I know Sonos does not currently support high quality Flacs. With S2 being a thing for a while now I am curious if there are any plans to start supporting higher quality Flac files? I guess this is mostly a question to Sonos staff, and I know it has been asked before. Just curious if anything has changed since then.
Any plans to support 96000Hz flac?
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Sonos doesn’t share their roadmap. The only way you’ll find out is when they release it...or slightly earlier by joining their beta program, at which point I’d think there would be an NDA.
It has been a request for a long time, though, so I’d feel comfortable in saying it’s on their list. How high a priority, or even if it is technically feasible given the software and hardware currently in Sonos systems, I would have no idea.
+6Sonos doesn’t share their roadmap. The only way you’ll find out is when they release it...or slightly earlier by joining their beta program, at which point I’d think there would be an NDA.
It has been a request for a long time, though, so I’d feel comfortable in saying it’s on their list. How high a priority, or even if it is technically feasible given the software and hardware currently in Sonos systems, I would have no idea.
Perhaps me asking is also a bit showing to Sonos as a reminder there is interest in it (al through my entire collection at that rate would cause my NAS to fill before I hit the ‘B’ of my collection :p).
I always did wonder about their beta program and if it was an idea to join that. Or if you may experience more problem if you do that. Anybody here have experience with that?
I’d assume that if they did have experience with it, the NDA would preclude discussion of it. Certainly all of the gaming oriented betas I have run have included such a clause.
Please! I cannot fathom why Sonos does not introduce the higher res ability in the here and now!
Smart tech companies are not sitting on their hands and waiting around,to grab a piece of the market.A market which is growing quickly….and...people want the best sound that they can get.
This is 2020…..I mean,Sonos does happen to market the Play 5,in their videos,as pushing the envelope and the best they have to offer,as well as being state of the art….The drivers are certainly capable of reproducing a higher caliber of sound….and...Sonos sits on their hands with offering higher quality sound?
Additionally,Sonos stock could use all the help it can get!
I have 2 Play 5’s and the Sub…..I’m not unhappy at all with the sound,but if I am not going to ultimately move to a B&W,or Devialet,I’d like to see Sonos give folks like me the damn high res already!
Sorry for my rant,but c’mon already,the S-2 App was quite underwhelming sonically!
Science and scientific blind testing does not support the Hi Res claims for better audible sound quality; downsampled Hi Res from the same master sounds identical at the same sound levels from the same speakers in the same location.
Be prepared therefore to be underwhelmed whenever Sonos does make Hi Res available. Or, even better, don’t lose sleep over any imaginary lack in Sonos because Hi Res is missing.
+6I’d assume that if they did have experience with it, the NDA would preclude discussion of it. Certainly all of the gaming oriented betas I have run have included such a clause.
I don’t mean about the content, but more if people who join it think its a good or bad idea for others to join based on their experiance.
gaming betas? Sound for games or uhm.. I hope not actual games :)
I’m not that clueless,but apparently some people are…..I do remember you as quite the contrarian.I had once mentioned that I’d not respond to your s***** and in this case rather ignorant response,but I’ve made an exception here….You definitely don’t know what you are talking about and I’m pretty much done with you.
Sorry to the author of this thread….Let’s hope Sonos gives many of us music lovers the ability to play High Res….Amazon Music,as well as Spotify and others, certainly would not offer this if it was not viable.
I have heard the difference and it is a worthy addition.
*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the community guidelines.*
Right. Amazon HD is a fast one pulled by Amazon in calling their CD format service by that name. But hey, if calling it HD music makes it sound better than CD quality that Sonos does support, why not?
Especially if it finds buyers.
More on Amazon HD:
How Amazon calls CD resolution as HD is a mystery, and appears to be something that they have done unilaterally in an attempt to redefine HD to being what they are doing. I have no idea if this will succeed.
Sonos is a beneficiary of this stunt, being also labeled HD capable overnight with nothing have changed from what they have been capable of since their inception.
Conclusion? Sonos does HD already - hooray and thanks to this Amazon stunt!!
As to Spotify - I have a premium subscription and it is set to highest quality - which I believe is not even CD resolution, but 320 Kbps. But the same songs sound identical to those played on my kit from my NAS from losslessly ripped CDs. As do 256 Kbps AAC streams from Apple Music.
Yes, I know...I have got lousy hearing and/or kit that isn't good enough.
Spotify streams at Ogg Vorbis 320kbps, which will probably sound as close to lossless as any lossy online stream can.
As for the original question, I’d be amazed if Sonos started to handle sampling rates over 48kHz system-wide. Bandwidth demands at 96kHz would instantly double, or triple if the 16->24bit transition is factored in. SonosNet could struggle with a group of any size, and all for what?
Ultrasonics which have been demonstrated to be inaudible, are possibly damaging to the audible band owing to intermodulation products and, since to my knowledge none of the Sonos speakers feature a supertweeter, would be filtered out therein anyway.
All that said, the marketing pressure for a scientifically senseless ‘tick-box’ exercise continues to grow, so I’d not be surprised if one day Sonos claims that sampling rates over 48kHz can be handled by, say, Port through its digital out, possibly requiring either a 5GHz WiFi or a wired network connection.
Yes, I know...I have got lousy hearing and/or kit that isn't good enough.
Same must apply here… I tested single blind flac v various mp3 qualities. At 320Kbps I couldn’t tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC. This was using both a trad AV setup and Sonos kit.
SonosNet could struggle with a group of any size, and all for what?
This is a big thing, that the Hi Res Kool Aid drinkers don't seem to get.
The Sonos USP is wireless grouped play in perfect sync, and if this gets affected what’s the point? Nothing kills sound quality faster than distractions of grouped speakers dropping on/off or music play stuttering. Even those rare humans with the golden ears to pick the difference between 320 and CD lossless will any day prefer stable 320 to a stuttering lossless experience.
Hi Res will, I believe, demand wiring all grouped players to the core network if grouped Hi Res streams far in excess of lossless CD is to play properly, and how many will be ok with that for the imagined benefits?
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