Any audiophiles? Sonos Connect opinions wanted

[rec head]

How many different locations for speakers? He already has the speakers? Are they powered or does he already have amps for them? For background listening or quality? Only listening to LP's?

[maunahaole]

Pretty sure just one location for now. None of the extra stuff has been gotten yet. Probably more for background, but knowing him, a lossy won’t be acceptable long term. I’m thinking mostly LP. After doing a little research, he realizes that there’s going to be a pretty big cash outlay at first, so new receiver with some of the tech already baked in may be in the cards.

[rec head]

I was a bit tired when I last posted didn't mean to come off as rude with a bunch of questions.

Ruling out lossy probably rules out Bluetooth then. I'm not up on the BT specs and I think the most recent versions have good sound quality. That would mean getting all the devices to support it. I don't really know if there is any other device that will take line in and transmit it. Denon has their Heos format but I'm not sure if it will transmit from an analog input.

...you made me curious and it looks like Sonos can do it.
How to Make the Most of your Sonos Line-in Connection | Smart Home Sounds

[maunahaole]

I pretty much ruled out BT from the start. Quality is meh and once you get a little distance and a wall mixed in the signal is unreliable. After doing a little research of my own it looks to be an expensive undertaking no matter what. I think that the Sonos port might do this. There are other standard formats as well, which naturally means that you’re buying into one expensive universe or another. I had no idea what a deep dive all of this.

[sk_tle]

yeah bluetooth can work really well in the same room but can start to stutter if walls are involved.

Since I am a sys engineer and do not like to be a slave of proprietary technologies and companies like SONOS who could brick my devices any time, I started building my own DIY multiroom setup. I have already a few raspberries lying around + a hifiberry dac and 2 usb good quality external sound cards. So far I only setup one raspberry because I need some sort of mesh wifi setup as my signal to the kitchen and rooftop terrase can be so so. So far so good I can stream any music from any computer through pulseaudio or control the mpd server from my smarthpone.

Here are two examples :
My DIY multi-room music system. If you are curious why I went to such… | by Joe Roberts | Medium
Multi-room audio over Wi-Fi with PulseAudio and Raspberry Pi(s) – Dilettante
GitHub - badaix/snapcast: Synchronous multiroom audio player

It can look complicated but it isn't.

[davids]

I was a bit tired when I last posted didn't mean to come off as rude with a bunch of questions.

Ruling out lossy probably rules out Bluetooth then. I'm not up on the BT specs and I think the most recent versions have good sound quality. That would mean getting all the devices to support it. I don't really know if there is any other device that will take line in and transmit it. Denon has their Heos format but I'm not sure if it will transmit from an analog input.

...you made me curious and it looks like Sonos can do it.
How to Make the Most of your Sonos Line-in Connection | Smart Home Sounds

Yeah, I've used the line-in on my old Sonos Connect for this.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get it to work for my TT, which is routing its signal through the pre-amp. Since the Connect is also a source into my pre-amp I'm getting a signal loop when I also connect the pre-amp's "Out" to it.

Thinking, too, about lossless. I definitely notice the difference, although not usually in a quick A-B comparison. I start to get some listening fatigue from a lossy signal over time - the highest of the highs, the overtones, are slightly 'smeared' and the result is a kind of glassy sheen over the music. I was listening to Daydream Nation while working out a few days ago, through my stupid cheap basement system (Tidal on my phone -> Schiit Modi -> Schiit Magi -> Massdrop x NuForce EDC-3) and thinking, "Damn this sounds muddy..." Oops, streaming was set to "Normal".

[rec head]

yeah bluetooth can work really well in the same room but can start to stutter if walls are involved.

Since I am a sys engineer and do not like to be a slave of proprietary technologies and companies like SONOS who could brick my devices any time, I started building my own DIY multiroom setup. I have already a few raspberries lying around + a hifiberry dac and 2 usb good quality external sound cards. So far I only setup one raspberry because I need some sort of mesh wifi setup as my signal to the kitchen and rooftop terrase can be so so. So far so good I can stream any music from any computer through pulseaudio or control the mpd server from my smarthpone.

Here are two examples :
My DIY multi-room music system. If you are curious why I went to such… | by Joe Roberts | Medium
Multi-room audio over Wi-Fi with PulseAudio and Raspberry Pi(s) – Dilettante
GitHub - badaix/snapcast: Synchronous multiroom audio player

It can look complicated but it isn't.

The only problem is that he isn't streaming music. He wants to play a record (or possibly a CD) in room A and send it to room B. If I understand it correctly.

I have a BT receiver with an antenna hooked up to my receiver. We mostly use it to play podcasts or audiobooks from our phones to the house. It works great and the range is excellent. I mean really excellent. We have lots of Wifi issues in this building but that BT receiver picks up signal from outside and one floor down no problem. The only drawback is that music doesn't sound that great.

Has anyone heard any bluetooth aptX HD? It might be the solution if there are transmitters and receivers.

[sk_tle]

The only problem is that he isn't streaming music. He wants to play a record (or possibly a CD) in room A and send it to room B. If I understand it correctly.

This is what streaming is. Streaming means sending data through the network. It doesn't have to come from the internet. In my case I stream the music from any computer to my raspberry which is plugged to an amp. In the links I mentionned, the music is stored locally and played locally on one raspberry + streamed on the other "zones" ( which are really other raspberry connected to amps or active speakers. The only specific part is time sync so there is no echo effect.

[rec head]

Right, but he doesn't have things already on a computer. He wants his physical media played on a record player in room A streamed to room B. He needs ADC not just DAC. If I'm reading the problem correctly.

I'm with you though. All my media is on a NAS that can be accessed and played anywhere. I open a CD case once and that is to rip the disk. Our main living areas are all wired with speakers because this wireless stuff wasn't as easy back when we bought the place. But I can go to the basement and play from my phone to my Chromecast audio (optical out) to a receiver and the basement rocks. I have thought about setting up a RPi but it would just be redundant for me right now.

[maunahaole]

That’s right. The problem is to tie an analog source into a network to do a wireless throw to another room. I’ve discussed at more length and he may solve this via a new receiver/amp in the near future. Sonos port looks to be the easy on-ramp for this but there is some sticker shock with that. So the question is source to ADC to wireless throw to wireless catch to DAC or speakers. The DTS play fi standard looks interesting as well.

[maunahaole]

Any opinions as to something like this doing the trick?

Denon Professional - Professional-grade Audio/Video Recording, Playback and Signal Distribution

[rec head]

No idea on that Denon but it seems like a good possibility, How much is it?

[maunahaole]

Around 100 bucks each for either a transmitter or receiver. Not including cables, of course. Looks like one transmitter can throw to multiple receivers as well.

[rec head]

Not bad for $100 but please tell me that there won't be any audiophile cable going to this thing. Any device would have required cables right?

The possibility of multiple receivers is a nice bonus.

[robin3mj]

I took delivery of this over the weekend.
Amazing sound, and they seem to make many different sized speakers and components that could allow you to build the system you're looking for?




Addon C1 - Audio Pro

[maunahaole]

I looked at the cable situation and it looks like the XLR to RCA is about 10-15 bucks each. I’m sure that there’s a monster cable priced option out there if you wish to torch a stack of money.