Sonos Port - Upgrade Power Supply

Hi @Davnos, thanks for reaching out. To make Port rack friendly, we opted for an external power supply that blends as seamlessly as possible with standard power strips. That’s the only thing we have in here and we can try to wait if we have other users too. Let us know if this helps. Thanks! 

Good corporate answer. The power supply is a $2 cost point at most. Even comparing my existing walwarts with this one, it looks very shoddy. Even Sonos are ashamed of it by not having aSonos label with clear clear electrical data provided. Please be truthful and admit that this is inferior to the main voltage input of the Connect.

Hi @Davnos, here’s more about Port’s Power supply (Auto-switching 100-240 V, 50-60 Hz AC universal input). Let us know if you still need anything. 

Why would Sonos install such a component in the first place? 

Power strips that claim to improve the sound quality of connected kit are heavy duty snake oil. There is not ONE controlled blind listening test for these, which isn't surprising.

Power strips that incorporate different kinds of surge suppressors are a different thing, but I don’t think the conversation is about this aspect of strips.

If I were the manufacturer of a bespoke streamer such as the Port, why would I then rubbish the whole package by including an unbranded, less than $2 power supply with the kit? Are other Sonos users satisfied by this line of response.

I own a Port and am satisfied with the power supply as is. The Port is already over priced for and I would not want to pay

a dollar more for a power supply that will provide me with no added value IMO.

Those of us who do not fall for the snake oil which describes the vast majority of audiophile claims would be quite satisfied with a generic power supply.   The idea that a power supply could ever impact a digital signal in the esoteric and flowery manner described by audiophiles is, quite simply, absurd.  

The Port as supplied by Sonos is not as good as the ZP80 which it is replacing in my system. The ZP80 was powered and connected to my amp using snake oil cables (Russ Andrew Reference PowerKord, Silencer Block and Crystal Cu) and whilst trying out how to get the new Port to sound as stable and musical as my ZP80 I contacted Chord Cables who suggested switching the output from variable to fixed which removes the DSP from the signal path.

Now I have spent 40 years working in shop floor environments and my hearing is no longer perfect but I can still hear a tune and whatever it is that makes your foot tap and during the last week the Port has started to shine. My wife actually asked with 2 tracks if I had got new recordings (Melinda - Tom Petty, Live Anthology and Western Wall - Rosanne Cash). My system isn’t top end (approx £2500 on amp, speakers and cables but changing this one setting has convinced me to keep the Port and pass the ZP80 onto a friend. 

I have no doubt that mains quality contributes to a system’s ability to make my foot tap but if others cannot hear the changes then don’t buy expensive cables and be happy with listening to your music. Our main source of music are the FLAC files copied from our CD collection onto a raid configured NAS drive and I can tell the difference between these and Spotify. If you can’t then expensive cables will be wasted. 

However I get a real thrill when I hear music that gets close to a live performance and little background noises sneak in. 

Please try switching off the variable output and see if you can hear any difference.

Why did I buy something that on first listening appeared to be inferior - I wanted my Harmony Elite to control the music I listened to through my amp and the ZP80 will only allow this if the queue is put through an Alexa compatible device. So I was using my kitchen Play 1s to queue the music and then Sonosnet to listen on my ZP80 rather than the more stable Ethernet connection. This meant interference from say a microwave oven would stop play. Now when you have your eyes shut and you are listening to one of your favourite tracks this is really annoying.

To answer jgatie and davnos I will after buying a Chord cable (so I can put my Crystal Cu back on the CD player) may try an upgrade of the power supply but only if I can hear a difference and keep tapping my foot.

I can't hear a difference between variable and fixed output. Even if I could I'll be sticking with variable for the convenience of Sonos volume control rather than having to manually change it on my amp but ymmv. 

Describing these things as “snake oil” is a bit much - at least in my experience. I used to own a Marantz DV4200 DVD-player and an SR5200 receiver and have heard differences between the supplied coaxial cable and the Oehlbach cable I replaced it with.