Old Sonos replacement suggestions

Just about to move into a house with ceiling speakers connected to a couple fo Sonos Amps that are a few years old - 1st Gen

Instead of replacing them with new Sonos gear, any recomendations for amps that are entirely Roon Ready to drive the ceiling speakers?

There are 4 speakers in each room - so one amp per room

Want something I can stuff into a cabinet and forget about and entirely control with Roon.

Was looking at this - https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/beocreate/beocreate-4-channel-amplifier/

But just wondering if anyone had some other ideas

As a Sonos and Bluesound owner I would recommend looking at the PowerNode. It’s much more expensive than the Sonos Amp, but it is perfectly Roon Ready. Sonos Amp also very nice as I owned one for 2 years.

Other than that you could look at And M10 v2 and Naim Unity Atom, but the price is going up dramatically at this point. Also Lyngdorf lower cost amp (still €2k plus)

I also own an Arcam SA30 which is great and Roon Ready is also great and the Amp is class A so it sounds amazing.

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If your thinking of using Amp HATs. The HFB Amp60 and Amp100 hats are almost certainly enough for a pair of ceiling speakers. I use an Amp60 HAT to power a pair of patio speakers and it works fine / sounds good. The Amp100 hat also allows the use of a optional DSP board for automated room correction when using HiFiBerryOS.

Another option might be a couple of cheap ChFi USB DAC/Class-D Amps connected to a single Rasberry Pi (or similar Mini PC or SBC) running Ropieee or RoonBridge - as each USB output can be configured as a separate zone.

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Although to be honest unless you need to group the ceiling speakers with RAAT zones then you may as well just stick with the Sonos Amps if they’re still working.

Your unlikely to notice any significant difference in sound across amps when driving a pair of ceiling speakers.

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After doing some Bluesound installs for friends, I also recommend Bluesound and BlueOS-compatible solutions. There is a nice ecosystem of devices and compatible manufacturers (NAD e.g.) and their systems, while consumer-focused, tend to be a bit more robust than what I see with Sonos. I don’t work or sell for either, just a hobbyist like most here.

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Do you know if the original Sonos Amps are Roon Ready?

Roon can connect to them via Sonos’ native protocol. But they don’t support Roon’s native RATT.

As mentioned above the main issue is that RATT (Roon Ready) devices/zones can only be grouped with other RATT devices/zones. But if you just want to play to individual pairs Sonos speakers zones or a group of Sonos speakers you’ll be fine.

Personally I’d kept the existing Sonos amps powering the ceiling speakers unless you have a really compelling reason why that isn’t working for you. The Sonos Amps are pretty reliable workhorses, so as long as they work I’d stick with them.

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To be clear, in terms of “Can Roon stream music to the original Sonos Amps” the answer is Yes (*)

(*) just not via RATT, but that’s unlikely to present a problem in your case.

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Yes I agree that as you are going for in ceiling speaker’s any of the solutions mentioned will work well.
I have a showroom set-up in one of my offices where the Sonos Amp drives 4 medium sized speakers in a large showroom in mono and it works like a dream. The company were extremely happy with it

I now prefer Roon Ready for linking rooms etc and I find it more reliable, but Sonos and Bluesound work perfectly with AirPlay. Both also work from within the Tidal and Spotify Apps which is good for many.

I found 2xSqueezebox duets at CEX for £30 each. A bit of faffing with terminal (all via online instructions from a few it bloggers) and I had another 2 endpoints. With the duets you need an amp/active speakers, but for an endpoint with wireless/Ethernet, RCA, optical and coaxial outs they can’t be beaten on price!

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