Is Wyred 4 Sound's Sonos Connect upgrade worth it?

Only if you believe in stuff like that. The claims made for the mods almost never show up in A-B-X blind testing (High-end sample rate converter made by TI, Low jitter clock with less than .5ps jitter), and some rise to the level of snake-oil (Low noise power supply).

As to the last two claims, all Sonos devices have a "micro processor controller" (as do almost every digital device made). Ditto for input & output digital buffers; Sonos couldn't do what it does without an I/O buffer. When a company resorts to listing mundane and ubiquitous "features" like these as something unique and special, red flags go up everywhere. It's like listing channel changing and color display as unique features on a TV set.

Also, some of these aftermarket mods have been reported as compromising wireless performance and causing the player to run rather hot.

mightyprops wrote:

I"m a budding audiophile, but also really like the convenience of my Sonos Connect. Has anyone tried the Wyred 4 Sound upgrade to their Sonos Connect, and if so, can they tell me their experience or results?

https://wyred4sound.com/products/upgrades-and-mods/sonos-connect-modified

As it's a $550 upgrade, I'm quite curious to know if it's worth it. Thanks!

I think it's worth it. But it also depends on your music taste. I think you will notice less benefit with hard rock music as it's so in your face anyway. But if you like other types music where sound stage and dimensionality are easier to discern you will see the benefits more. But I just today did a side by side comp of a stock connect and a Wyred Connect listening to Talking Heads Cross Eyed and Painless and the separation and fullness was subtle but obvious on the Wyred. I did a blind demo with my daughter when I first got the Wyred and she nailed it right away and described it as a "fullness" and she is a typical 20 year old music listener. I had a Airbnb guest listen and he was a jazz fan. He wanted to listen to Miles Davis So What from Kinda Blue. He nailed the Wyred right away and said it just sounded more heavenly.

So if you are only listen to music casually or as wall paper or blair R&R then its a marginal improvement and may not be worth it. For critical listening it transforms the Connect into a legit piece of Audiophile gear.

You do know that this mod is for digital out only? So you need to be going into an external DAC.

So they're adding some "audiophile" EQ, no doubt. Kinda like the tube amps with the secret sauce, nothing more than a not-flat response and low damping factor for flabby bass; simple to reproduce in DSP, but far less than optimal SQ.

I just did some more direct comparison between the stock unit and w4s connect. On Tom Petty's Wasted Life song there is bongo/conga style percussion throughout the song. On the stock unit it's audible moving to the front between Petty's lyrical breaks. On the W4S it comes alive and is on full display with a nice tone. Even with my beleaguered hearing it's easy to tell the difference. Overall it just makes it makes for a more pleasant listening experience.

Great. Now try it double-blind after level-matching within 0.1db, and get back to us... If you still hear a difference, they're coloring the sound, never a good thing.

Let us pray upon the cold stark alter of neutrality

Double sigh.

This thread should be pinned at the top of the board for matters of hilariousness. Evangelists of any acoustic religion shall rejoice reading through it.
Meanwhile in the real world, young people (possible future customers) are enjoying music through internal laptop and smartphone speakers...

I forgot to mention the bass; flabulous just fullllabulous.

Apart from all else, what does the mod do to reliability? Sonos warranty obviously will no longer apply.

Reliability is always a concern with modifications but this modification has been around for years. I have only been running mine for a few weeks and it has not had a single burp. I dropped it off at my local retailer to let those guys see what they thought. Coincidently, the Golden Ear reps were schedule later that week to demo on their new flagship Triton Reference Speaker (~$9K out the door). After listening to the Connect for a few days they thought enough of it to include it as a source along with a stack of Moon Audio equipment to drive the Tritons when they had a demo night of the product with a room full of potential customers. Wyred4Sound has been been around for 10 years now and they answer the phone. I would give Wyred4Sound a call and talk to them if I was thinking about a purchase, I did.

Yawn.

your forgot :8

No, I'm past being annoyed by nonsense like this. Just bored now.

Though the goldens ears thing was hysterical. Thanks for the laugh.

jgatie wrote:

No, I'm past being annoyed by nonsense like this. Just bored now.

Great, Always strive for full spectrum emotions.

Back to OP question. I forgot to mention the stream source. I have been using Deezer elite which streams at Red Book standard 16/44. I thought I would try a different source for a listen. I switched over to RadioParadise which streams at aac 320 and is pretty good quality. The first tune that I compared was a little difficult to discern any difference. Then Nine came on from Patti Smith's Banga album. On the stock Connect Verlaine's tasteful guitar is their, present but caged. On the W4S it's unleashed into space and full bloom in the room. Bliss.🆒

Wow, I wouldn't want Tom Verlaine's guitar to be caged. Those Jaguars were meant to be free! Free Tom Verlaine! Free his guitar!

🆒

Familiar voiced problems with Connect:
1. It is too expensive
2. It is too cheap
3. The built in DAC sucks because there isn't enough price left for it by the low Connect price
4. It isn't good enough until it is modified, its clock isn't good enough
5. It is no longer bit perfect to the source and has lost its virginity
6. It doesn't have enough types of inputs/outputs

Sonos has a solution with more up to date tech in them - the play units/Sub, true play tuned for specific room response equalisation.

I look forward to the derisory noises🆒 but lacking golden ears, may not hear all of them.

The OP is missing, but hopefully that is because he escaped the audiophile jungle, not because he is ensnared in it somewhere.

Ah, the "golden eared" types are amusing, so technically ignorant.

Sigh

Kumar wrote:

Apart from all else, what does the mod do to reliability? Sonos warranty obviously will no longer apply.

According to Wyred4Sound the mod is warrantied for a year and if you buy the entire unit (connect+mod) from them then the Sonos and the mod is covered, by them I expect. I would also expect, as you said, Sonos would tell you to take a hike.

My connect was many years old so...

Fair number of connects floating about on Craigslist these days so picking one on the cheap and doing the mod is an option.

chicks wrote:

Great. Now try it double-blind after level-matching within 0.1db, and get back to us... If you still hear a difference, they're coloring the sound, never a good thing.

Jitter is a measurable variable...certain types of power supplies are lower in noise noise than others...but it is not always financially advisable to pay for the best money can buy.

One may not reason himself out of a situation he did not first reason himself into...

Below a certain threshold, jitter is inaudible in any properly conducted double blind test ever tried. This is a fact. Audible noise from a properly performing power supply being present in a digital playback stream has never been shown by any properly conducted double blind test ever tried. This is also a fact.

Interesting thread. I've considered the Wyred4Sound mod also. I have the Wyred4Sound STI-1000 amp, and it's far better than either of my other amps, one of which is a golden-age Sansui AU909. For most non-critical listening the Sonos Connect isn't bad, but since I already had a TEAC DAC, I ran the digital out into the TEAC (UD-301) and then ran a balanced (XLR) connection to my amp and it does have a better sound than using the Connect's audio output to my amp's RCA connection.. I'm not going to use silly descriptors of the difference but the sound is less tiring to my ears. I just don't know if I should pull the trigger on an upgrade while new streaming (like FLAC with MQA) is still such a young technology. It would be nice if we knew whether the onboard DAC in the Connect, a third party mod, or a new bit of hardware all together will be needed to support the new formats in a cost-effective way.

I usually just procrastinate on upgrades anyway.

User133066 wrote:

I usually just procrastinate on upgrades anyway.

My vote is for this option.