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toontownteam
Contributor I
January 21, 2021
Answered

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

  • January 21, 2021
  • 15 replies
  • 1125 views

Hello, I have one of the original sonos systems (the one they initally said they were going to abandon, but still works great!).

It is wired into my hifi system (a Naim amp) and I listen through a decent pair of B&W speakers. I use spotify and am happy, but was thinking of upgrading to QoBuz because it streams at a higher bit rate (FLAC). Will my sonos system process this or will I have to upgrade my sonos products to take advantage of the better sound quality of Qobuz? Thank you

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Best answer by John B

Sonos never said they were going to abandon older devices, but leaving that aside…

From launch Sonos has been capable of playing lossless, CD quality, 16-bit FLAC and ALAC files.

15 replies

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Kumar
January 22, 2021

No, it does not work, that is for sure. I use the Spotify app, and connect to a target Sonos speaker via that app.

I have had to resort to deleting songs that are otherwise excellent from my party playlists, simply because this feature is missing and the song is usually too low in sound levels and very rarely, too high.

From what I understand, the feature only works on the device that is hosting the app - and therefore logically, it should work on Sonos if the hosting device is wired to Sonos Line In. One of these days, I need to test this...

ratty
ratty
January 22, 2021

Are you not able to AirPlay from the Spotify native app?

Kumar
January 22, 2021

Are you not able to AirPlay from the Spotify native app?

I don’t have AirPlay capable Sonos kit, I have chosen to remain on S1.

ratty
ratty
January 22, 2021

Are you not able to AirPlay from the Spotify native app?

I don’t have AirPlay capable Sonos kit, I have chosen to remain on S1.

There are several AirPlay-supporting Sonos players which can run S1, but evidently none are in your current arsenal. You could play with Bluetoothing to one of your Echo devices instead.

    Kumar
    January 22, 2021

    You could play with Bluetoothing to one of your Echo devices instead.

    Very good idea for a lazy test - and the first impression based on a few tracks is that normalisation as implemented by Spotify works!

    Of course I then lose the album art on the Echo Spot, so I need to see how to get an old phone, and use it wired to a line in, setting up the phone to display album art. A project, but worth the effort.

    I really should have thought of this sooner...

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