Mediocre measurements for new Sonos Amp
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-sonos-amp.6957/
When you are more interested in music through the house, with great sound, minimal wires and visual impact, simplicity of operation, voice/phone/tablet/PC control, integration of video system audio, excellent support (manufacturer and peer), ... Sonos is still far and away the best choice.
Try getting support from the Chinese maker of those near-perfect DACs some time, lol (and the likelihood of actually hearing a difference in that DAC vs a Sonos device is most likely nil for anyone over 25). Not to mention all the power blocks and interconnects required for all that stuff, and having to manually power them on and off... Yeesh! No thanks. My ears are more than happy, as is the wife. I’ll stick with Sonos.
Apart from that it's an excellent breakdown of the AMP's built quality and overall look and feel.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/a-bit-about-your-host.1906/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/master-index-for-audio-hardware-reviews.2079/
I'm firmly in the first group, if I can't hear it I'm not going to be paying for it.
It would be helpful to hear from them.
i think that's the bottom line. It's a great amp for streaming (and I assume for optical/hdmi input as well) but the analog input is flawed. I wonder if there is any chance that it was a bad unit. Maybe someone from Sonos will say something?
The analog input SNR measurement after he changed the software setting was 87 dB at 5W. So probably you will not hear the noise.
Wow, I can’t believe a professional review used “discreet” where “discrete” was called for, but I guess copy editors are just “too expensive” these days. Sigh.
This graphic, for some reason, never made it into the Sonos Amp review at ASR. The digital input’s SINAD performance puts it in the very top tier, against some very good, but pricier, and far less convenient to use gear. Also significantly better than a more direct competitor, the Amazon Link Amp.
I just started reading it, but it reads like someone who knows nothing whatsoever about Sonos - not familiar with daisy chaining Ethernet or using it as a bridge, unaware of several previous Sonos products with inputs. And what’s that crack about the custom power cord? I guess I’ve never tried other cords but I always assumed they were standard figure 8 size. Is the Amp not standard size?
I made the same comments and more in the thread on his site. It really seems like he has an issue with Sonos which is disappointing.
Is someone from Sonos able to speak to the higher than expected noise levels that were measured (~93 dB SNR), which is worse than Sonos has been claiming.
I would expect the performance of the Line-In signal to be no worse than that of AirPlay or directly streamed sources, assuming that the Line-In gain ('Line-In Source Level') is adjusted correctly. However, nowhere is it mentioned what adjustments, if any, were made.
As for sampling at 48KHz, capping signals at ~20Khz: so what? It's above the frequency required for any human's hearing.
https://hometheaterhifi.com/blogs/sonos-amp-review/
But Sonos does not include that 116dB spec in their own literature. Someone from Sonos should reply here and clear this up.
I apologize for not reading more carefully the first time through. The question still remains, why is the analog input adding so much noise?
How many customers will actually be using the analog input in 2019? Very few, I'm guessing. I do, as I still love to spin LPs, but I'm probably the exception (I own the Connect:Amp, not the Amp). The measured analog performance probably won't much matter for LP playback, but for CD's it might, though hopefully most folks have ripped their CDs to a NAS long ago, and won't much care about the analog input...
I remain a little skeptical of this, because the test methodology does not specify what Line-In gain was used, and I see no reason why the Amp's ADC should introduce below-par noise performance. I'll feed mine with a good analog signal at the weekend and see if I can detect any differences between that and the same content in FLAC pulled from NAS.
Sorry, I am wrong on this. The 87 dB is SNR at full power, not @5W, after changing the software setting. I thought he was saying that the software setting made a big difference in noise, but in fact he was saying it didn't matter much. The fact remains that this is a great amp for streaming, but the analog input is a little noisy.
He didn't take the trouble to find out which would have been two seconds of a google search. Seems like he started with bias for some reason.
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