We need Audiophile Edition version of Port

There was never a suggestion that Sonos was the be-all and end-all, but the notion that it could be “painful” was repetitive and tiresome hyperbole unless, as buzz suggests, there was some kind of gross fault or mismatch in the signal path.

Oh come on. There is regular negative attacks on hifi and the word audiophile tends to induce frothing at the mouth from some!

I don’t know why. I would put the headphones on and it would sound ok but i was disappointed if i was honest and then after a couple of songs I would have to take the headphones off because my ears hurt. It does sound like the “jitter” issue that someone mentioned above where it does sound ok but you can’t listen for long. Maybe it is to do with the coax versus USB path. Whatever the components did not work together.

My hifi DAC also didn’t work as it simply wasn’t powerful enough to match the impedance requirements of the headphones so getting an appropriate matching headphone DAC/Amp solved that problem and then the USB cable completed the picture. I didn’t pay enough attention to the needs a good source and amp in the reviews. But now with a good recording and the chain sorted it has that wow factor which I was hoping for and didn’t have before. Now I am regularly enjoying long listening sessions which I wasn’t doing with Sonos as the source. Typically when I’m thinking a recording sounds really good it is 24 bit but that could just be a better original recording. My take away is that the components need to be “matching” and for some systems Sonos may well be fine for but for others not so I would agree with the OP in my experience. . 

Any self-proclaimed “audiophile” would use an external DAC which will reclock the signal, thus eliminating any jitter.  So exactly what’s the problem (besides not being expensive enough for bragging rights?)

And by the way, the last thing I would call audiophiles is music lovers.  Music lovers listen to music.  Audiophiles listen to gear. 

If a USD 25 Chromecast, a USD 350 Port and a USD 1000 external DAC can’t be picked apart in a blind listening test, what’s the point of such a Port?

Audiophiles will never love Sonos, a mass market brand, even where it sells at a higher price point than many such. As soon as mass market is the target, audiophiles exit. It has nothing to do with sound quality, but with human psychology.

Yes it is off topic because the only way to make a valid comparison of two alternatives is to have every other variable stay the exact same. And if you are comparing a stereo 2 channel set up with the sound from a surround set up even if the latter is on full music mode, there are far too many variables that will make a nonsense of any comparison because they will sound so different. And I can't see any way to have any existing 2 channel system set up for full time music play with front located speakers to also do rear surround - unless you are willing to give yourself the time of a few weeks to get used to how the latter sounds for music in full music mode with speakers at the rear. In that time, as it does in all cases to varying degrees, the brain will adapt itself to the new sound, and you may probably find it far more acceptable for full music listening than it does now. 

As to Port pricing it has little do with cost, but with a Sonos perceived value to users, with the price set accordingly by Sonos as a price policy. Those users that agree with that perceived value will find the present price acceptable. The same Port could be priced a lot lower if costs were the only consideration, but that may not give Sonos an equally good result where total profit is concerned, which is a fair way of assessing such policy decisions in any profit funded organisation.

Im not saying that Sonos is painful to listen to on speakers just on my notoriously revealing headphone as I had to take my headphones off after a short period because my ears were hurting as some others have suggested. USB cable sounds a lot better and can listen as long as I want. I don’t know why just that Sonos doesn’t work as a source for my headphones. That is just my experience on my equipment.

I can completely accept that other people don’t feel the need for anything other than Sonos but clearly some people can’t  accept that someone else may prefer something other than Sonos as a hifi source. Unless they have heard my system then I don’t see how they can judge and even then it would only be a personal experience as mine is. . I am only saying I find Sonos painful to listen to on my headphones hence Sonos may not be the best option for everyone in every circumstance. It is hardly blasphemy but clearly.it is for some.

So based on my personal experience with my equipment I can see where the OP is coming from. I would buy a Sonos digital only out hifi component which can play all files and has a full range of inputs and outputs with a comparable spec to various other hif streamers on the market as I appreciate the class leading convenience of Sonos. I suspect it won’t happen as it is not the Sonos market focus and will have to look elsewhere.  

Good thought but I don’t have a problem with my wireless headphones with Sonos  other than were not sound quality looking for so switched to wired headphones which much better. The wired headphones are so transparent and revealing that I can hear detail in songs I’ve know since a child that never heard before. They need a matching amp and source and that for me and these headphones  isn’t  Sonos so I agree with Sonos. 

Personally never found a wireless headphone/earbuds that sound as good or as comfortably as the reasonably priced wired earbuds I used until they were discontinued after the removal of phone headphone inputs.   Sure losing the wires is good but for menot worth loss is sound quality and inconvenience of having to charge another device. Ok when on the move with background noise. It was how the quest started. 

One third more money, but if you’ve no desire to integrate with the Sonos world then Bluesound may suit. Hopefully the software is better these days. Just steer clear of the MQA stuff.

I wonder how the Bluesound will hold up over time, both in hardware lifetime and in software support. 2006 era Sonos gear (minus the CRs) is still usable.

The current from the power supply is what’s moving the magnets in the woofers and tweeters that creates the sound you hear. The first commercial DACs built into CD players had tons of issues, such as voltage changes based on how many bits were 0s and how many were 1s. They’d output a significant difference between 01111111 and 10000000, when that should be the smallest difference possible. It doesn’t take “golden ears” to hear the difference between a mass market 1980’s CD player and a high quality one from 2022. It also doesn’t “golden ears” to hear the difference between components with cheap switching power supplies and ones with good power supplies.

Sonos power supplies aren’t crap, but to simply dismiss the impact of the electrical engineering that goes into making different audio components as inaudible because they’re “digital” is as foolhardy as the claims of any audiophool.

Sorry to pick on you. You’re post is just at the end of a frustrating thread in which I’m trying to find some answers as to why my 2-ch system w/ a Sonos Connect into a Pro-ject Pre Box S2 into a Bryson 4B sounded so much better before I replaced all that with an Amp so I could use the 2-channels as rear speakers with an Arc and Sub. Even when I set the surrounds to max for music playback, the music just isn’t as enjoyable as it was before. Probably has more to do with impedance matching with the speakers (B+Ws) than anything else.