Zp 24/96

Yes, but they are provided by Sonos primarily for users. They also post official announcements from the customer support team on Facebook and Twitter.

And, regardless, Sonos has a company policy not to publicly comment on potential future developments. It's a very sensible policy and one which is shared by just about every company I can think of, for good reason.

I know and one I agree with, I've never asked for Sonos to comment on matters like that. I'm simply pointing out that Sonos can't treat these forums as if they're nothing to do with them, when they patently are.

I wish there was a popcorn-eating smiley available. I am following this topic with high interest. Not because i care much about 24/96, but because of the hefty-ness of the discussion...

I assume there are a lot of people like me, who think the currently possible quality is good enough for their ears. There are probably even more people (all of our friends are) who don't even care about bitrates, and are perfectly happy with the soundquality of whatever the source is.

I do not have any objection against implementing new features and/or better quality sound support, but it should not interfere with the practicallity of a mid-range hifi system like the Sonos devices.

In my opinion Buzz made a good point about the very vocal advocates.

Lossless audio was very common; most people where primarily using cd-players for their home-audio.

I mean lossless digital files, as you well know.

Cheers,

Keith

Some of the moderators on here seem to use rather immoderate language, such as "I'm not going to respond to the rest of your little tantrum."
The original post by therixonator was a well thought out analysis of several years discussion on this thread. However, the response from Majik in particular was neither constructive or even handed.

My post was extremely even handed, and was response on a rather childish little rant aimed at me which I chose to largely ignore (and which I see you have chosen to ignore in your attack against me).

Your post, on the other hand was immoderate, unconstructive, and definitely not even handed. Your criticism is based on the person, not on the post.

If I hadn't had the word "moderator" against my name you wouldn't have commented. But some people will seize on any excuse to pick on a user whose opinion they disagree with.

Picking on a moderator like this is easy because there is no defence I can make which doesn't appear to support you accusation even if, like in this instance, there is no basis to the accusation.

It's a cowards approach.

Unjustified criticism of users (including moderators) is a personal attack. This was an unjustified criticism, and further posts in this vein will not be tolerated.

Keith

My post was extremely even handed, and was response on a rather childish little rant aimed at me which I chose to largely ignore (and which I see you have chosen to ignore in your attack against me).

Your post, on the other hand was immoderate, unconstructive, and definitely not even handed. Your criticism is based on the person, not on the post.

It's a cowards approach.

Unjustified criticism of users (including moderators) is a personal attack. This was an unjustified criticism, and further posts in this vein will not be tolerated.

Keith

I read through his posts (although I may have missed the offending one you are referring to) and could not find the words you seemed to take issue with.

I apologize if you feel that my criticism was unjustified. My criticism was based on the post which seemed to call somebody childish or at least that they were having a childish rant.

Another component in the SONOS decision to support 24/96 are the support and loss of business costs.

....
I can imagine the uproar -- "I bought a WIRELESS system and now I'm, told that I must WIRE my units if I want the system to actually work!!" It would be hard to deny these points too.


In the interests of balance 🙂 I would totally agree that the issue of backwards compatibility is the biggest issue facing SONOS when they look at whether/how to implement 24/96 support.
This is also a delima for any tech company that has a product that relies on a range of networked devices (ignoring the particulars of 24/96 for a moment). In this case SONOS could run the risk of being stuck with out of date tech. The choice is can the specification evolve or will they need to produce something totally new, ie with only limited backwards compatibility. This issue does not just apply to 24/96 but other issues such as the 65,000 track limit or potential new streaming services.

The only thing I care about is that we can have an open and fair debate on the subject of hi-res on Sonos on this forum. The rest will just wash over me.

Going back to keith's post in 308, I was having a chat with some squeezebox users on AVF, the transporter AND the squeezebox 3/classic play 24/96 so squeezebox should be regarded as a hires multiroom solution. The server analyses which players can support which formats, and any that can't support the format in hand have the track down sampled to the best the player can play. I'm not suggesting this is a solution for Sonos, I'm just saying this is what SB do and pointing out that it has a multiroom hires solution.

Also, new to the market, Simple Audio are offering a multiroom system, they have 2 boxes, one with amplification, one without, both handle 24bit and can be controlled via ipad/iphone. No one has one on AVF yet so not a lot is known about userbility, functionality etc, but there is now a 2nd multiroom competitor out there offering 24bit.

I'm in complete agreement that Linn, Naim and the single room crew have it easy in their compatibility with hi-res. No wifi strain to worry about makes it unfair to compare to Sonos, no qualms there. I don't really see Linn and Naim as a streaming solution personally because of the single room nature, I would just keep playing CDs.

On the more recent backwards compatibility question, I'm in agreement with what's been said already. Wireless is is important and a cornerstone to Sonos. Hi-res should not impact connectivity. This will be, I'm sure, a major factor in the R&D.

I think any customer interested in the output of 24/96 would probably be comfortable making a few concessions knowing the inherent difficulty of streaming the file size.

As was said - high-res is a niche market.

So, I don't see 'Joe The User' being upset that he has to wire his wireless system as he probably doesn't use high-res. The flip side is that SONOS currently brands itself as:
"The Wireless HiFi System"
and
"Able to play all music on the Earth"

So, either way you're not exactly fulfilling the promise. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

There should be something easy SONOS could do in the interim to allow playback of 24/96 - just as a temporary measure. Something to appease those that want it. Maybe make it so only one zone at a time can stream high res? Maybe make it that only wired zones? Something.

Also, new to the market, Simple Audio are offering a multiroom system, they have 2 boxes, one with amplification, one without, both handle 24bit and can be controlled via ipad/iphone. No one has one on AVF yet so not a lot is known about userbility, functionality etc, but there is now a 2nd multiroom competitor out there offering 24bit.

Two points here, Simple Audio is not new to the market, it hasn't reached the market at all yet, until it does, it's vapourware. Secondly, it's not a wireless system, it uses powerline networking, whether you want it or not (that would make it next to useless in my property, the two halves of the house are on separate circuits).

Squeezebox has unreliable syncing when downrezzing/decoding at the server, whether it be 24/96 or ALAC, which isn't directly supported on all players. Specifically, audio quality is compromised in order to maintain sync, not something an Audiophile 24/96 aficionado wishes to hear. :rolleyes: In addition, Squeezebox syncing, even when perfect, is on the order of 10 times the acceptable delay of Sonos, in addition to dropping quality on internet radio and server processed formats. The new Simple Audio system does not sync zones at all, although they claim it is in the works for a future release. If history is an indicator, any system which does not include sync from the get go is always going to be playing catchup to Sonos.