Growing up beyond Sonos - streaming Hifi considerations?

craptakular

craptakular

craptakular

Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2007
Posts
10,607
Location
Sussex, UK
Hi all,

I have a sonos speaker big one from 2015 I believe and currently stream from Windows PC to it using Spotify free version.

I hadn't used the speaker for years until 3 months ago. I've also got a Topping D50 DAC and Schiit headphone amp and some headphones for FLAC listening on my PC.

I have a very limited collection of FLAC files consisting of Led Zepplin back catalogue and Wolfmother, my original intention was to buy Audio CD and rip to Flac using Exact Audio Copy.

It seemed cheaper to convert CD than subscribe £20 - £25 per month to Tidal Hifi/Masters or Qobuz. Then I discovered roon software, that again is £120 a year on top or like £500-£600 life time membership, but seems to only work for Tidal and Qobuz and not Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music HD.

I could roon on a Pi 3/4 with a Digi HAT and ifi power supply but when you factor in annual membership, £500 for roon is normal CD ripped to flac better?

Some risk of CD format dieing, but then I could buy FLAC from HDTRacks (but expensive for > CD Quality)

Vinyl seems to be 3x the price of CD on Amazon so a non-starter in my mind. At least with CD ripping I can box up the CDs and put them in the loft, so I would have HDD back up RAID and physical CDs in the loft as back up.

What formats do people suggest in 2020 for a beginner?

Spotify is great as it lets me discover new genres and new artists I would not have a clue otherwise.

Sorry for the ramble! Please help
 
lucid said:
Given recent events with Sonos, and the ongoing issue of a lack of support for older smart TVs, and the tech industry's constant need to evolve, then if history teaches me anything it's not to put my long-term faith in software-based solutions and the companies that provide them. For that reason, I would have to think long and hard before paying for a lifetime membership for any software-only solution.

I suppose with Roon the question is will the company still be around in five years time? If you feel it will, and you value that level of curation of your music library, then springing for the lifetime membership and then taking anything after year 5 as a bonus makes sense.
Click to expand...


You see I’m with you there gene my hesitation here. I don’t want to get locked into anything.


I want my music experience to detach me from the world when I’m listening, remove all distractions.

I don’t really want to get locked into an eco system within an eco system say Qobuz within Roon with a nad bluos streamer/amp add an example.

I’m almost thinking a £300 Used iMac into a decent separate dac into a decent separate amp into some decent speakers.
This way I could play nas content, and any streaming service in the world without issues.

what do You do out of interest?
 
lucid said:
I don't stream a huge amount for primary listening. The temptation to surf for the next track and the next and the next takes me away from enjoying the moment of listening to what's playing now. It's a Buddhist idea; concentrate on now. I quite like listening to albums in their entirety too. That doesn't happen so much hopping around from track to track, artist to artist. I guess I'm old school.
Click to expand...

that’s exactly what I’m worried about, I do It with Spotify, not listen really and just search the related artists.
Hmm maybe a CD player is a better move
 
a1ex2001 said:
just subscribe to Sonos most people can’t hear the difference on the kit like Sonos etc.
Click to expand...
yeah i'll do that in the interim but in the near future i'll get speakers and amp.

Leaning towards Larsen 4 speakers or Duevel Planets, but need a demo against more conventional designs.
 
keylion said:
I'd not heard of either of those speakers so I've just looked them up. Very interesting designs. I was going to suggest looking at some active speakers but they are generally functional design wise.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of the Larsen speakers as I can shove them up against the wall in the lounge and be done with it.

The Duevels are cheaper but look like they need 50cm ish space from the wall. The moni directional speakers sound like a great idea over a traditional box to me, but I haven't heard any speakers in years so I cannot comment further!
 
Yeah I’m months if not a year away from a purchase of amp dac and speakers

I’m going to stick to the Sonos and my headphones and build up my cd collection
 
I’ve took a punt as a trial, ordered two albums used from music magpie. 2 for £3. I’m expecting severely scratched disks or broken cases!
 
Last edited:
sHo0sH said:
Maybe check out the bluesound node2i.

It's a great streamer and can hook in to Amazon, Spotify, tidal, qobuz and more. It can also play and auto manage a library of flacs over a network of via direct usb. It's got a decent DAC built in but you can also bypass it if you want to use something else.

They also make their own Sonos like speakers that you can add for a multi room setup if you wanted. I've been very pleased with mine so far
Click to expand...
Yeah I heard about that device looks good. I would run it as Roon endpoint and use the dac until I could afford a super one
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
As a Roon user with a fairly reasonable system, some thoughts:
- Roon is the best streaming package that I've seen, having additional layers of depth in it's ability to wander your way through your music collection. However, it is just that, i.e. a VERY nice way to manipulate your music collection. As far as I know, it has no sonic benefits over other similar applications that can't be achieved with other free apps. e.g. it DOES include a free digital room correction capability, but that needs to be tuned manually (not that hard).
So whilst I love it, for a person new to it, my suggestion is that you use say the Squeezebox route on a Pi3/4 to see if you like it. The SB app does all of the basics that Roon does, just not the additional fripperies
- EAC or DBPowerAmp are both supposedly bit perfect. I use DBPowerAmp. As long as you've ensured that you genuinely understand how to use them (watch a few vids), you'll be fine
- I use a Pi3 as a secondary streaming point, for the dosh, it's a definite. My assumption is that you can use an App installed onto your phone/tablet to control it

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...


Thanks, I do have a Pi 3 lying around somewhere and a Hifi Berry Digi + pro that’s in my shopping coming back from Australia or in my parents loft.


I’ll try to find it at some point and play with moose, voluminous and lms.

I think it’s best for me to build up my collection a bit more and stick to my headphone setup.


Not ideal at the moment either as transitioning back to UK so stuff is everywhere!
 
I’ll have to look into all options.

the blue node looks like a good plug and play solution abs works with all closed streaming services like amazon.

I’d have to look at a headless Mac mini or intel nuc as well
 
Marvt74 said:
@craptakular

On the subject of CD's i find the Amazon Marketplace usually has loads for 1p and then around £1.26 for postage. Which can be cheap.

For speakers. Ensure you check out Shahinian. They're omni directional too. New they're expensive but you should be able to pick up some Compass/Arcs in budget if you look used.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’ll take a look
 
hornetstinger said:
That's exactly why I like squeezebox over Sonos, the former is open source, so anyone can carry on coding for the system. Good luck running Sonos on hardware that isn't supported, ie when it no longer works on windows 7.


Insta 6.2.2 Synology os whilst you're at it, as that version is needed for pinkdots lms
Click to expand...
I think I had 6.2 installed before I left for Australia last August.

sorry to be done but what does squeeze box lms do over a simple nas access drive?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom