Upgrade paths for vinyl on Sonos

1. Yes. Most find it fine. 
2. No idea, and significantly opinion. 
3. Completely up to you. Either way is acceptable. IMHO, the extra expense involved isn't worth it. And truthfully, i sincerely doubt you would hear any difference. 

Looking at that turntable it certainly falls into the decent sound range. The specs are decent but not outstanding and the internal phono preamp looks fairly good.

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at-lp120-usb

At 70 I’d be hard pressed to hear the difference in what you have and a $1000 turntable. The weakest spec for me is the wow and flutter that most folks wouldn’t notice but I’m really sensitive to it. Still spending that much for such a small improvement would be iffy.

A Five or the older Play 5 (gen 2) are going to sound pretty good, the older gen 1 Play 5 isn’t bad either. Getting a new turntable, cartridge, receiver (phono preamp, controls and power amp) and speakers that exceed what Sonos delivers is probably going to start in the $3500 range.

A Sonos Amp instead of the receiver would be cheaper and likely sound as good.

Personally I’d use the USB function to rip all the albums and then add them to my music library. The steps needed to get top quality sound out of an album, even after getting the needed equipment, are a real disruption to enjoying the music. Prep it perfectly once, rip it and if there were no issues (like a dust bunny landing on it) never have to deal with it again.

Great points.  But do I understand correctly that there are significant gains to be made in audio quality by getting new speakers specifically for vinyl to replace the Sonos 5 stereo pair I am currently using? I always thought they were good speakers for the money, and a substantial upgrade would require significant expenditure. Thanks. Brian

Many thanks for all the helpful replies.  It looks like the vinyl/Sonos setup I currently have is likely “good enough” for my ears without going further down the audiophile rabbit hole.  

That is encouraging.  I can spend my retirement $$ on something else. Like food or shelter. :) Or perhaps a more solid piece of furniture to put the deck on. 

Thank you

I’m the wrong person to ask.  My vinyl is played through two Sonos Fives, and I am more than happy with the sound.  But there are differences (notice I don’t say “quality differences”, for that is subjective) in speakers, which is why I list them as alternatives. 

Sonos aren't good "speakers" for the money as they are far more than speakers and that "more" isn't free.

If you look at conventional speakers costing the same as a pair of Fives you can get better speakers. BUT you will have to then add in the cost of a receiver to act as your source and to power them.

When more correctly comparing Sonos to the equipment needed to be fully functional and replace them, Sonos comes in well on the price/quality compairison and well ahead on the simplicity and usability comparisons.

Still nothing Sonos sells is going to replace a kilowatt amp and a $5000 pair of floor standing 200 pound speakers. Been there, done that and quite happy to have passed that all on and gone with Sonos.

Great points. Life - at this stage - is too short for that. Perhaps if Sonos wished to embrace the retro-feel of vinyl they could reissue the old CR200 controller. Who needs an (old) iphone with all the distracting messages when one could have a funky silvery/grey brick to cradle in one hands while listening….

Never liked the CR-200, too small and hard to use. Now the CR-100 would be welcomed back, real push-buttons and worked well from the cradle. Spouse is still mad that Sonos doesn't offer something as usable today.

Maybe something like an Amazon Echo Show but with a few real buttons, not touch-screen or touch-spots but real push it and it clicks buttons. Toss in voice response too.

The cheapest bang for your buck upgrade would be to keep the cartridge, but upgrade the green stylus. I don’t use an Audio Technica cartridge, but they have a pretty robust upgrade path using the same cartridge. You would just have to pop on a new needle. Anything in the AT-VMN95 series should fit the cartridge that came with that table. 

Swapping the stylus to a different style on the same cartridge base isn't really a path to overall better sound. If you read through the documentation you will see the differences are mostly stylus shape.

Having more than one shape stylus available can be useful if you find one shape contacts the groove in a position that is worn or damaged, another shape might find a fresh contact path that avoids the problems. The difficulty is keeping track of which stylus works best on which album and of course the effort of continually swapping them.

Changing to a better cartridge and stylus might give you better sound if the changes realized are enough greater than all other factors impacting the sound. The difficulty there is picking "better" as cost alone should not be an initial selection factor. The whole topic suffers from audiophile attitudes making usable reviews hard to find and few manufacturers offer complete enough specifications to choose. A complex issue best addressed in a turntable dedicated forum.

If you want some non expert level discussion Crutchfield .Com has some excellent coverage of these. Gotta shop carefully though as even just AT offerings range from $50 to $900 and many folks would be hard pressed to hear most differences (aside from the shape issues mentioned above.) The one most folks would notice is the stereo separation differences. That is more a body than stylus shape issue though.

Running a Pro-Ject Debut Evo 2 + Alva Solo into a Sonos Five via Sonos Port. It’s great for what it is, but room limitations prevent me from going full analog HiFi. I was about to add one more Five for stereo pair + Sub 4 (Sub needs to be tested as opinions differ), but for now I decided to wait and see what Sonos drops later this year. If the rumors of an improved Five or Era 500 are true, that might be the perfect compromise for my space (new couple of Era 500 + Sub).