Sonos ZP90 v Mac Mini into NDAC

Patrick - this was a while back with my Lavry and Grahams 500 series system. The Sonos and Mini (plain vanilla iTunes) via Toslink sounded the same. The Sonos via coax sounded a tad better. I would think a Mini with something like a hi-face would level the field.

James

Sorry James, it seems every other time I've been asked it's been a credibility question. Coax and the ability to stream wav directly are a couple of the reasons we like it.

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Originally posted by js:
Sorry James, it seems every other time I've been asked it's been a credibility question. Coax and the ability to stream wav directly are a couple of the reasons we like it.

z90 75 ohm into ndac ,iphone it far better than alot on this site will admit to. all for £240 and a decent cable, and a free app for good measure

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Hi Gav,

I have managed to get around to your suggestion and I have to say turning off the Equalizer did seem to make a significant positive impact. I have not had time to compare lots of tracks but the few I have listened too are much nearer the USB. Thank you for the suggestion.

Regards,
Huw

That's great news Huw. You want to get the MBP to sound as good as USB and in my experience you will achieve this.

I know that there is nothing more annoying than people suggesting that you have to spend yet more money, but I will anyway - give the HiFace a try, it's tremendous value for money. Keith at Purite is a top bloke, I think he will post you one on sale or return. A cheapish coax cable would probably do the job.

I have found the debates about sources into the nDAC very interesting. The take away message for me is to be very critical when evaluating anything upstream of the nDAC. For this reason I am not in any rush to start stressing about expensive alternatives to the vanilla HiFace.

Gav.

I have not compared a ZP90 to a Mac Mini, however I just bought one so that I can stop using my MacBook Pro as my source and I can categorically say that the ZP90 via coax sounds better than the MBP via Optical. It's not night and day, but everything sounds subtly clearer, more detailed and more organised. Added to this the Sonos is the very model of user-friendliness

Don't get me wrong I love Apple for it's user-oriented design and iTunes (and Remote app) is the very model of simplicity - however Sonos takes things to another level: It doesn't have to be switched on or booted up, you don't have to start any applications or shut it down/worry about periodically re-booting. It's just plugged into your network and it just works on demand - The controller is expensive, but I just got a brand new one of the older CR100s on Ebay for £85, or if you can use the iPhone/touch/pad app then it's free.

As an added bonus you can expand into multi-room later too.

Downsides? Well artwork is a faff, especially if you've ripped all your stuff using iTunes, but with a little work you can get that all sorted. I also find that every time I add a new album it takes an age to re-index the music library on the Sonos. Also no Hi-res compatibility - but for me that's not an issue.

On balance I would definitely recommend the Sonos route.

Edit - I should mention I have it going into a SuperNait/Neat Momentum 3i system.

Optical from a Macbook is poor, usb ( with Hiface ) or firewire with a Weiss INT is much better.