Renowned Enthusiast I

My Sonos Amp Review.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 10, 2019
35 replies
8265 views

So I have hooked up the new Amp and given it a thorough listening. I am impressed.

My prior setup was B&W 683 Floorstanders into a Audiolabs MDAC Pre/DAC to a Bryston 3B-ST Amp. My streamer of choice was a RPi3B+ running PiCorePlayer and the Squeezelite software attached via USB to the MDAC.

I was a longtime Spotify user but I recently switched to using Apple Music while my wife still uses Spotify. Spotify had a squeezebox plugin so it worked well (though the Spotify Connect implementation was flaky at times). I also have over 1000 CDs ripped to ALAC on a home server.

This was a great sounding setup but I found the airplay unreliable and no native Apple Music support (other than airplay) with Squeezebox so I have been looking at other options. Since native apple music support is limited to Sonos, it was an easy choice, I just had to choose what to get.

I considered just getting the Connect and adding it into the existing system via optical to the DAC but decided to take a chance on the new Amp. Its 125W / channel vs. the Bryston's 120W so nearly identical power though the whole idea of DDFA amps had me sceptical that 125W per side could be handled by the little guy. My speakers also dip down to 3 Ohm at times so they are not the easiest to drive cleanly . The quality of the DAC was also completely unknown. That said if the Amp performance was 95% of my current setup, I could live with it. The return policy swayed me to at least give it a try. If it wasn't as good I could return it and if it does workout, I can sell the Amp and DAC and pay for the Amp.

I ordered Wednesday and it was delivered to me Friday. Unfortunately I missed the delivery guy so I picked it up at the courier depot today. Quick shipping (surprising since Im in Canada but I guess they shipped from the TO area and not from California so no border hassles).

The packaging really reminded me of Apple and I was surprised by how small the Amp actually is.

My speakers were already on banana clips so hooking it all up was quick. Basically plugging in the speakers and power cord.

Next was the app setup. The Sonos setup was easy enough. My only gotcha was that I needed to enable 802.11g on my network. I actually run two dualband routers, R7000 with a run of cat6 to an R3700 running as a Switch and Access Point. B/G clients are rare and there is a potential performance hit enabling support for it on N or AC routers so I don't normally have it on. Anyway on my 3700 2.4Ghz band I enabled G and the setup continued no issue. Added the SMB path to my ALACs and it indexed them rather fast. I also added Apple Music as a source. All very intuitive. I did have to dig a bit for EQ and Amp settings in the app but I found them. Left EQ flat, though I did turn loudness off after a quick google told me what it did (surprised it was defaulted to On on the amp...)

Anyway gave a listen to a few tracks I have locally and know well and it performed admirably. I went back and forth between the MDAC/Bryston and the Sonos Amp to A/B and it was hard to distiguish. The Bryston is an excellent amp. I would give the Bryston a slight nod on clarity, especially on lower volumes and it was actually able to drive the speaker just a bit louder despite being 5W less (to be fair I think my 3BST sample was checked out at ~155W per side on Bryston's exit QC test report more than the rated 120W). On the other hand the Sonos Amp was also able to handle the B&Ws nearly as well. It was also exceedingly quiet and also quite clear. Certainly no complaints and while it wasn't as loud, when turned up it was definitely loud.

My list of complaints about the Sonos is small.

1. It really needs a headphone jack. Its the one thing I will miss from my current DAC. I have a set of Sennheiser 650s that I use when the wife wants quiet, but now I won't have that. I can always use them with the iphone directly but the Senns need a good headphone amp to bring out the best.

2. The Front Panel UI/UX. Actual Up and Down icons for the volume to match the play / pause. Right now its 4 dots making a square. Also I am not sure what each press does but going by the slider on the ipad its not as smooth as a dial.

3. I did notice a clicking/static sound when it hit the end of a playlist. Not sure if it was related to anything else but this could get annoying as the Amp is always on. One suggestion would be to mute itself after no activity for say 5 minutes.

4. Software UI complaints. Nothing major. I am a long time user of the iPeng app that controls squeezeboxen and like its now playing screen and its swipe to left for lyrics and swipe to right to see the queue. I could find no way to see lyrics withing Sonos at all and swiping does nothing. Also need to hit edit to manipulate the queue order vs. just touching a song and moving it up or down.

Otherwise my only concern is longevity. The Bryston is a tank with a 20 year warranty. The Sonos certainly felt premium and people still use the original Connect:Amp after 10 years so. Also DDFAs are a different type of Amp. It got warm but was surprising cool all things considered. The Bryston is a heavy as it is because its a giant heatsink (not that it gets hot either...) but the size of this thing and cleaning up the wires it is crazy its actually smaller than my DAC as seen in the picture below.

