up is a breeze and takes only 5-10 minutes

- You can see the demo at my place at the end of this month

- In a nutshell, I feel it was moneys worth as I am moving towards networked music . Also, the products with built in amps (z120 and s5) will blow your mind away with their quality and what they hide in those small boxes. Also the all integretaed s5 (which is al in a ox including speakers) is one hell of a box and I could not belive I was listening to a single box system -all frequencies were rich including lows. Of course you cant compare with a high end amp but for the value and convenince it provides, its worth

- only NAS needs to be on to access. Computer need not be on

- internet radio was cool too and ofcourse the router needs to be on for that


Good luck

Regards
Manish

 

[ajay124]

Sounds like a great set up.Based on my initial research I was more interested in Sonos than Logitech.However as Sonos did not seem to be directly available in India and a Zone Player+S5+Controller was working out to be quite expensive I opted for the Boom.I was pleasantly surprised by the sound and build quality of the Boom.
Would like to know more about your Sonos.Sound quality,operations,cd ripping,internet radio,connecting to a bigger amp and speaker set up,pricing....

 

[manishk13]

I think both are good systems so you made the right choice

As I test more in a couple of weeks, I will write more about Sonos

Regards
Manish

 

[ajay124]

Get a high quality 3.5mm TRS stereo jack to two RCA jack cable. This is available from most cable manufacturers.

Cheers

Could you suggest good brands which would be comparable in sq to the entry level Chord/Quinex IC'S or better.Currently using a 450/- Dac IC.Would like something better.