Sonos

Andrew,

If a Sonos Connect works the way I think it does (should?), and you route a signal out of the 82 to a standard Connect and then back in again when you want to do multi-room, I don't think you will have any time-delay issues.

If you decide you want to improve sq by adding an external dac this may introduce enough of a delay to then make the main system behind the rest of the house!

If you get to the point where you have ripped all your cd's and are no-longer using your cd player as source, but are streaming through the Sonos, time delays introduced by an additional dac are irrelevant. At that point I'd be looking at an nDAC...

As for the Headline - I suspect it (or the Sonos) could be connected to any of the DIN's that carry an output signal (4, 5 and 6 if I read the manual correctly?), not just the 'tape' socket.

By the way - I think you are correct in your assessment of which Sonos boxes you will need, although I think you will only need the Bridge (plugged in to your router) if none of the other boxes is close enough to the router to be plugged in. My understanding is that Sonos sets up it's own wireless network, which only needs to be connected to a 'main' home network at one point so that it can access the internet. I don't believe it's at all fussy about which box is so connected.

Good luck. Let us know if it works...

Andy

sonos control is the best   .put through a reasonable dac and you have a v good system for a few hundred

This is true - provided you don't need/want Hi-Res, the sonos control UI is unbelievably good. Add a quality DAC such as a Naim DAC V1, Chord Qute HD or Sennheiser HDVD800 (watch out for the SMPS in the latter two devices - they affect systems running linear power supplies) and you'll have a very fine result indeed.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

I had a home demo of Sonos Connect for a weekend. My goal was to test it as a pure streamer via SPDIF interface into Supernait DAC and decide if it significantly beats my PS3 used as streamer. To sum up my initial impressions:

Pros:

1. Very easy to setup and use

2. Silent operation

3. Plays gapless 

4. Software is just superb, and exists in multiple OS

Cons:

1. Cannot play hi-res

Now, the sound quality. After first day listening it made me feel that music is somehow more "alive", highs less edgy and some layers are easier to distinguish. It felt like a new experience. Thats all without direct A/B comparison. I was so excited, but still decided to make A/B comparison next day . Here is where i got even more confused. I compared PS3 vs Sonos using Foobar2000 with dlna server plugin, files were CD quality FLAC transcoded to WAV. After listening same song passages both ways, differences were not that big - in some cases even seemed there are no differences, although in some cases, especially live recordings, i felt a bit more space, a bit more subtlety. Anyway, there wasnt that "night and day" feel i had 1st day...I liked Sonos alot, and even sound quality wise it was slightly better, the step wasnt that big, so i decided to pass on it and get Qute for same purpose.

I'm a great fan of Sonos. I have done a comparison by playing the same album on a cd player and yes via my system the CD is superior. But the ease of using Sonos, its interface, playlists, spotify features, multi room capability and simple plug & play approach mean that I'm happy to compromise. As a few have mentioned, add a DAC and the sound is superb, but  the sonos dac is very good and this isn't a must do requirment. I'm still not convinced on the high end streamers and believe that this still a fast moving technology which will continue to improve. In addition the likely hood of frequent upgrades and features can make an expensive  product out dated very quickly, as the next big thing comes along. We are already on 2nd versions of some of the naim streamers. when will version 3 be out ? So Sonos is ideal, relatively cheap for very good sound quality and no fluffing around with time consuming set ups.

If you want to invest in Hi-res files then obviously sonos isn't ideal but let's face it these files are hardly flying of the shelves and going mainstream.  

Just get sonos and enjoy.

Love my Sonos. 

Still do serious listening off CD or vinyl, but the ease of use is fantastic. Like other streaming or computer replay options it really does make it easy to rediscover distant corners of the collection.