anybody replaced their Connect with a Port?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.techhive.com/article/3546333/sonos-port-review.amp.html
 

Updated Port review on Techhive. Now with input from Sonos. Apparently the Port does process the sound differently from the Connect via Digital Out. 

The DSP, according to this source, is designed to adjust for “the different characteristics [of] different recorded content… that impact volume output. The DSP helps to keep it balanced so that it protects the listener’s equipment and ears.”

The workaround is to use the ‘fixed’ output. This may explain why I’m hearing it using variable & others aren’t if they are using fixed. It also explains why I was happy with the Sound from the Port when so switched to ‘fixed’ mode. 

I am not sure how credible this attribute is, including the claim that Sonos have owned up to it. 

What is also strange is the claim that this issue arises only where the digital outputs are concerned, and is not there with analog outputs where the differences between Connect and Port are said to vanish.

Why Sonos would mess around with digital outputs but leave analog outputs untouched is a mystery.

A thought-provoking review. Its findings to a degree chime with my observations of soft-knee limiting in Variable Volume mode above about 85% (flat EQ) on the digital out when the input samples were at Full Scale. Soft-knee limiting is common, in order to avoid hard clipping in signals which could otherwise be driven above Full Scale by EQ etc. It could also mitigate potential inter-sample peaks over FS in a downstream DAC.

Fixed Volume is flat, without EQ, so a limiter isn’t strictly necessary. The digital signal can be passed straight through from the decoder. 

The observation about the analog outs is interesting, and on reflection makes sense. Whereas the digital outs have to be protected against going above Full Scale by a soft-knee limiter there is no such hard ceiling for the analog outs. Internally the pipeline is evidently 32-bit, so in both the digital and analog domains there is no practical limit anywhere. 

Will this limiting come into play where the EQ is set to flat, for digital outputs in variable volume mode? And even if that is so, does it come into play only when the volume slider goes past 85% ish? If so, this will not be heard if the Port unit is at say 70% volume with the downstream amp delivering more gain to compensate?

Is this limiting the same as was supposed to have been done in Connects some years ago?

I think the reviewer was implying that this limiting seems to be more aggressive in the Port. That would echo my own findings. Particularly with it making streams from 6 music sound almost the same as a Tidal or Apple Music stream.

What audiophile uses an external DAC with the variable volume setting?

Ironically, and having extensively used a USD 2000 external DAC in the past that weighed more than most amps, all of this seems to say that one may as well use the Connect and Port via their analog outputs. I have not found any differences employing said DAC or that in a high end Marantz SACD player, compared to analog outs from my two 2011 make Connects, back in the day when I was evaluating them/Sonos as a replacement for these bits of “HiFi” kit.

Sources ranged from lossless CD rips as well as iTunes lossy AAC downloads, and speakers ranged from Harbeths to Quads, with high powered Quad amplification a constant. The Connect did the job just as well, for much less, offering a lot more convenience via playlists, and access to a lot more music.

And today, Echo Show units wired to line in jacks on Connect/Connect Amps do just as well, sourcing lossless transcoded CD rips from a local NAS on a Raspberry and from Amazon/Apple Music.

One that needs the volume control on the Sonos app to work?

But, as I have said in another post that has just been red flagged although it endorses Sonos quality, my experience suggests dumping external DACs, and using Connect analog outputs, using EQ to accommodate any room acoustics or speaker placement issues - in which case this fixed v variable thing is moot.

My question was rhetorical.  I just find it strange that audiophile circles who  preach bit-perfect would immediate switch it off for convenience.  Also, I mention in another thread that a reviewer negated all objective testing when they switched off Fixed volume to fiddle with the equalizer.  In addition to the subtle effects stated above, Variable volume means volume matching now comes into play, and we all know how that affects objective listening.