I am considering downsizing to a Sonos Arc for my living room, removing several black boxes. Airplay from iPad (Roon source) sounds pretty good through AppleTV4. Add a little bass and treble with Roon EQ and it is listenable. CD quality only, of course
I also know that the Arc can be a Roon endpoint and that Airplay is supported, too.
Anybody here has an opinion about the sound quality of Airplay to ATV4 vs Arc as endpoint vs Airplay to Arc?
I tried it on my sonos and couldn’t tell the difference, you are still limited in terms of resolution.
For just Live Radio listening I just use my Sonos Beam as the endpoint as quality is not important.
As my Living room is my Hifi room I also have my streamer, dac and amp for higher quality, like you i’ve tried to remove as many cables and boxes as I can.
Separate DAC etc just gave better quality than Sonos alone.
I tried this about 6 months ago and found that the arc sounded better (for music) via airplay or directly via Sonos streaming through roon. Apple TV sends audio via the HDMI input. After setting up the Sonos arc (performed true play etc), I noticed that when streaming via the HDMI, the sound was bright and upper midrange was emphasised. This was of course great for TV / movie watching but music listening was fatiguing this way. Switching to listening via airplay (direct to sonos) or via Roon - Sonos streaming was better.
Even then though the sound was very bright and metallic to my ears. Tried reducing treble but to no avail. I ended up returning the Sonos arc. Quite a few people like it though so you may have a different outcome.
You may well regret this action. The arc is mediocre at best for music, fine for AV though. I have one but it can’t even compare SQ wise to my £50 hifiberry amp and old Celestine speakers I use in the office next door. I ditched my hifi once for a cheaper all in one surround system and regretted it, back to an av amp and stereo amp that drives the fronts for av and audio.
exact same path for me as well
Thanks to you guys for your input. In truth, the music SQ is secondary to the TV sound for this location. I will use it with Airplay, etc., mostly as background music. I keep my floor standers, Roon Core, Gungnir dac, and integrated amp in my music room, where black boxes are appreciated. So long as the music output is somewhat reasonable, this may be the solution for me.
Hi Mike, I think that this will work for you. I would definitely recommend you stream to it directly from roon, either via Sonos streaming or airplay from Roon. If you stream to the arc alone via sonos protocol then you will also be able to apply some DSP which will help a lot.
Let us know how it goes 
Thanks! Streaming from my iPad (as a Roon zone) allows me to add DSP. I am OK with 44/16 in that zone.
You might want to add a Sonos sub to the Arc!
Yep, bought the large sub with the arc and satellite speakers. A little eq from Roon makes the playback acceptable. Reference is in the basement. Thanks.