Can I add a DAC to new Sonos Amp?

  • 25 August 2020
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41 replies

J

I would like to consider another aspect of this question.  Is this method being used to play music files stored on the Mac? If so, why? Rather than set up a Sonos music library?

K
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KB29R,

You can plug any DAC output into the analog inputs to AMP, even 576kHz if you can find a DAC that supports this bit rate, but it will be difficult to find 576kHz source material at this point in time.

 

576?? Just the odd recordings from quobuz 24/192 would be nice - including Tidals MQA... the dac in question is this:   https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/ifi-zen-dac

K

On the flat earth thing - I recently discovered that this is still a fervently held belief in THIS century including explanations/rebuttals for all the reasons supplied to establish that the earth is a not a flat disc. 

jgatie

 

Yes Jog on - I haven’t got 7 years playing internet tennis with you or your chums - im not interested in your thoughts on snake oil ideologies 

 

Most flat earthers avoid discussing any concept of a spherical earth too.  Can't say I blame them.

buzz

KB29R,

You can plug any DAC output into the analog inputs to AMP, even 576kHz if you can find a DAC that supports this bit rate, but it will be difficult to find 576kHz source material at this point in time.

K
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And then it appeared, just like that…  snake oil...:sleeping:

 

Do you have actual objective proof it’s not, or are you just here to lob bombs?  If the latter, I’ll bow out.   I’d rather not deal with the audio equivalent of flat earthers.  

 

Yes Jog on - I haven’t got 7 years playing internet tennis with you or your chums - im not interested in your thoughts on snake oil ideologies 

jgatie

And then it appeared, just like that…  snake oil...:sleeping:

 

Do you have actual objective proof it’s not, or are you just here to lob bombs?  If the latter, I’ll bow out.   I’d rather not deal with the audio equivalent of flat earthers.  

K
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And then it appeared, just like that…  snake oil...:sleeping:

jgatie

But it wouldn’t be digital would it if the 3rd party dac has already converted it to analogue ?

 

It also wouldn’t be “higher than 96 kHz” which is what the original question was asking.  

On a side note, if you play so-called “high resolution” audio through the Sonos Line-in, it will sound exactly the same at 96 kHz as it does at 44.1 kHz, as every properly conducted double blind test has shown.  You simply aren’t going to hear anything above a sampling rate of 40 kHz (far less if you are not a teenager).  However, this begs to ask why you wouldn’t bypass all the extra processing by simply down-sampling the “high resolution” audio to strip out the snake oil in the first place? 

C
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Why on earth would anyone be interested in the Amp accepting 96kHz, when only animals such as cats, mice and bats are able to hear it? 

And rats? Someone may have a requirement for a multi zone ultra sonic rodent repellent that could also be used to play music. :joy:

 

 

 

 

K
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Why on earth would anyone be interested in the Amp accepting 96kHz, when only animals such as cats, mice and bats are able to hear it? 

 

Wow.. I was expecting a response with a cat mouse or a bat but not within the 1st hr...

ratty

As I say, the analog (not digital) Line-In has an effective frequency response up to 22.05klHz, as it is then sampled at 44.1kHz. This is higher than human hearing can go.

Why on earth would anyone be interested in the Amp accepting 96kHz, when only animals such as cats, mice and bats are able to hear it? 

K
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But it wouldn’t be digital would it if the 3rd party dac has already converted it to analogue ?

jgatie

Sorry I meant sampling rate of 96khz - im sure i read somewhere that the amp can accept 96khz through its line in? or it may have been a dream..

A pity the iMac doesn’t possess a HDMI arc output.. sigh.

 

Since the Line-In is analog, it can not accept anything digital at all, regardless of sample rate.  

K
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Sorry I meant sampling rate of 96khz - im sure i read somewhere that the amp can accept 96khz through its line in? or it may have been a dream..

A pity the iMac doesn’t possess a HDMI arc output.. sigh.

ratty

It looks like there are a few misconceptions here.

The Amp accepts an analog Line-In. Internally Sonos digitises this at 44.1kHz sampling rate. This is able to encode audio frequencies up to 22.05kHz, i.e. beyond the range of human hearing.

So:

  • no, you don’t get a maximum of 96kHz, whether as a sampling rate or a frequency response
  • an external iFi DAC on the iMac may well do better quality-wise than the iMac’s headphone outlet in terms of decoding to analog, but this is then digitised at 44.1kHz by the Amp on input as noted above
  • as a human this is all you require
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