48/24 - digital input

The article is correct, there is no 24 bit support for S1 only devices, Play:1, Play:3, Playbase, or Playbar.

Ok, so, the listed devices with digital input will be able to receive and share 48/24 by grouping?

I believe the lowest capability in the group determines the quality, but I can’t be sure. 

And it has nothing to do with having a digital input.  There are several sources of 24/48 music (Amazon, Tidal, etc.) that can be streamed from an account, and you can also stream 24/48 from a local library.  No need to have the HDMI/optical as the source input. 

Advantage of a digital input is e.g. upsampling of >>any source, e.g. mp3 web. Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp,...it is about the high quality upsampling of streams to 48/24 using HQP. (Or downsampling of course too. Or playback of DSD or ….)

Or you can manipulate the audio e.g. with you preferenced equalizer, AU, VST, … whatever. So, there are plenty of options once you feed via digital (or analog). But if you use analog input you are dependent on the quality of Sonos built in AD chips for this. Therefore digital is most prob. much better.

Can someone confirm on this? Want to be sure before spending money again…

Ah, Playbase is S2 capable. But not listed for 48/24 @jgatie 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786?language=en_US

vs

https://blog.sonos.com/en-us/hi-res-audio-guide

It would be nice to know if the “lowest common denominator” in a Sonos group decides the quality of the stream.

@MgP2804 I’m curious to as to why upsampling would in your opinion lead to better sound. Especially since you seem to want to manipulate the sound even further. Should you not want the sound to be as close to the original recording as possible?

Well, HQPlayer sounds very nice. Also Chord M-Scaler. Also, if you upsampel websound e.g. from blend.io or metapop.com. They stream in 128 mp3 only. HQPlayer is seemless integrated to Roon meanwhile too next to the upsampling options from Roon itself. Also, if you want to play local DSD files. But this is not so much my usecase. In case you want to dig more into HQPlayer, here a brandnew article: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2022/02/using-mele-mini-pc-for.html ++ In case you like to dig more into Chord M-Scaler you may take a look e.g. here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/chord-hugo-m-scaler-stereophile-review-measurements-also.11868/ + You may also have a look at free SoX, which is used e.g. by Audirvana but also Shairport-Sync, if you want to.

With my Sonos stuff, I like HQPlayer using Sinc-Mx/NS9. Feeding Playbase with 44.1/16 via Tos. But switching filters and modulators is lots of fun with HQPlayer too. Did not try any multichannel so far.

Anyway Upsampling or Downsampling is more sidetopic here. My interest here please is to find the best way to feed >>any soundsource in 48/24 to Sonos in the best possible quality.

(Feeding Playbase via Airplay 1 (using Airport Express Gen 1 or Shairport-Sync again and Tos input to Playbase..lol...) sounds fine too for a much lower price. Airport Express 1 can >only do ALAC 44.1/16, so not compressed aac like Airplay 2 is sometimes doing it depending on your usage scenario. mp3 128 via Airplay 1 sounds nice too. Anyway as I have this HQPlayer stuff for my Headphone chains, I like to use it best possible with the Sonos too In case you want to dig more into Airplay and Apple Music you may take a look here: https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/apple-music-lossless-mess-part-2-airplay-r1026/ )

Final word please: you can upsample Spotify too of course 

Did upgrade to S2 now (except the Play:5 Gen1 of course). If Roon is not telling totally rubbish there are more speakers capable of 48/24 than listed here: https://blog.sonos.com/en-us/hi-res-audio-guide

E.g. Play:1, Playbase,…

So maybe someone can please tell if this is still valid in regards to speakers what is listed in that article? Elsewise Signal Path of Roon is wrong. Either way...Confused 

Any folks from Sonos itself around here? Update would be very nice!

(Sub is at One Pair right now.)

It varies depending on the source from my experience.

For instance, using Amazon Music (from within Sonos app) to play Dolby Atmos music on an Arc, the stream will reduce to will reduce HD on all grouped speakers if say a Play:3 was grouped. ie. Dolby Atmos no longer playing on Arc.

However, using an Apple TV 4K to play Apple Music Dolby Atmos music on an Arc, Dolby Atmos will remain playing on the Arc when grouped with a Play:3

However, I don’t know exactly how a Five line-in source would behave when grouped, as never tried that.

Puh, hihi. Maybe to mention you require Apple TV 4k 2nd gen? Myself one 1gen again...arrrrrgggg...lol..

Yes, I’m using the 2nd gen (2021) version.

Maybe a final remark on this. As capabilty is dependent on builddate of certain speakers, there is never ever a way for Roon to be able to show correctly in signal path  for those speakers, what they are playing. Ok, Sonos could provide your speaker with a profile for this. In theory…However, on the other hand Roon shows what it is sending to the speaker.  If they show 48/24 in Signal Path, this is pretty sure what Roon transmits. What your Sonos speaker is doing with that stream…Hihi, give Sonos a call to find out. So, downsampling?, truncating 24 to 16…Whatever…Magic 😅