Just an FYI … go into the Sonos settings and disable “Loudness”. That will mitigate the booming sound.
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…also, if you haven’t done so already, it’s worth running through the Trueplay procedure to tune the One’s response to its location in your room.
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Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice. I returned the Sonos One to my friend after testing it for a few days. I was able to reduce the bass boom with TruePlay tuning and further EQ but I could not eliminate it. Loudness turned off as well but still. The biggest issue though was lack of syncronisation with the main HiFi. I used an old Sonos Connect feeding my dac and found that syncing was not exactly right. My Dac uses a buffer so I think this causes the sync problems with the sonos speaker. No way to adjust the sonos of course. I could run the connect analogue out directly to the amp but I did not like the SQ that way.
Oh well… I think I might bite the bullet and go for a Pi or something along those lines.
Cheers
So the conclusions for true Roon endpoints…is there is only one flavour!: A Rasberry Pi of some description with RAAT installed. In other words Roon will only talk to other computers if sync is needed. Is that correct?
I’m not saying this is bad because those RPi solutions only cost $100 straight to $150 with an amp thrown in, which is great.
Bluesound are missing a trick by being so bad at updating the RAAT in the Flex.
Don’t forget the Elac Z3…perhaps Elac might develop an alternative to the Sonos 1/Pulse Flex that plays nicely with Roon (just wild speculation)?
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Hi Andy,
The Sonos Zones (be it Sonos One or Connect etc.) are in sync with Roon controlling them. The problem is elsewhere: The Sonos Connect which is the only way to integrate a big HiFi with Sonos, has limitations and needs an external dac to sound better. Depending on the dac one uses, delay may be introduced to the output of the connect and as a result the sound may be a bit out of sync with other sonos speakers such as the Sonos One. Sonos will not allow for tweaking of this. Only Roon zones will do that. The bluesound speakers for example can be tweaked via Roon but unfortunately as you also say… they are currently not staying in sync with eachother.
Hi Yiannis
Mmm now I’m confused!
So a Sonos will sync with other non-Sonos endpoints if I don’t use a Dac…is that true?
Is that true for a Bluesound Flex too do you think?
I mean if it is slightly out it doesn’t really matter to be honest as they are in different rooms after all!
Thansk
Sorry Andy, I confused you with my bad writing… Not enough coffee this morning 
You can only sync sonos zones via Roon. This is why one would need a sonos connect to use in a HiFi in order to then try to sync that with other sonos speakers around the house. So unfortunately no way around that… If I go the sonos way and need to sync them… .everything has to be sonos.
The Sonos Connect is therefore needed for the above… unfortunately it is a very old device and the analogue out is a bit poor.
The connect will still only sync with other sonos devices. If one takes the analogue out of the sonos connect (without extra dac in place) and feeds it to the analogue in of an amp then all is well. Perfect sync with otther sonos speakers.
Best
Hey Yiannis
No worries!
Ah all is clear now. So Sonos ecosystem will work with Roon via a Connect …but crucially wont stay in sync with other non-Sonos endpoints.
So the RiPi/iQaudio type of endpoint is the only solution to integrate with a Roon system consisting of other Roon endpoints apart from the Elac Z3.
Unless I go with a Bluesound Flex and live with it drifting out of sync over time.
Thanks
Andy
It looks that way Andy… The Bluesound speakers are for now not syncing well via Roon. The sonos speakers sync better but there are caveats there as well (avoiding skipping too many times in one go etc). The Sonos Connect is also a bit iffy with sync.
From what I also understand, the Pi / PC / Mac based zones are currently the most reliable and steady Roon solutions.
… Elac Z3 excluded of course (I don’t have personal experience in it).
There is also the airplay route but I have no experience in it.
Cheers
Finally…
I just received an Allo DigiOne which feeds a pair of Ruark MR1 powered speakers. Installed Volumio… tons of plugins (Spotify, Youtube, Eq) and of course Roon Bridge. Added a usb Wifi module and an IFI ipower PSU. Took me 15 minutes to set everything up and the result is fantastic.
The Ruark speakers have an input signal sensing so they power on / off without the need to push any button.
Not as compact as the Sonos One but it does look stylish (to my eyes) and sounds fantastic.
Peace at last
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Excellent, glad to hear it…and a little envious of that neat little setup 
enjoy the music 
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Stupid question but how are you connecting the DigiOne? Doesn’t the MR1 only have optical?
On the contrary, very much correct
I am temporarily using an old audioquest dragonfly dac on the usb of the Rpi3 section. That outputs line level audio which feeds the 3.5mm input aux of the MR1s. As such I am not using the SPDIF section for now.
Being my first Rpi3 based unit I wanted to experiment with multiple configurations. This is working really well and I am planning to move the DigiOne to the main HiFi and use the SPDIF to feed the dac there. The Allo Boss Dac will probably take its place to properly feed the MR1s
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Ah, thanks for clarifying - thought I’d missed a trick there! Would be interesting to compare the difference between the line out from the Allo Boss DAC with feeding it an RPi-based optical…I wonder if the internal DAC might be better optimised for the speakers?
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that will be a good experiment to compare the allo boss dac vs an external dac direclty on the Rpi3 usb :-). I only have the DigiOne for now which only outputs spidif so cannot compare yet. Soon though…
For now, the Allo DigiOne is very impressive indeed. Volumio and Roon bridge are amazing in combination with this little device.
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Was thinking something like http://iqaudio.co.uk/hats/48-pi-digi.html but of course you’re right, also the option of comparing USB DAC vs Allo Boss.
I’ve been very impressed by Volumio + Roon Bridge too - they’ve also been completely stable on my 2 devices since they were setup.
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This wondrous pidigi thingy must be great with a pair of small bookshelf speakers. I am thinking of it for the kitchen…
Hmm… I just got a single Pi and I am already planning my third…
Oh dear
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I think they breed when you aren’t looking. I have 5 now, replacing Sonos gear.
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I have been testing for a while now and Roon is absolutely flawless with the Allo DigiOne. I have now moved the DigiOne to a second system and I will probably get the Boss Dac to drive the powered speakers.
I am super impressed by how well the Pi based end points work.
Well done Roon