Zp 24/96

It would also put more strain on the wireless network. So maybe Sonos will just not do it because things should always work. It would disappoint customers with a lot of zones and less-than-optimum wireless coverage.

Yes, the load will be higher, since the bitrate goes up. If we're talking uncompressed audio then these are the theoretical numbers (in kilobits per second):
16 / 44.1 (stereo): 1411.2
16 / 48 (stereo): 1536
24 / 96 (stereo): 4608
24 / 192 (stereo): 9216

This is without taking any error checking, word lengths, sub code or other protocol overhead into account.

So we're talking about roughly 5 Mbps for 24/96 and twice that amount if it were 24/192.

For a wireless-N like network that should not be of such a problem, with a theoretical maximum of 300 Mbps.
If you have 10 zones, all playing different hi-def tracks simultaneously, the first zoneplayer (the one wired to your network) must stream 9 or 10 times that amount of data wirelessly (depending if it is only a bridge or a player). Depending on the locations of the other zoneplayers, one or more of them also have to pass on a certain multiple of the data, and that can make your wireless network somewhat crowded.
I am not a wifi expert, so when only looking at the numbers, I'd expect no issues with streaming hi-def audio, although the highest possible bit rate is almost 7 times higher than the current 16/44.1 audio.
But I know by experience that wifi networks aren't that efficient / reliable when multiple nodes continuously exchange bulk data at high speeds, so there might be an issue there.

...Sonos Forum members have demonstrated themselves to be generally, but not necessarily, more technical and likely to be members of the 'higher-end audiophile' category of user. As such, I am not sure we (and I am being kind to myself) are the market as a whole that they are attempting to address.
With this in mind, I am curious as to what % of the market (that Sonos is attempting to address as a whole) that forum members think want 24/96 support. I think it is quite small and that therefore Sonos has put this upgrade way down on the priority list. It might be easily to implement design-wise but there are a lot of other factors that would result from this that would take company resources away from other things they want to do.

I think that the general Sonos purchaser is somewhat hifi-aware. Otherwise he/she would have bought a Philips Streamium :)
So in general, the market would be ready for a hi-def Sonos, as long as it is backwards compatible and you can mix both types of zoneplayers (standard-def and hi-def) in one environment.

Look at Squeeze Box's solution. A Hi-def player, able to play 24/96 (I'm not sure if it scales down) with decent gold-plated balanced connections. That's a (sur)real audiophile machine and works beautifully alongside the standard SqueezeBox types.

So my suggestion would be to offer both types of Zoneplayers, and give the standard-def zoneplayers the option to downscale to 16/44.1.

I'd blindly purchase a ZP-HD once it's on the market.

So my suggestion would be to offer both types of Zoneplayers, and give the standard-def zoneplayers the option to downscale to 16/44.1.


I believe the current hardware is technically capable of 24 bit (and it certainly is capable of 48k). I would suspect that IF there's a restriction (and I'm not saying there is) it's on the DSP bandwidth available to handle higher-res formats. Downsample will probably use more DSP processing than just handling the 24-bit files.

It may be possible to do 96kHz too.

Note that these rates would work with the internal DAC but would mostly only be sensible for an external DAC. Personally I think this would be enough as most people would probably want to use their own choice of external DAC anyway.

Cheers,

Keith

This would be a great addition! It is the only thing stopping me going out buying a pimp dac for my main system, a zone player for the bathroom and bedroom!!

I'm waiting for HiRES since my first download on linnrecords, 2006. And i'm waiting....

But now i want to go on, new dac, new amp...

Everytime i ripp my new CD in lossless flac, but there are files in Studio master quality.

Do i have to go to LINN? Yes, I can - HELLO - If you want to sell a ZP 91..? tell us, say YES.
There is an market. I beleave the SONOS philosophy is the right one, the product is good, the support is good, the people here - a wonderful community.

by the way, in 6 month i will take my mobile G1 to control the sonos, the amp volume, the shutter, the lights...

SONOS - Go this way, go on and we will follow

It sounds to me as if full 24/96 operation might be too much for the current network/hardware architecture to handle. I would venture a guess that most of the users who are interested in this hi-rez operation are (probably) mainly interested in having the hi-rez at their "main" system zone, while other zones could remain 16/44.1 resolution.

Would giving the option of having the system recognize and distribute 24/96 content to one zone, while leaving the other zones in their current resolution help resolve the burden on the wirless network to distribute this high resolution content? That would sure be acceptable to me.

DanG

It sounds to me as if full 24/96 operation might be too much for the current network/hardware architecture to handle. I would venture a guess that most of the users who are interested in this hi-rez operation are (probably) mainly interested in having the hi-rez at their "main" system zone, while other zones could remain 16/44.1 resolution.

DanG

That's exactly how I would use it. My main system certainly has the resolution to take advantage of it - in fact my Esoteric setup already upsamples everything to 24/1536. The rest of my zones are fine at 16/44.1 - I doubt I would ever hook them up to an external DAC.

If Sonos offered a Hi Rez ZP I would buy it without question and just move the ZP90 I've got in my audio room up to the bedroom. I don't think Sonos would be loosing any market share or cannibalizing what they already have, they'd just be tapping into another segment of the audiophile market.

I would concur with what has been said. I would like to see support for hi-rez, even if it is one zone and even if it needs an external dac. That is the way I would use it anyway. I sense there are many audiophiles out there that own a Sonos or would like to buy one but are considering a Transporter or a Sooloos (if they can afford it). I would say Sonos has a finite time to capture this market before they lose it completely.

I also have been waiting a long time for hi-rez format playback even if it was only via the digital out... the credit card is ready to purchase as soon as released.

It may be taxing for the wireless network but I guess they could always downsample for wireless... not sure if you would really need high rez stream throughout the house hold, just for your main listening location.

Chris

I agree that the clock is ticking on this.

Had I not already set up sonos for the rest of the house, I wound have bought the logitech product for my main listening room. And I might just do that anyway. Must just not be enough $ in it to justify building i guess.