Sonos Vs Bluesound.

Hello everyone,

SETUP
- The Node is light years ahead of Sonos here. You hook it up, meaning hardwire to your network. I have a 16 port GIG switch in my Family Room Cabinet , connect Analog or Digital to your pre or receiver , connect power up and away you go. Down load the app and the app finds the player and it's ready to go.
- Sonos SUCKS here. You have to first discover the unit, then put in a PIN number, then you still have to press the damn button, then it sets up and THEN says you have to update the unit.

APPS
- Sorry to say Sonos wins here by a landslide. Apple Music is a huge deal for most people and Bluesound not having it internally sucks. If you don't use Apple Music, your basically fine, they have enough streaming apps which I'm sure you will already have an account for.

BUILT QUALITY
- Noting to write home about, both Sonos old , new and the Bluesound Node are well built, clean and feel premium.

SOUND QUALITY
- Here is where it gets difficult. I have 4 ways to play streaming music, well more than that but I'll try to keep it somewhat simple here. I have an Apple TV which I love, stream everything I need. Sonos which right now I'm pissed at as I HATE the new app and it's basically broken most of the time , Bluesound, brand new to me just installed it last night and finally the Might Integra DRX 8.4 AVR.
- All of these ways of streaming music is excellent including Sonos which when it works , it sounds awesome. I do not use the internal DAC"s on anything but the Integra which has superior DAC's to most things made.
- So sound quality compared to each other streaming the same song same streaming format, I used Spotify in it's highest quality , It's really hard to tell the difference between all of these methods.
- Now to be clear, the Bluesound and Sonos play probably 1 to 2 DB louder then the Apple TV and the internal Spotify on the Integra. Most non experienced people will favor the Sonos and Bluesound without even knowing because it plays just a bit louder. If you remove the volume advantage , you now can't tell the difference on what streamer your listening to.

INTERNAL DAC'S
- Believe it or not, this again isn't a HUGE difference. It's so small you really have to listen , pay attention to every single detail and then try to find differences. I use all Audioquest cables so no tonality difference in cables to fool you to think one device sounds better different or what have you.
- The Integra DAC's IF I had to pick one I would use would be them. Compared to the Bluesound and Sonos internals ( Apple TV does not have analog out so it's out of this race here ) really honestly pick one. If you can reliability tell each DAC apart, you have better ears than mine. I have been doing this most of my life and I was hard pressed to blindly tell which unit was playing and further more which one was better.
- I would say for some reason , the Integra internal Spotify sound quality could be considered the worse out of the bunch but when you crank it up, it levels the playing field. Low listening I felt the Bluesound and Sonos had a better overall presence . Louder volumes this wasn't a factor anymore.

So what should you take away from this?
I think streamers are basically all the same audio quality Providing , you have good network, hardwired is preferred reason is WIFI you have to deal with possible interference , distance from your Access point and it's not 100% reliable. Hardwire however is to me 100% if that is possible. I also use all Audioquest custom built and tested by me ethernet cat 6 cabling. I control the terminations, I control the length. I also have a very expensive network Managed and fully wired, setup by me. Your network can make or break your streaming experience. Everything starts there.
I think you can purchase the unit that suits your needs and run with it. You can use internal DAC's on these units and be complete happy with it. You can run external DAC's and Taylor your sound the way you like it. Your choice which makes it fun.

rooftop59 wrote: »

Thanks for the review dan, it is helpful and appreciated! I am curious, though, if you have used any high end, dedicated streamers with quality separates? Like a lumin, bryston, auralic, even arcam or Cambridge? Because in my limited experience, while cheaper streamers like a squeezebox and apple tv sound very similar - especially with an AVR - high end streamers with better equipment sound clearly better. Blacker background, tighter bass, better desperation of instruments, etc. Have you noticed this with higher end gear?

From my experience with higher end gear, there is still very little difference in streamers. It kinda sucks honestly as you would think if you where using a 2k player like the Sony which I had both versions and connected to mid and high end gear, there was little to no difference.

It seems DAC's play a bigger roll in sound quality but when you have a proper DAC doing it's job correctly , again hard pressed to tell the difference.

I could be getting old , who knows but I have heard very small differences but again they are not real noticeable unless you study the song, play it back like 10 times on each unit and then pull at straws to hear differences. It's tuff man.

treitz3 wrote: »

Respectfully, that does not mimic experiences of a vast amount of folks out there. The streamers may sound identical to you, same with the DAC's but that is simply not the case.

All one would need to listen to in order to hear or feel the difference is about 20 seconds or less of something audible playing. No need at all to, "study" a song. None at all.

Tom

That's fine , I was just stating honest findings.

UPDATE*
OK,
so today was insanely hot outside, went grocery shopping, went to the gym and did some power washing on the front of the house. To hot to be out there anymore, took a shower and I wanted to dig further into Bluesound and Sonos even though I have a slight older Sonos unit, I could easily open a brand new one BUT after my findings I don't think I have to.

So I started just playing song after song to see IF I could hear differences between the 2.
First off, one thing I'm thinking some of you who claim to have compared music streamers, I'm wondering if you took away as many variables as you can like Volume Matching. I used a SPL meter to get an average output. If one player is louder then the other, that could swing your opinion that that one is better.
What about player setting? Are you running LOUDNESS or any other enhancement? Are you EQ'ing the player? again something to consider when A B testing against each other
What are you using for speakers and amps? are you sitting in the same seat ? The list goes on what you can do to make sure IF you are hearing anything different , you can point directly to those differences.

So after a few hours messing around, I locked in on one song, I found some key claps, deep bass and a clear vocal track with not a lot of other things going on it the songs. LORDE Royals which is NOT a song I typical do this tests with BUT when I was switching back and forth between Sonos and Bluesound which I had about 1/2 second difference in the sound start, so I was able to A B them very quickly, I thought I heard a slight better CLAP on the BLUESOUND over the SONOS. I went into the SONOS settings and found LOUDNESS OFF and when I engaged this setting and went back to my AB comparison, now the 2 where exactly the same.

The Dynamics changes with LOUDNESS ON OR OFF on the Sonos Connect. it changes the way any song can sound and with it off, it's noticeable.

I'm gonna be straight with you guys , There is no difference in overall audio quality between Sonos and Bluesound. Bluesound is supposed to be Superior to Sonos sound quality and it's sold as an audiophile product. It's supposed to be the one you want when sound quality is critical. BUT guess what? I can't tell any differences between the 2.

I have a Flagship AVR from Integra with a brand new amp technology rated to give me 150 watts of awesome power especially when just running 2 channel.
I have Focal Speakers which are very dynamic alive and super detailed.
I use all Audioquest cabling
I have a dedicated 20 amp circuit with absolutely no noise or anything else on that circuit.
I use a Audioquest High end Outlet, I use to have a PS Audio Powerport now I have the Audioquest model.
I totally balanced the volume so no player had any DB advantages

I did my best to hear differences and unlike many CD players I have owned where I can hear differences in like 3 seconds, this was a huge challenge and I chalk it up to they are both excellent music streamers and when you use an External DAC, with players this close , you can't tell any differences at all.

Good luck trying, I don't know how I could make my conditions any better but I even just used Spotify on both in it's highest quality and here I am.

invalid wrote: »

You can't accurately level match with an SPL meter.

Ok , then how do you suggest getting the levels as close to the same as possible?

Clipdat wrote: »

Why are we using lossy Spotify as the source when attempting to make any sort of meaningful comparisons between electronic source components?

Because they were the 2 things that where available to test stream wise.