Can I add a DAC to new Sonos Amp?

The really bizarre thing is that you think that is a meaningful question.

Almost as bizarre as using your computer's DAC to convert your files to analog then send the music out through the headphone socket. 

Stock response, possibly from a junior support staff member

IT IS ANALOG.

I’m sorry but this is a senseless debate. There appears to be a lack of understanding of how digital audio works, or of why chewing up precious network bandwidth to ship around inaudible ultrasonics makes no sense whatsoever, or maybe of both.

Hence the Dac question…

Nope it was escalated to a senior apparantly

KB29R,

As ratty noted, the internal and network traffic is at 44.1 or 48. It makes little sense to use an ADC that runs at a higher rate, only to down convert the sample rate a fraction of an inch away on the printed circuit board. By the way, the internal DAC has been 24 bit since the initial product in 2005.

There is no “sample rate” or “bit rate” associated with an analog signal. For your own understanding, if you need to assign a bit rate to an analog signal or live performance, use infinity. (a person steeped in quantum mechanics might argue with that point, but we don’t need to get into that here) “Sample Rate” and “Width” enter the discussion as we convert between analog and digital or process in the digital domain.

If, as suggested, optimum fidelity is the aim then running the files through a DA converter attached to the iMac then back through an AD converter is the last thing one should contemplate. 

Abandon the idea of using Line-In.

Simply do a one-time down-conversion of the files to 24/48 ALAC on the iMac, then index them into the Sonos library in the conventional way. The benefits of any careful remastering of the files will be preserved.

This is the only sane and sensible way to play the files on your Mac. It is better in every respect than your current method, or any variation on it using an external DAC and line in. 

I am gonna add fire, to the question if using a Zen DAC you will be able to play 96 Hz through the SONOS AMP’s analog input, the answer is straight no. S2 the operative system of SONOS tops at 24 bits/48 Hz, this is the maximum rate that the analog input may (or may not) convert the analog signal from any external DAC.

To the not clear question if an external DAC will play trough the analog in, the answer is of course and I am gonna add you may like the results. 

As an AMP user I have used the analog in with several devices none more expensive than the AMP itself but neither of bad quality, near every time the presentation through the analog in seems to win, this is weird considering I have ripped CDs on a wireless hard rive and I feel more pleasant the CD player presentation. This gets more obvious using a proper analog source as a turntable, many times the subjective stereo with the turntable was actually better or at least easier to pinpoint with the turntable than lossless streaming, later I tried a cheap Cyrus DAC headphone amp from my computer and bingo it created a quite nice reproduction with a stereo image that really pleased me. When I am doing chores I ask Alexa what I want to hear through the house but if I am seating using the amp I actually use the analog in with a dam cheap DAC. My point is, I do know that one DAC converts to analog an another one after the input creates a digital signal but in short the results should be equal or worse and they are not, they are different and you may like that difference. I do.

I can start speculating why or how,  but it would be fruitless. SONOS is quite secretive and none of us knows exactly how is the SONOS AMP designed, and the difference between the streaming section and the analog in,  hence I cannot prove or disprove my opinion.

External DACs are a thing for a reason as they perform differently and this performance is objectively measurable in thinks like jitter, but without more information from SONOS what I can add is that a DAC as source can produce a different playing experience than SONOS playing the file itself. 

“external DACs are a thing for a reason”.  If there is a reason, it is that one DAC may perform better than another one if it replaces it in the process of getting from digital data packets to music you can hear.  Some may dispute this, and my personal opinion is that in many cases the difference ‘heard’ is caused by expectation bias.  But let’s go with it for a moment.

I have a set up that includes a Connect and HiFi.  I use digital out from the Connect into a Cyrus DAC/pre-amp.  So the Connect’s DAC is replaced by the Cyrus one.  This, to me has at least the potential to improve the sound.

But this thread is talking about sample rates etc on a conversion that enters the Sonos system as an analog signal.  This still seems nonsensical to me.

No it isn't,  this is about connecting a DAC as a source.