sonos source or upgrade to complete naim system

The Atom will sound loads better than a Sonos sourced system. What Sonos do very well, though, is rock solid stability on the network, including multiroom, and good WiFi performance. The current Naim streamers, including the Muso, cannot match this performance, and to work well, they usually require a carefully set up wired Ethernet network. There is reason to hope that the new streamers (Atom etc.) will have more robust network performance. So be prepared to invest a bit of time and effort on setting up a robust network, and you will reap the benefits in improved sound quality.

Spotify is a great source in terms of functionality, but sound quality is ultimately limited by the lossy compressed audio stream. As you improve your hardware, the shortcomings of this will become increasingly obvious, and you may want to think about a lossless source. It's rumoured that Spotify are about to offer a lossless FLAC service, as Qobuz and Tidal already do, but it hasn't happened yet.

I have a mix of Sonos & Naim. Sonos in all the bedrooms, Naim in master bedroom/office/living room. If you have low interest in high resolution audio, maybe keep the Sonos and buy the new Uniti Star.

You could take a digital feed (optical or coax) from a Sonos Connect to a decent DAC such as a Chord MoJo and from that to a Nait XS.

A Chord MoJo would be a very great improvement on the DAC in the Sonos.

Sonos seldom falls over and just gets on with playing music. Once bought there are few updates that interfere with your listening. A Connect fed through a DAc V1 is really very good and probably the best £300 I've spent on hifi

I use this or a mac mini and audivana. The later is a better sound but I get do fed up with having to do updates on the mac or itunes and in the case of audivarna having to pay for updates. Whilst the amounts are only £30-40 I thought it was one fee for life. The ipad app was £10 which I felt excessive .

My various naim amps cd players etc are absolutely superb-but I'm afraid cant face the cost of a naim streamer , hesitate because of the software problems that seem to exist and having to spend a large lump of money gain in a few years. I couldn't manage the tech side of raspberry pi options which I like the idea of but I may look at a Auralic streamer .

 I don't think theres an easy answer to streaming!  

There's no need to pay for updates with Audirvana just because there is a new major version (it is only the major versions that are chargeable, and those occur only several years apart), nor indeed with the Mac Mini OS: if it works well why change anything? A3 was introduced to add MQA capability to the already integrated Tidal - as I have no interest in Tidal, and in any case to my mind MQA is not hifi, the addition was of no interest. Arguably upgrades to IOS might be appropriate to maintain security on the internet, but if, as with mine, the MM is dedicated to music playing, and new music browsed and downloaded on another computer then transferred to the MM, It is immaterial. Audirvana's main limitation in my eyes is its library function, a major improvement to which is the only reason I would update the software, and which keeps me on the lookout for equally good sounding alternatives or a likelihood of change to something like Innuos Zenith or Melco when one day the MM reaches end of life.

You could look into a second hand Squeezebox Touch and a good DAC and PSU. The Touch software, ethernet and wi-fi are rock solid, it can do hi-res which the Sonos can't and you don't have to spend hours setting everything up like the Raspberry. It also has capability for dozens of plugins including Spotify, Tidal, Roon, etc. As an added bonus it has a color touch screen and remote control. It also has S/PDIF, toslink, USB and RCA outputs.

The popular microRendu has similar software capability and reportedly sounds better but costs twice as much, has no remote/color screen and has only USB output. It also benefits from a PSU upgrade.

So long as you are not interested in hi-res, I'd stick with sonos and as Huge says a decent DAC.

thanks all for your replies. I have on my shortlist a cordette dac which will make up the difference in budget between the naim based system and the sonos.

Im now using the spotify app with my sonos to see how i get on with it as i ultimately want the best sound quality in my living room. In the kitchen and bedroom sonos would be fine but not at the expense of having poorer quality in the living room.

i think i will see how the atom is received- I'm sure it will be very good,  and from your thoughts I think I'm going to spend the extra and forgoe the sonos element.

many thanks once again

You might want to look into getting a Tidal subscription. Huge improvement vs Spotify.

I tried Tidal vs Spotify Premium -  preferred the latter for usability and catalogue and VFM.  Sounds different from local streams -- sometimes better; always good enough for me.

All the more notable as I did not even like local streams via Sonos -- so, it is not that I am not picky.

YMMV.

Nick

Sonos works well with lossless streams from the likes of Deezer and Qobuz, and if fed into a quality DAC can sound pretty impressive...thevSonos can also acts as a UPnP media renderer and so can be a very effective transport

I've read spotify might be coming out with lossless streams soon which i would upgrade too.

as with all these things the costs start to pile up. Ive plucked for the xs2 amp but having a think I will start at the 5si which would allow me more cash for the chordette linked to the connect. 

Im going to wait until the atom is out so i can compare. thanks for all your help once again.

nick

Waiting until you can listen to this stuff before you buy is certainly wise. If you decide on the Chord DAC/Naim amp option, I would suggest that you listen to the exact combination you intend to buy, not just the individual components. The right combination should have the potential to outclass the Atom and sound really good, but system synergy will count for a lot, and you could end up with a dog's dinner. Good luck!

I wasn't totally happy with the sound quality of my Sonos Connect in my main system which prompted my buying a SuperUniti (second system) and after doing so, went on to ditch the Sonos Plays I was using in the kitchen and bedroom.
These were replaced with two Naim Muso QB's. I love the sound quality and haven't had the connectivity / multi-room issues which some folk have.
I don't miss the Sonos equipment at all.

HAs anyone tried the Auralic mini or the Auralic aries LE?

They're a bit more affordable but I've no idea what the quality or usability is.

I think the later is a streamer only designed to go into a dac