I’m wanting to enable the best Audio for Sonos 5.2 system. I can select in the Roon App Audio settings either Sonos Streaming or Airplay.
Any benefit to one over the other? I’m also not using any DAC with this method.
I already have a music setup with a B&W 803D3 and McIntosh amp. This is just a user friendly living room goal for the family.
David it depends what else you have to stream too at the same time.
So Roon can only stream to the same protocol, so if you have more Sonos, then I would recommend choosing the Sonos protocol, but if you have a lot of Airplay devices then choose that.
Personally I choose Sonos as I can then also use Sonos to group a and ungroup as I like. Your milage may vary, and you can always change it at a later date.
I hope this helps
Thank you. So what I have is a Nucleus and my audio stream is going into a 5.2 Sonos system. No groups, just a LR 5.2 setup. The surround speakers are at the sofa so they’re on ambient.
I thought about replacing the play base with an ARC, since it has dual inputs. I think the Nucleus could plug right into it, or get a DAC for the optical.
I’ve heard the Arc is a big step up in quality
David if it is only one device then I would try both and see how you get on and if you prefer the sound from one (or if they are exactly the same). Then just leave one enabled in settings and disable the other.
A big decision to replace the Play Bass as that is a very nice speaker, but unless you have the Sub I would probably not bother, as the Arc cannot generate anything like that amount of Bass.
If you are happy with the Play Bass stick with it, the benefits of the Arc are mostly around Atmos soundtracks (and eArc). I have been tempted to get one but I have a large library of DTS film’s and concerts and it is not compatible with them so I would lose our. I m sure I will give in at some point.
Remember if you do decide to upgrade, you can get the 30% trade in value from Sonos and then sell the Play Bass as well, to reduce the cost significantly.