Sonos Connect. Still worth buying???

Hi all, just to update this thread. I picked up a Connect unit on eBay yesterday. It should arrive Thursday. I’ll let you know how I get on. Thanks to all for your valuable input.

The ‘audiophiles’ are the ones putting me off!! Loads of people destroying the connect on forums
It is their loss; the Connect is as audibly transparent as any other digital source. The only reason to not invest in one in your case would be if the 3020 was on its last legs - always hard to know, but if you have access to repair shops when needed, that too is not an issue.

I have two Connect's, They're great for adding to an existing setup. I would not say they are the last word in absolute quality, but then Sonos have never claimed they were. As noted, they have a digital output option which allows you to connect them to equipment that does a better job of A/D conversion, however, if used in a multi-room system, only the analogue outputs from the connect are guaranteed to be in sync with other Sonos components such as Play speakers. You'll notice a slight delay from the Connect in party mode through the digital outs. Nothing to stop you connecting both, as the last word in quality probably doesn't matter for grouped room music.

Arcam used to make a dedicated DAC for the connect called Sonlink that sat under the connect and improved the sound quality, it might be worth searching one out on the bay. I had one and it definitely improved the quality.

When paired with a streaming service like Qobuz which does CD quality, and then fed to a high quality DAC the Connect gives the convienience of the Sonos system in a high quality environment for much much less than many high end sources, so I think it still has a place and mine still gets used, albeit through a much better DAC unit.

It's only drawback is the lack of support in the Sonos ecosystem for higher resolution audio, but as said, paired with a streamer that can do that, you get the best of both worlds, Sonos ease of use with streaming and search, and great SQ from all sources.

Thanks Ian, I tend to agree totally with this. Mine arrived yesterday & I’ve had a good listen today & tbh The Airport Express I was using previously had a much more ‘open’ & pleasing sound.
If I’d paid £350 for this I would be very disappointed indeed.
I had done a fair bit of research before buying & picked up an Arcam Rdac from eBay at the same time.
The sound through the Rdac is better than the audio outs on the Connect alone but surprisingly I still much prefer the sound through the Airport Express.
I can tell that the sound could be improved considerably with the correct Dac though.
The convenience of being able to play the same audio in the living room, dining room & kitchen is enticing though.
What Dac are you currently using?

I'm running the connect through a Naim ND5 XS streamer. My local library is effectively doubled catalogued, once in Sonos, and then again through minimserver running on the NAS. That allows me to also keep the hi-res audio away from the Sonos system, which doesn't play the files anyway. I buy mostly through Qobuz as for the higher res stuff they let you download lesser formats as well, so use those for the Sonos share.

I also run a connect into a Marantz AV amp with just a pair of Monitor Audio speakers in the study.

I have Play:1's, 3's and the original 5 too in other rooms, and good as the Plays are for what they are, they don't compare to a proper system. They are though very convenient and much easier to setup in most rooms, and for me it's that flexibility that makes the Sonos system worthwhile.

Ha, just googled the Naim. Think that may be a little over budget for me. I bet that sounds absolutely amazing! I bought the Dac second hand. The guy I bought it from said he’d only run it for about 50 hours max. I’m going to leave it running for a week & see if it sounds any better. I’d really like to keep the connect as I really like the App & the flexibility of the systen.

If you really like the flexibility of it then that's reason enough to keep it, sit back, and just enjoy listening to music. That's the great thing about these systems, you can just listen to what you want and change tack with the content as much as you like.

Sorry... the optical for the airport is for output.... ignore previous comment about using it... 🙂

The only scientific way to establish that the Connect DAC is audibly inferior to any other, regardless of brand name or price point, is by a controlled level matched listening blind test. Which no one has done or ever does; in its absence, there are a lot of subjective opinions tossed around, mostly influenced by psychological factors or variation in sound levels as low as 0.1 dB. Those that buy an expensive DAC cannot help hearing differences to justify the spend to themselves. That is human nature at work.

And just as subjective is this opinion that I found based on my admittedly imperfect blind listening tests. No audible difference between the Connect DAC and one in a Marantz KI Pearl SACD player, both playing via Quad 99/909, into Harbeth C7 Speakers.

This needs a postscript, because of a small "problem" in the Connect; the analog output signal voltage is slightly lower than that of most CD players and DACs - 2 volts against 2.2/2.4. How this affects the sound quality heard and the easy fix follows:

The human hearing/brain are such that music heard at sound levels that are lower by as little as 0.2 dB, even 0.1 db is not heard as lower volume, but as lower sound quality until the difference become a lot larger. Thin sounding, lacking presence...all the usual pejoratives are perceived just because of this little difference. This little nugget is well known to all salesmen of stereo kit - the well trained ones of high end kit, at any rate. Which is why the controlled blind test has to be done using instruments to exactly match the sound levels of the two alternates being evaluated.

If therefore the Connect is wired to the set up I referred via both analog and digital outputs, with analog outputs going direct to the Quad preamp, and digital ones going to the Marantz and thence to the Quad, switching back and forth in the sources on the Quad has it receive a slightly lower voltage from the Connect, automatically leading to slightly lower sound levels from the Harbeths, at the SAME volume control setting on the Quad. No prizes then for guessing which sounds inferior. But the easy fix I referred to is bumping up the volume controls just a tad where the Connect analog output is being used. Approximating exactly what would be done in a blind test.

And I am not just a Sonos fanboy. If I was, I would not say this: the DAC in the Chromecast Audio, that costs 10% of the price of the Connect, has a DAC that is audibly just as good as that in the Connect, or as that in the USD 2000 Marantz player. So if one can live with the feature set of the Chromecast, there is no need to buy the Connect. As to the Marantz, along with CDs and SACDs, it now obsolete because what it plays is obsolete media.

What can muddy the waters here is that many external DACs are sold with filters that also shape the sound, like the EQ settings on the Connect do. But for an apples to apples comparison of just DAC performance, these have to be disengaged on both sides. Such external DAC may still prevail as a purchasing choice, if its filters do more to shape/customise the sound than the EQ of the Connect can. But then what is prevailing isn't the DAC, but the extended range/sophistication of the filters.

With these bolt on filters out of the frame, in today's audio kit, a DAC is a DAC is a DAC. Just a cheap commodity.

Finally, that sound from audio kit, other than some brands of new speakers, changes or improves over time is a myth. What happens is that the brain adjusts to the new sound signature, leading to the improvement of the kit illusion. The rest of the improvement heard is psychological as well - Confirmation Bias at work.

Reinforced by one common trait in audiophiles - they desperately want to believe all the marketing that has driven their spend. Or to be able to continue with the hobby of churning their equipment, using music as just a test signal.