Upgrade paths for vinyl on Sonos

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
January 8, 2026
12 replies
460 views

For almost 20 years, I have enjoyed the convenience and quality of a Sonos system.

However I am now looking to play vinyl again as I am now 65 and have a little time to properly savour the experience.

I have a ATLP120USB deck purchased ten years ago for my wife to play her record collection and help her transfer her records to digital stoage. Unfortunately, she passed away before she was able to get much use out of it. I would like now to play her records (and a few of my own) giving as much audiophile justice as my 65-year-old ears will allow.

Since I am so fully invested in the Sonos system, my initial plan was to play records using this deck with a FosiX2 preamp (bought to test signal path) and line in to Port or Sonos 5 speaker (as part of stereo pair.)

The sound is good, but it doesn’t quite match up to my memory of the sound from my Rega Planar/NAD/Kef separates 40 years ago.

So my questions are

Am I fundamentally limited by the A2D conversion in Sonos?
Is there a modest upgrade (USD 500-1000) to my current turntable (still using the stock AT green cartridge) and/or preamp which will deliver substantially better results.
Should I bypass Sonos entirely and just buy a pair of bookshelf (wired) speakers like the Triangles to hook my current deck/preamp into?

The sound us good and perfectly liveable with, but if I can get a discernible improvement with a modest investment, I am all ears.

Many thanks

Brian

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Best answer by jgatie

Sonos ADC is lossless, so you won’t find any difference going full analog (the “fact” that an ADC conversion loses fidelity is a myth). A preamp is 100 year old technology, I highly doubt you can improve on it by spending more $$$, unless you are seeking a placebo effect. Turntable upgrade may be worth it, there are certainly differences in cartridge quality that can be heard. However, the very biggest differences, IMHO, are speakers. That’s where I’d put my money if I were not looking for bragging rights that come with audiophile expenditures.

Show previous replies

Stanley_4

Grand Maestro

Swapping the stylus to a different style on the same cartridge base isn't really a path to overall better sound. If you read through the documentation you will see the differences are mostly stylus shape.

Having more than one shape stylus available can be useful if you find one shape contacts the groove in a position that is worn or damaged, another shape might find a fresh contact path that avoids the problems. The difficulty is keeping track of which stylus works best on which album and of course the effort of continually swapping them.

Changing to a better cartridge and stylus might give you better sound if the changes realized are enough greater than all other factors impacting the sound. The difficulty there is picking "better" as cost alone should not be an initial selection factor. The whole topic suffers from audiophile attitudes making usable reviews hard to find and few manufacturers offer complete enough specifications to choose. A complex issue best addressed in a turntable dedicated forum.

If you want some non expert level discussion Crutchfield .Com has some excellent coverage of these. Gotta shop carefully though as even just AT offerings range from $50 to $900 and many folks would be hard pressed to hear most differences (aside from the shape issues mentioned above.) The one most folks would notice is the stereo separation differences. That is more a body than stylus shape issue though.

V

VVitaly

Lyricist I

Running a Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2 + Alva Solo into a Sonos Five via Sonos Port. It’s great for what it is, but room limitations prevent me from going full analog HiFi. I was about to add one more Five for stereo pair + Sub 4 (Sub needs to be tested as opinions differ), but for now I decided to wait and see what Sonos drops later this year. If the rumors of an improved Five or Era 500 are true, that might be the perfect compromise for my space (new couple of Era 500 + Sub).

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