Sonos ....

Hi Graham,

That's exactly what I did. I went for the Sonos to see what this streaming lark was all about. I also bought and NAS and ripped all of my cd's onto it at the same time.

The Sonos obviously doesn't sound as good as the Naim streamers, but it is a great introduction to streaming and will help you decide whether it's the way forward for you or not. It was for me, and 18 months later I sold the Sonos and bought a ND5XS for the Naim sound with all of my cd's already ripped and ready to go. I bought the Sonos and Bridge for about £350 and sold it (with all of the boxes etc) for £250 on Ebay. One of the best hi-fi £100 pounds I've ever spent.

If you look at the Sonos as an addition to your existing system then you gain a whole lot more than you spend. I wouldn't have been comfortable jumping in with nearly £2000 straight away but the Sonos costs the same as a good cable!.

Another bonus is that the Sonos is so easy to use and set up. I was disappointed with the Naim interface after moving across but it has improved greatly (after software updates), in the few months I've been using it.

Re-reading this, there's only one thing left to say - I don't work for Sonos, honest. I just think that it's a great value for money product.

Good luck with your choice.

Matthew

Hi there,

I also started out with using Sonos as an introduction to streaming. Once you get all your cd's ripped (onto in my case a NAS) and start streamng your music it is a great convenience. The Sonos ZP90 (or Connect know) has not got a great DAC though, so be warned. The ability to have music playing in different zones etc. is great using the Play 3 or 5.

I then bought an NDX and use the DAC in that for the Sonos now, only to stream from Spotify (if Naim would include that...). The NDX is a great bit of kit and the software Naim is using to control it is getting better and better.

Good Luck

David

I have just bought a Sonus Connect and the Arcam Sonlink DAC to dip into streaming radio.

So far it works - amazing the number of stations that can be received. A pity that FM and digital broadcasts do not sync, however that is not news. I have about 12 days of CD copied into iTunes and onto an iPod so the next test will be to see if I can use any of that material with the new toys.

I do not like WiFi so I have to control the Sonus Connect from one of the computers attached to the Lan.

Next step is to get streaming radio for the tranny radio functions around the house, all just in case FM is degraded.

The Sonos is very good value for money, easy to set-up, has a good user interface and sounds better than you'd expect for the money .... not much else to say except that with a suitable a mod and Naim DAC it can give outstanding results that match some very expensive sources. 

Mathew.

hi.

good points made.

the thing is this.

all naim gear , with newly aquaried naim dac , which has made quite a difference.

however if I ditch the sonos and go for the nd5 then I can't stream the solidify through this so I am back to square one.

graham b

Graham

I find myself in a similar situation. I'm running a Connect through a 252/SC/300/Neat XL6. It seems bizarre to run a £280 source into £25k of amp and speakers, but for Spotify it just works, brilliantly. I don't have an external DAC (yet) but many tracks still sound better than others on my CD2 or LP12. 

I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that once you get to a certain level of kit, the biggest factor in sound quality is the recording. Sure, a great recording on the LP12 sounds better than Spotify, but these days it seems to be pot luck. I get results through this very cheap source which have surprised many, myself included. 

I think that services like Spotify will just get better and better, with higher resolution though time. Until streaming options costing many times more than this can support such services, they  are really a non starter for me. I'll keep an open mind, but right now Sonos is simply a great solution. 

Best, Ponty

I am using a Sonos ZP90 as my main source into a Supernait & Hicap2 and it sounds great and works flawlessly - I have no intention of changing (though I have demo'd a unitiserve but the SQ wasn't enough to make me change). 

Same here, at work I use the ZP90 daily, most of the time it is plugged into a Supernait, sometimes into the SuperUniti, just so I can access Spotify and Napster, hopefully one day we will see these services available within the Naim range of streamers, until then I will continue to use the ZP90, to be honest for what it costs I think every system, whatever the value, should have a ZP90 in it just for Spotify and all the other internet services it offers, a real great bit of kit  

Paul is what's now called the Sonos Connect just as good?  I do want to add Spotify capability to my NDS and this one little box seems a pretty easy solution.

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the NAIM forum and a bit of a technophobe; so go easy on me please!   I'm slowing getting to grips with the digital revolution and the impact on Hi-Fi.  I'm looking to ditch my 20 year old Nakamichi kit (receiver & CD player) and I like the look of the Uniti series. At first I was sold on the NaimUniti2 concept as a great all-in-one solution. But the more I look into it all (i.e. the rate of change, esp in Streaming); the more I am thinking that perhaps sticking to "seperates" is the most sensible and practical solution? For example, by purchasing a decent stereo NAIM amp (perhaps with a good DAC included which I can then use in combination with my old CD player acting as a transport mechanism only). Then to combine the new amp with a decent streaming solution. And this is where I start to get lost with all the options feasible. Your help would be welcomed.

Once I've rippled my CDs (in a good quality way at the highest resolution possible - but that's another Forum discussion) and have them stored on a NAS; I'd like to able able to stream the files in a straight forward way that will give a great sound. Apart from the Uniti streamer options is it maybe an idea to purchase something like the Cambridge DACmagic 6 (with a NAIM amp)? Or alternatively go for an Airport Express (or Apple TV) device into the amp  - and stream the files that way instead?  I should add that I like the idea of accessing Spotify to compliment my NAS stored files. Any Spotify music I like I can then later arrange to download the track/album file into my NAS at a higher  resolution level.

Are there any gurus out there that can help de-mystify the current technology and who can advise on some sensible approaches for me to take in regard to which NAIM products would fit best for what I'm looking to achieve ; and how they might be combined with (initially) non-NAM products in the areas of streaming, ripping, and storage?

Thanks in advance. Looking forward to the responses.

Celt

Not a guru but I went from separates to a one box solution (Superuniti) and am delighted with it and not too worried about "rate of change". There's always going to be something better but basics like file formats aren't becoming obsolete anytime soon. Main issue on the horizon is all music available for streaming on demand over the web but that won't make anything stop working.

Your best bet would probably be a pc (or Mac if you must) linked to a DAC and the DAC to a preamp. If you start combining DAC and preamp you might as well go all in one unless you need an extremely powerful amp to drive a huge room. You only really need a streamer if you want to feed music to multiple rooms. You will probably find internet radio is brilliant - a pc can feed this, Spotify and anything else on the web to your amp.

Mac Mini + Naim DAC V1 + NAP100 + nice speakers (Naim, Eclipse, Magnepan or PMC) ... use iTunes with Audrivana to play just about any format you care to naim and here it all in great quality. ... no special knowlege required and as it is a Mac at the front, it just works: no funny drivers, no upnp nightmares, just listen to the music 

Thanks Pev & Guido for your replies.

I'll ask the same question to a wider audience and see if a concensus can be reached.

Paul.