Qobuz & Sonos Connect

Greg, didn't quite undrrstand your post. Naim do provide a direct connection to Spotify.. You just point the Spotify app to your Naim device..

Are you perhaps referring to a non direct connection, such as used by Sonos, where a seperate bespoke front end app can selects and navigate through media from various services including Spotify, and then pull the media in the built queue list back from the various services?

Simon

Hi Simon,

So the Auralic would be a direct replacement for the Sonos? I don't no much about it and was a bit confused by their website.

I assume that streaming ever the web will always have inferior sound quality to streaming local media, but maybe not. If it really takes off, and Naim can't incorporate it into their current streamers? Then I suppose they could market a separate web streamer, powered by a 555PS :-/

Keith

Keith, if I went that way,my then yes it would replace the Sonos.. But as I say ii am at info gathering and musing stage. Listening to my reclocked Sonos yesterday evening.. I was enjoying its capability and performance.. 

There is no reason at all why web streaming and local streaming should sound that different (other than extreme subtly like we have with different local UPNP servers  now). As far the network player is concerned it doesn't care where the source data is.. It's about the content of the data. FLAC is FLAC if from the same master.

I will be interested in your thoughts on the reclocked Sonos.

Keith

Keith, to be clear, I reclock my Sonos now using a veteran Monarchy Audio reclocker.. It can only do 44.1/48 16 bit which is clearly fine for the Sonos.. It greatly adds to the performance of the Sonos digital stream.. All the standard effects you would expect of reducing jitter and noise.. Better definition and tighter bass, better imaging, cleaner timbre and texture.. Esp with percussion, brass, strings voices and listening into the layers in mixes... I feed this cleaned up spdif signal into my NDX and then Hugo. 

Ah, so you've done it yourself, rather than having it modified by an after market supplier?

Simon

If I'm following your posts on this thread correctly, to summarise, your current set-up is:

digital source → Sonos Connect → reclocker → NDX → Hugo DAC

My interest is that I am currently trialling Qobuz and was interested to learn how Logitech Media Server (LMS)/Squeezebox Touch (SBT) implemtation would compare to Sonos.

Dave

Keith indeed..

Dave, yes your flow diagram is correct. I don't have a SBT so can't comment sonically.. However I think SBT needs a seperate server running somewhere?

the Sonos is standalone (if you exclude my reclocking) and their application is first class.. It supports just under 40 streaming services in the UK - inc betas - and seems to update reasonably regularly. The Sonos app allows to seamlessly play uPNP, NAS file system media, local ipad/iPhone/Mac/PC media, and of course streaming services. The app also integrates into the streaming service info providers for info on arist, album etc.. All in all from a usability point of view I'd give it 9/10.. Excellent.

Simon

Yes you are right. I have LMS running on my NAS.

Regarding Qobuz, I trialled it about a year ago but compared to Spotify I didn't think it had a very good interface but things seem to have improved and I'm starting to really enjoy the lossless FLAC streamimg. I've also made some download purchases. Just have to convince myself it's worth the extra £10/m subscription.

Dave

Dave, indeed, not only the software has improved, but the inventory is hugely improved. £20 a month? Well given the pound / euro it feels we Brits are being short changed, but once I get over that.. I feel I get my money's worth.. Certainly enjoy settling down to read Mojo magazine and searching out referenced albums and artists with the quality and experience that was intended.

Simon

I meant it would be nice to be able to use the Naim App to browse and manage Spotify content alongside radio and UPnP content.

Indeed, I agree 

S

I'm getting drop-out problems intermittently although I'm hard wired. Have checked with Virgin (superhub 2ac) and done speed tests which all seem fine, 40-50mbps.

Deezer 320 streaming is more stable with no drop-out....a bit infuriating.

I've contacted Qobuz as I can't see what could be wrong at this end.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Thanks,

G

I have been getting dropouts this evening using Qobuz. I'm on PlusNet broadband by the way. Went back to local streaming in the end. Sad because my one month trial period was going very well.

Dave

Me too.. I wonder if this is because Qobuz is simply becoming too popular... I guess there will be these growth hiccups.. But it is fustrating... I bellowed at my son for hogging the Internet... And had to apologise when he showed me the only user was the Sonos box... With a 4.1 Mbps ADSL connection 

Having traced the link, it could be congestion between the London and Paris Internet nodes which routes via Tata communications for Qobuz, from the BT Public internet service domain or issues with the French internet provider Absolight that Qobuz uses.

Me too. It was fine this morning, but started to drop out at after midday :-(

Keith

Thank God you guys are experiencing this too - I have been going nuts thinking it was my ISP's fault as they had been out fixing the service in the street last week.

I'll let you know Qobuz's reply to my enquiry about it.

G

Also having issues here is Switzerland on a 250mbps connection.

Not sure if it's now fixed (this was 2 months ago) or just my setup, neither Sonos nor Qobuz support could understand why I had to keep closing the Sonos iOS app (on various hardware) or it defaulted to non FLAC files. All settings were correct online wth Qobus account etc. drove me mad n gave up. Sonos support's second to none in my opinion and they rarely give up.  Sonos Connect/nDAC/XPS/282/300/Cremona M

p.s. No dropouts over long distance using wfi (sonos mesh) now i'm using a Sonos Boost as first wired device.  

Simon,

Bought my tickets for the Bristol Show and got 2 months free trial of Qobuz,which may support your view.

Great avatar Mr Rusty!

Ok for a while this morning and then started stuttering again.

No word from Qobuz.

G

Seems ok again now.. I did have a TCP connection reset from Qobuz earlier this morning.. Perhaps they have had / are having difficulties with their streaming servers / load balancers?

Simon