New Sonos Connect?

And by the way, this isn't just me being a Connect/Sonos fan; I also find the DAC in the Chromecast audio puck that sells for about 10% of the price of the Connect to be just as good in sound quality as a source as the Connect or any other DAC that may in turn cost in multiples of the Connect. Again, something that no one has taken the trouble to disprove under controlled conditions, because as pwt says, that would be spoiling all the fun.

For the Chromecast audio I believe that there are supporting measurements somewhere on the archimago blog, for anyone interested in dry analysis.

From the time the CCA was launched by Google it has been obvious that the Connect is ridiculously overpriced, but Sonos with its focus on play units and voice control does not seem to be worried too much about low Connect sales. Perhaps that will change, time will tell.

Well, I guess when I get my system set up I'll do the blind comparison myself. I have a ZP80, running optically into a Yamaha receiver now in the living room. I'm waiting on delivery of the Billie Amp from Heaven11 (Kickstarter project gone way over original delivery date 😞 ), for which I'll buy a new Connect to set up for my bedroom. I'll be able to ABC compare output from the Connect into the DAC on the Billie Amp, from the optical output into an Arcam rLink DAC, and then analogue from the Connect direct to the amplifier. If there's new chips in the new Connect, I can repeat the process with the ZP80 into the same channels.

Anyone know of a reliable SPL meter for a smartphone or tablet, so I don't have to waste money on a hw meter?

And truthfully, I'm almost 50, so the differences might be imperceptible to me long term. I'll probably bribe my 20 year classical pianist progeny into the experiment as well.

These tests are close to impossible to set up at home. For one thing, making sure that there is one and only one variable in play is not easy to accomplish, and level matching of sound levels needs to be done to within 0.1 dB; a smartphone hosted meter is almost certainly not going to be good enough. Then there has to be a way to do an instantaneous switch over to compare A v B, because human audio memory gets rapidly unreliable as seconds pass between one listening experience and the next.

I only attempted this once, imperfectly. It was possible to make a reasonable job of it because all I was doing was switching sources in a SACD player that had a Connect wired to it.

I don't mean to discourage you from the attempt, but some research on all that needs to be addressed in the test set up for the outcome to be valid may be a good idea.

Obviously this can be done in a lab or studio environment, but no one except the serious manufacturers does this because then there would be little to write every month in the latest issue of the magazine or wherever else the reviews are to be published for all the kit out there, with the exception of speakers.

Maybe the same Sonos Connect today could be engineered to be smaller and cheaper.

It easily could, but if Sonos were to do that I think they would also add features like more input options as one example. How large is the market for the outcome will be the critical question though. The Connect is from an era before play units, streaming services and voice control and has become a very niche solution. Also, making it a lot cheaper would allow its use for a wide range of non Sonos speakers, adversely affecting Sonos speaker sales.

Have been using Sonos Connect amp into B&W floor standing speakers for 5 years now.For last 2 weeks have been streaming Tidal via a Yamaha WXAD 10 into the Connect line in and have no doubt audio quality is to my ear much improved.Surely the Burr Brown DAC in the Yamaha must be the reason.However the Musiccast app is not great.

You mean Burr Brown is better than Wolfson?:-))

Anything fed into the line in of the Connect gets converted to digital and then back to analog inside the Connect...

Will Tidal not stream via Connect and eliminate a whole lot of components from the signal path that can only be good for it and neutral at worst?

More than anything the one thing I would like with a new connect is the ability to be able to speed up the signal relative the other sonos elements in a grouping. At the moment there is an issue where the signals are sent to AV receivers and due to processing the synchronization is being lost.
https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/audio-delay-between-connect-and-play-5-5256084
There are ways round it but the sound in direct mode on most AV receivers isn't very good. This issue has been known about for +5 years surely they could fix this one.

Well, they could start by making a black connnect! I’m not sure about the better DAC. I’ve actually found that they can mak a difference, but most of the folks who think so likely already have an external DAC. I’m using it as an input to my integrated amp, with a stop in a Schiit DAC on the way. I don’t know what I’d need more outputs for....

More than anything the one thing I would like with a new connect is the ability to be able to speed up the signal relative the other sonos elements in a grouping. At the moment there is an issue where the signals are sent to AV receivers and due to processing the synchronization is being lost.
https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/audio-delay-between-connect-and-play-5-5256084
There are ways round it but the sound in direct mode on most AV receivers isn't very good. This issue has been known about for +5 years surely they could fix this one.

Totally agree about this. There are many wonderful sounding AV Receivers, Room Correction devices (preamps etc.) as well as DACs that add some processing to the input. This unfortunately means that when using the sonos connect, the sound will be out of sync with other sonos speakers.

A sync adjustment in the Sonos Connect allowing +/- ms tweaking would be fantastic