Right i set up mum sonos. Play 5 which came with the bridge. bought her a nas drive 1TB and use it from the laptop, she only uses her ipad but I have the app on my phone as well. I like the quality of the Sonos. OK if I could stretch I would only go for Bowers and wilkins as the sound is amazing. I think from the replys it's Sonos all the way. I will get a play 5 with bridge from costco and play 1 for the kitchen to start. I have a nas drive at home to back up my music, vids etc... so going to a lappy it will be good Wanted some feedback and got lots for the Sonos so gets my vote
Without doubt, Sonos is cool clever kit. Very user friendly. Please consider/support your local Hifi dealer rather than Costco.
+1 for supporting your local guys. Free advice and assistance once the relationships built up and always good to get a face to face.
Plus always consider that Although sonos is great kit and IMO the best out there in this segment, it's inly as good as your wifi speed.
Sonos Hi Guys Firstly I have to own up as being an independent hifi retailer who stocks and sells Sonos plus much higher quality solutions for streamed music (Linn, Naim, B&W etc) but I am always objective. A couple of things from various posts to clarify: 1) the hard drive must be DNLA enabled in order to work with Sonos so a NAS is the best way of doing this or just use your PC/laptop with itunes on it and index that library, or use something like Asset UPnP on a PC to serve FLAC files. The problem doing it this way is that you always have to have your PC on to play the music and if it's a laptop and you take it with you nobody else can use the laptop. 2) if you want to improve the quality of a Connect with an existing hifi system you can purchase and route your Sonos through an external DAC which will improve the quality. 3) Remember that the quality of the sound is always determined by the quality of the music stored. If you have stored your music in MP3 this is a compressed format and will never sound as good as music stored in a lossless format such as FLAC or Apple lossless and ripped using a good quality ripping engine (EAC or dbpoweramp) Sonos is all about a decent sound quality, distributed into multiple rooms but it's biggest draw is mulitple services it can deliver on a single platform via an easy control app- stored/ripped music, internet radio, cloud music services, pod casts etc. If you want the ultimate sound quality then you need to look at a different solution such as Linn DS or Naim Uniti or their digital streamers which are the Fireblade equivalent in hifi terms in that they will give you the ultimate performance. As for supporting independent retailers like myself, I really appreciate the sentiments, if everybody goes to e-retailers it will drive bricks and mortar shops like mine out of business and the end result will be that expertise, true demonstration facilities and customer support will die with it. In terms of Sonos, I could probably offer a discount to forum members wishing to buy from me of 5% on everything except the Play 1 and Sonosbridge Happy listening
I wanted to try out the Blu ray music studio quality music for my good Av SS via my TV and amp. just unable to find anywhere that sells them at the moment Yea post a link up. if your happy to give advice then why not let others seem what you also sell
If it's OK with the mods I'll post a URL to my store, can you please confirm it's OK? My store is Adventures in Hifi and I'm based in Chester. Always happy to help if I can
Definitely what he said. I've gone multiroom using apple lossless and inbuilt b&w ceiling speakers and subs with outboard dacs... it has replaced a S.E.T valve system and Audionote set up. It's used by the kids and wife etc as they can play what they want, in whatever room they're in. They can stream from their pc's or phones, watch movies or listen to internet radio, you tube, independantly. Yes, i'ts dearer than Sonos, but more flexible in the way it works. The mac is on all the time with wake up lan (you can buy a mac mini as the hub with added terrabytes of storage), and you can use the remote app for pc or mac to access the library and includes album art, playlists and radio, however i use Airfoil as it works better. There are plenty of other applications to choose from. You can just buy airport express or apple tv's, and add to them for each room (£75 for express, £100 for ATV, which does hd movie streaming too from your HDD) but you'll need to add an amplifier and some speakers, but you can go high end with any high end amplifier and speakers to get top notch sound. The downside, ATV and Airport can only stream in full CD quality (44.1 khz) using Apple Lossless or any compatible apple lossless files as well as MP3. It won't however, support 24bit sound while streaming, but do you need/want better than full cd quality?. Or use EAC to rip. There's plenty of compact systems from the likes of B&W (The Zeppelin etc) that supports airplay, and they will be recognised by the network and sound fab. Some contain inbuilt batteries so you can have them in the garden while BBQ'ing too, no cables or such like. I went for a Bose Soundlink Air for the garden..it's just about ok for background music but like most of their ilk, that's about it. If you want expandability, you can start basic and add on whenever you want or have the cash to do so.
By wifi I assume you mean broadband speed, this is only true if you are using web based streaming services (eg spotify etc) to get your music and to a much lesser extent internet radio. In terms of playing music from own library your internet speed wont have any effect and in terms of the network Sonos sets up its own 'subnet' within your home LAN so should be fast and robust.
I've bought a few bits from you over the years dude! My mate had Peters Hifi, all gone now apart from the B&O shop. i bought a Linn set up from you many moons ago (Kairn, 2xLK280s a cyrus tranny and Some Kabers). Are you a trader member on HIFI Wigwam??
Peters That's nice to hear, sadly even their B&O shop in Chester has now closed, a couple of my mates worked for Peters many years ago. It looks like you've moved away from Linn form your previous posting. A shame as their streaming options are amongst the very best, if not THE very best. The beauty is that they are not limited to 18 bit 44,1 cd files but can support much higher resolution studio master files so you can hear the recording just as the engineer intended. If you are passing just pop in and listen to my Linn Klimax Exakt system - the resolution is unbelievable, if you come on the bike I'll make you a brew too I don't use Wigwam, I tend to sell my part ex items either via the website or to existing customers or ebay.
Yeah, after upgrading many years, i ended up with this: Audionote ANS2 head amp E.A.r Yoshino 834p Audionote IO1 cart Custom 12 inch PU7 Audio Orgami custom built by johnny7 with Kondo wire Heavy NAS Spacedeck with heed orbit psu Django TVC pre 2 x SET 18w 6c33c monoblock amplifiers Audiophysic Paduas Tube Technology CD player Audionote and Kondo silver ic's and speaker cables and outboard power blocks Sold it all last year to fund a new extension and multiroom tunes as i hardly used it, and the leccy bills where huge. Gave all the vinyl to a mate to look after as well as my okki cleaning machine. I use my streaming constantly, but i never critical listen anymore.
I know we are hijacking the thread now but... I have heard a Linn Klimax Exakt system and it was stunning but I suppose it should be for that sort of money, well out of my league. I am pleased to see Linn are now field an Akurate Exakt system now, not sure of the cost yet but can't wait to hear one.
The Akurate Exakt system is £25.5k unless you already have Aktiv Akubariks in which case these can be upgraded and the price drops to £14K, you'd be welcome to have a listen to mine when it arrives unless you already have a relationship with a Linn retailer. What have you got at the moment?