Sonos Amp

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xxalanxx

Avid Contributor I

I don’t think any statistical tests are required. It just needs the sound to be rebalanced in a more detailed way than a single slider on the app can achieve. It’s a shame that it’s not possible with my speakers in my room. Making the Amp more neutral and faithful to the source would be great!

G

Gert_4

Prominent Collaborator I

I have been very close to buying the new AMP, but after reading several tests of this amplifier where everyone is mention the bright harsh treble, I decided to listen to the AMP in a HiFi shop and on several different speakers, and yes this amplifier has a problem with the treble.

If you auditioned expecting to hear something, it's not really a big surprise that you did. This is known as expectation bias. I'm assuming that your listening didn't include any blind tests with other amplifiers?

Now we start all over again, I have been working in the music industry for many years with pro audio sound, so I will not let myself drag around with your postulates.
Although I do acknowledge your very correct point of view, however, in this case, the Sonos AMP has a problem.

pwt

Virtuoso

Now we start all over again, I have been working in the music industry for many years with pro audio sound, so I will not let myself drag around with your postulates. Although I do acknowledge your very correct point of view, however, in this case, the Sonos AMP has a problem.

I acknowledge your opinion on this. I'll only offer that my Amp has no such issue, and I've spent many hours listening to it now, across a wide range of sources and content. However, I guess it's possible that there are defective (or incorrectly wired) units out there.

It's been true for decades now that all reasonably designed amplifiers sound indistinguishable (i.e., neutral) when operating within their power limits and in the absence of EQ adjustments. My personal experience suggests that the Sonos Amp is no exception.

4 x P:5 | Sub | 4 x P:1 | 3 x Connect | 2 x Boost | Connect:Amp | 2 x One | Amp | Move | Port | Era 300

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Gert_4

Prominent Collaborator I

I don't think it's just a single amplifiers with an error, I'm pretty sure it's the programming of the DSP where Sonos mistekenly has aimed for a particular sound image.
In the old days when you tested amplifiers, you measured the frequency response of the amplifier, now no one does that,but only use their ears.
However, I think I have seen a frequency response test on AMP and that showed that the problem was most pronounced in the left channel, so perhaps the problem is not in the programming of DSP.

J

John76

Prominent Collaborator I

I’m using $4K + Tannoy DMT 15 Studio monitors with my Sonos Amp and it sounds great tonally. I have all tone controls set flat. It sounds tonally the
same as the amp it replaced that I had been using with those speakers for the last 8 years.

Do break it in with music for several hours as the amp will open up and improve!

G

Gert_4

Prominent Collaborator I

“Do break it in with music for several hours as the amp will open up and improve! “

This is nonsense, placebo effect !

J

John76

Prominent Collaborator I

YMMV, based on expectation bias.

G

Gert_4

Prominent Collaborator I

This is perhaps corretct with completly new unused speakers, but not for an amplifier.

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xxalanxx

Avid Contributor I

It’s not correct for any electronic component. They don’t change with use, speaker or otherwise. It’s wishful thinking.
Strange they don’t change for the worse, isn’t it?

buzz

Grand Maestro

My own observation is that amplifier differences are obvious and important to some listeners while other listeners don't care. Note that I'm not dumping on any listeners. If amplifiers don't matter much to you, don't spend your money there -- and don't worry that someone else makes different discriminations. I will also note that any A/B comparisons must be carefully done because eliminating minor differences in level is critical. Humans tend to prefer the louder unit.

I prefer a slightly different comparison technique of 'A' [quiet period] 'B' for purchase decisions. While this might not be suitable for publication in a journal, my opinion is that if the difference is so subtle that one needs a properly managed traditional A/B/x ('x' means that no one in the room knows which unit is playing) in order to pick up any difference, there is no need to spend more money. In a research environment I would want to use a properly managed A/B/x comparison with a large number of listeners who cannot communicate with other research subjects. If a respected member of a group smiles or frowns during the session, other listeners might be influenced.

And, I have some difficulty with the A/B/x technique, even though this is the gold standard method. In A/B/x we have a box that switches components in a random sequence and listeners note 'better' or 'worse' after each switch. No one in the room knows the sequence. At the end of the test series a readout from the switcher is compared with the listener's record. If the result of 'A' vs 'B' is 50/50, there is not likely any difference. Even 60/40 is not very significant. The part that troubles me is that the A/B/x box is assumed to be "neutral" by not adding or removing anything. My question is: If we can build an absolutely neutral A/B/x box, why can't we build "neutral" equipment? At one point I built an A/B/x box and it was immediately obvious to me and everyone else familiar with the equipment that differences were more difficult to discern when the box was used.

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