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Question

Best sound quality from Connect? Best connections?

  • December 27, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 3162 views
M
Ok. I have resisted jumping down the Hi Rez, MQA worm hole. I have had a connect for years and hardly used it. I listen to Tidal Hifi through an iMac peach tree combo. Pretty decent. I hooked up a Audioquest Dragon fly red and listened to some Masters recordings. My jaw dropped. I was impressed but i am not sold yet. I will say that when I played the same tracks through the Connect it sounded like someone threw a wet blanket over my speakers.
I would like to make sure I am feeding by Peachtree the best way. Digital coaxial or optical? Using RCA now.
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4 replies

K
  • Kumar
  • December 28, 2017
The difference you are hearing is almost certainly down to what the DAC is doing - outputting slightly higher signal voltages that causes the lower sound level Connect to get the wet blanket effect. Bump up the slider a tad on the Connect and see if that disappears.

And you have not said there were no other variables in the mix. If so, those need to be eliminated for a valid comparison other than precise matching of sound levels.

If you must do digital, over short cable runs it does not matter what you use.
M
  • merzy
  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • December 28, 2017
Thanks for the reply. If I go Sonos only I would be depending on the Dac in the connect...correct? If I go digital I depend on the dac in the Peachtree, right?
K
  • Kumar
  • December 28, 2017
The analog output of the Connect means use of the Connect DAC. Digital outputs on the Connect bypass it for conversion downstream.
S
  • skernes
  • Lyricist III
  • January 9, 2018
I have experienced the wet blanket effect with the sonos connect as well. I thought of the level matching issue and broke out my trusty SPL meter (not very accurate) and my calibrated measurement mic (very accurate) to ensure output levels were matched.

The basic structure of the test was:
1. play a song stored on my computer through my DAC
2. play the same song through the sonos connect (using the analog outputs)
3. play the same song through the sonos connect (using the digital optical out connected to the dac used in #1)
4. play the same song through the sonos connect (using the digital coax out connected to the dac used in #1)
NOTE: all tests were level matched

The sound quality of #1, #3, and #4 were nearly the same. The sound quality of #2 was very obviously worse (even someone who has undergone eardrum repair could clearly hear a difference).

I was able to isolate that there was some white noise, and some high frequency "clicking" present with the analog out from the sonos connect that was not present on the digital output. I have confirmed with 3 different sonos connect's that those issues are always present (including when connected to different amplifiers and preamps)... I think the "wet blanket" effect is the result of the white noise - but have not been able to confirm.
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