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Connect Bluesound node 2i to Sonos speakers?

  • 11 January 2020
  • 11 replies
  • 10320 views
G

Hi, I have a Sonos 5.1 speakers set and I am pretty happy about the experience. I am looking to buy a music streamer now, because I understand this will improve the experience with digital music. Since the Bluesound node is deemed superior to the Sonos connect, I wonder what happens if I connect the Node to my speakers. Will I get the 24 bit audio quality of the Node, through its DAC, or Sonos will downgrade it? In my experience so far, I get that downgrading if I use the Sonos app directly hooked to the speakers via wireless, but I don’t if I go through an external DAC.

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Best answer by Kumar 11 January 2020, 13:48

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11 replies

K

I think that 24 bit consumer audio is snake oil, but that apart, it is not a good idea to mix the two makes because they will not give you interoperability, except perhaps via clunky workarounds.

G

“it is not a good idea to mix the two makes because they will not give you interoperability”

 

You mean the Node can’t operate with the Sonos speakers?

K

Nope. They cannot talk to each other wirelessly. 

G

I know and I don’t mean to do it wirelessly but through a digital connection. My question was about the final sound result: will I get the BS 24 bit or the SONOS 16? Please, to everybody who don’t believe in Hires: I do not need to be reminded that some think is just oil snake. I don’t. 

K

Instead of wirelessly, I should have written digitally.

Belly M
Badge +20

I know and I don’t mean to do it wirelessly but through a digital connection. My question was about the final sound result: will I get the BS 24 bit or the SONOS 16? Please, to everybody who don’t believe in Hires: I do not need to be reminded that some think is just oil snake. I don’t. 


OK… simply put don’t bother.

 

The digital outputs on the Node can support 24/192 along with MQA encoded streams. The digital input on the Port cannot read these higher bitrates and you will either be met with noise or silence.

 

You can select in BluOS if your external DAC is MQA compliant but you cannot make the Node downgrade its output.

 

However if you use the excellent DAC in the Node and send the analogue output to Sonos it will get converted but at least play but of no benefit and you may as well just use Sonos to stream.

 

You can build a 5.1 system with Bluesound 😁

 

 

 

 

G

 


 

 

The digital outputs on the Node can support 24/192 along with MQA encoded streams. The digital input on the Port cannot read these higher bitrates and you will either be met with noise or silence.

 

 

 

 

I am afraid there are several misunderstanding here. My bad. I not going through a Port. I am going from the Node to the Playbar. Frankly, after weeks of listening I think the trick works and sound quality is there. 

jgatie

I am afraid there are several misunderstanding here. My bad. I not going through a Port. I am going from the Node to the Playbar. Frankly, after weeks of listening I think the trick works and sound quality is there. 

 

You are outputting digitally from the Node to the Playbar?  Well, you may feel the “sound quality is there”, but I’m afraid you have just proven that Hi-Res is snake oil, and confirmation bias is real.  Because in reality, the Playbar cannot process anything over 48 KHz audio, and in the case of 24 bit 48 KHz audio, it truncates to 16 bits, and does not apply dither, which should result in worse, not better sound.  So your superior Hi-Res sources coming from the Node aren’t quite Hi-Res at all.

G

Yes, you may be right. I can hear a difference between MQA e CD though, it is very evident. Also, I was talking to a sound engineer who told me that the Node DAC should outpass any other limitation and get to work anyway. The reason for my post was just to debate the issue and ask whether he may be right.

chicks

I can hear a difference between MQA e CD though, it is very evident.

Nope.  What’s “very evident” is that the MQA version was engineered more carefully, or perhaps the dynamic range was compressed (very common on “remastered” tracks), making it sound “better”.  The same master would sound identical on CD.

G

Fair enough, that works for me.

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