Does original Sonos system stream in Lossless/FLAC or do I need to upgrade?

Thank you John. So in theory if I sign up to Qobuz, link it to my original sonos system by managing the service settings in the normal way for adding a service, then play tracks through the sonos it should do the job in FLAC etc.

Please forgive me for labouring the point (and probably appearing thick), but somehow I was convinced from something I read somewhere that it was limited to 320mbps.

No there is no such limitation to 320kbps (if it could do 320mbps that would be impressive!) and never has been.  Sonos cannot play so-called ‘hires’ 24-bit files from streaming services.  You would have to check what Qobuz actually offers.  But there are lots of services now offering CD quality options, including Deezer, Amazon Music and Tidal.

John,

That is really helpful, thank you :)

I for one cannot hear any difference between CD quality and Spotify 320 kbps, even when played through my “HiFi” set up.

Not only do you not need to change hardware, but I suggest taking the claims for better sound from the likes of Qobuz with a pinch of salt.

What instead is sorely needed is for all songs from a particular streaming service to play at the same sound level if the volume control has not been touched. As far as I know, no one offers this, and sound level fluctuations from one track to the next are more detrimental to the listening experience than claimed/alleged SQ improvements via ever more bits and bytes in the streams which also often lead to interruption when the WiFi environment fails to cope with the increase in bits and bytes. Especially in the case of stable grouped play of multiple speakers, which is the only remaining USP of Sonos.

Spotify has this - just not from the Sonos app. If you use the Spotify app you get volume normalization

But since this does not work on Sonos even via the native app, I have no idea as to how well it works! Let alone not being able to get the benefit for my listening.

As to Spotify - has anyone felt the benefit in any other system? As far as I can tell it will only be available via the phone speakers or via headphones plugged into the phone, but is there a clear improvement on this aspect then? 

It should also be there with a phone connected to the Line in jacks on Sonos - I need to run this test sometime.

@Kumar Do your speakers not show up in the Spotify app? I do believe volume normalization works when you stream to Sonos via the Spotify app.

In my system "Zolder” and “Huiskamer” are Sonos speakers/systems I can stream to.