CD Transport or Sonos?

Hello

I've been in Hi-Fi purgatory for few years, and would like some advice over what source should I use for my current system:

DAC: CAL Sigma II
Amp: Unico Hybrid
Speakers: Dynaudio 1.3 MKII

My choice: a dedicated CD Transport such as a Meridian 500 or Sonos Zoneplayer Z90?

I know, they're very different technologies. How much would I loose out on sound quality by not using a transport, and instead opting for streaming via the Sonos?

thanks for any thoughts

 

Pick up some Sonos (or Slim) kit 2nd hand and see if you like it. You will know pretty quickly if it is for you. From there you can spend whatever you think appropriate to get streaming at a quality/price you find acceptable.

 

Thanks for your reply Cable Monkey

I'm planning a demo at my local hifi store to get an initial sense and then take it from there.

Reading around, it seems HDD/streaming route has become a viable audiophile option for some.

 

As you live in London it shouldn't be too difficult to listen to a member's HDD/streaming system. I only have an old Squeezebox which you are welcome to listen to.

 

Just noticed this and thought I would my experiences.I have recently purchased and installed a Sonos system,I bought the 120 unit which is amplified and a bridge unit (90 ) I think which is linked into my hifi kit.The amplified unit is in the Living room and linked to the router and a set of System audio speakers. As suggested by some members I looked at the logitech etc but decided on Sonos partly because of wife acceptance factor but also I thoght the use ability of the handset was great.I cant say I noticed a huge difference between units otherwise. So far experience is great. After the fabulous television we have been treated to over the festive period so far we have been surfing the worlds radio stations and enjoying it. Quality is good and through my Luxman is very good.I intend adding a dac to improve the hifi feed and some storage to start to add all my ripped cds into. I have to say my experience so far is excellent.

 

Useful feed Colin2040 - thanks.

I've been deciding between Squeezebox Touch and Sonos Z90. From ease of use and setup, it does seem Sonos is simpler and more robust (e.g. has its own mesh for streaming), whereas the SB uses wifi. Though I'm not averse to spending a bit more time setting things up. And I like the idea of SB software being opensource with a community of plugins.

Sonos is quite expensive if not using in more than one room, and its controller costly. Though iTouch/phone can be used (and same for SB). My partner would want something easy to use, and the SB Touch (screen) interface looks ok, but I don't know how it compares to Sonos.

Sonically, if using a DAC, I'm not sure if either is better. The SB Touch does have ability to stream at higher bit rate, but with my DAC, I won't be using that.

Was there anything specific that swayed you to Sonos instead of the SB apart from the User Interface?

 

Various reasons eventually swung it. The 120 zonebridge is amplified and therefore I didnt need a seprate amplifier,single box wife loved it! Handset is extremely well put together and very intuitive.Within minutes of setting it up my 9 year old had saved a few favourite radio stations and even my wife had worked out how to use it.And as we have 5 rooms we could put stand alones in it made sense. Ultimately I suppose its cost and preference that dictate,I liked the Logitech but when I used the Sonos in PC World I think, I just prefered it.
Hope this helps.

 

Ya ! I Too Bought A Home Theater System With Amplifier From Sonos And Installed In My Hall For Acoustic Sound And Echo Effect But The Effect Is Not So Good ...So What Should I Do To Create Good Sound Environment ?????????Thanks In Advance Please Reply To The Post Soon!!!!!!!!........

 

The mac and dac option also works very well.
There are various ways to go with this. You can have your music stored on external discs and then then use notebooks or desktop machines to access it, or you can store the music locally in the machine.
Portable HD capicity is now at 1TB and that will hold 3000+ albums in lossless format.

I have a 13" Macbook Pro with 1TB HD installed and stream this via Airport Express to my dac. Very simple and it works well. The smaller macbooks are thin, light and very quiet with 7-10 hours run time on a charge.

The benefits are fast access from the internal HD, fast rips as you aren't sending data over a wireless network and of course a nice high resolution screen for artwork and album/track information.

If you'd rather use a handheld device you can use an iPod Touch or iPhone to operate the system and this will also display the artwork and information.

 

Well initially I had gone from the Sonos to a Mac mini, however due to funding I stuck with the Sonos with the intention of installing a mac computer when the current pc goes phut which I am sure it will but it is relatively new. Mac mini has some benefits including the movie downloads but then I am not a big movie wathcer so its kinda lost on me. So I think what I found was that most of the digital wireless options I looked at would do what I wanted and to be fair they all sounded pretty much alike but the Sonos was a one box solution which helped.I am sure it will develop as I go along.I will shortly commence ripping to my new storage and we will take it from thre.I may add an IPOD touch as a second controller but I am not convinced that itunes will be my software of choice. Still to be decided.