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A look inside the Sonos Port

Sophoheilip

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Hi,

I took a quick look into the inside of my Sonos Port today. I know the warranty is void now, but just couldn't help it, curiosity won. :)
To open the case, I did start at the bottom by removing the big glued rubber pad. Right in the middle was another foil cap covering one screw with a TX10 head.
IMG_20200627_142411.jpg

After using a plastic lever to open the clipped sides of the case...
IMG_20200627_145715.jpg

Removing the screws holding the cast piece of metal in place, did emerge the analog board:) I was very happy to see some well established components like the AK4490EQ on there.
IMG_20200627_143511.jpg ak5720.jpg opa1692.jpg
Where I painted the question mark, I assume one of the ICs is a s/pdif transceiver for the coax out.

Removing the last screwed part did reveal what's under the shield.
IMG_20200627_144815.jpg IMG_20200627_144817.jpg
ARM Cortex A9 as the Main CPU I assume, RAM and clock buffer (not shown in the pictures), as well as an Ethernet switch IC for the two ports on the back.

There is another smaller CPU on the other side. Do you guys have any idea for what purpose?
IMG_20200627_144501.jpg

One of my intentions was to see if I can find the master clock for dac/adc/coax. But all the crystal oscillators where beneath CPU and network. Left me a bit unsatisfied:confused:

All things considered, the build quality and used components are really great. But for €450 one would expect that.


If one of you guys in Europe would be willing to measure the port, I could mail it to you. After seeing the components, it would be interesting to know how good it was implemented.

Cheers
 
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CDMC

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I don’t understand with using the 4490 chip they don’t enable up to 192/24. They have a good interface, except if any of your local music is over 48khz, it will not play it.
 

Fei

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Hi,

I took a quick look into the inside of my Sonos Port today. I know the warranty is void now, but just couldn't help it, curiosity won. :)
To open the case, I did start at the bottom by removing the big glued rubber pad. Right in the middle was another foil cap covering one screw with a TX10 head.
View attachment 70907

After using a plastic lever to open the clipped sides of the case...
View attachment 70908

Removing the screws holding the cast piece of metal in place, did emerge the analog board:) I was very happy to see some well established components like the AK4490EQ on there.
View attachment 70909 View attachment 70910 View attachment 70911
Where I painted the question mark, I assume one of the ICs is a s/pdif transceiver for the coax out.

Removing the last screwed part did reveal what's under the shield.
View attachment 70912 View attachment 70913
ARM Cortex A9 as the Main CPU I assume, RAM and clock buffer (not shown in the pictures), as well as an Ethernet switch IC for the two ports on the back.

There is another smaller CPU on the other side. Do you guys have any idea for what purpose?
View attachment 70914

One of my intentions was to see if I can find the master clock for dac/adc/coax. But all the crystal oscillators where beneath CPU and network. Left me a bit unsatisfied:confused:

All things considered, the build quality and used components are really great. But for €450 one would expect that.


If one of you guys in Europe would be willing to measure the port, I could mail it to you. After seeing the components, it would be interesting to know how good it was implemented.

Cheers

Cool! Did you see any PSU circuit inside (e.g. regulator)? If not, sounds one can easily upgrade the unit with an external PSU? Thanks!
 

Trouble Maker

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Sophoheilip

Sophoheilip

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I don’t understand with using the 4490 chip they don’t enable up to 192/24. They have a good interface, except if any of your local music is over 48khz, it will not play it.

IMHO the majority of Sonos buyers do not use files/streaming services beyond 48/24.
Furthermore the main processor, responsible for the whole digital signal path, does not meet the specs for high res files. It is designed for automotive and mobile purposes. I assume the 24 bit processing has more to do with dsp headroom than dynamic range (in sonos' intention).

So, in retrospective my impression has lowered quite a bit. I went back to Roon using RPi streamers.
 
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Sophoheilip

Sophoheilip

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Cool! Did you see any PSU circuit inside (e.g. regulator)? If not, sounds one can easily upgrade the unit with an external PSU? Thanks!

These are standard 3v3 and 5v LOD regulators.
Thats just my opinion: Trying to get more performance from a good/mediocre device with psu upgrades is a waste of money. Even the very good and cheap Allo Shanti linear psu will give you "better" SINAD, that could also be within measurreing error.
 

deniall83

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Sorry to revive this thread but I'm currently in the market for a streamer to connect to a DAC and the Sonos Port is ticking all my boxes. I'm only hesitant because the Sonos Connect performed quite poorly when tested here. I need a device that can utilize Roon and Spotify and my experience with Sonos has been very positive in terms of reliability (my wife also enjoys it). I already own a Chromecast Audio and while it does Roon perfectly, I have constant issues using Spotify Connect so that's not going to work.

What do you guys think of the Port in terms of performance?
 

mcdn

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What do you guys think of the Port in terms of performance?

I recently decided to take up Sonos' upgrade offer to convert my old Connects to Ports. Both are used with digital outs. The audible performance is obviously identical. Amir says the connect has 92dB SINAD on its analogue outputs, and 96dB on the digital ones, so it's effectively transparent as an output device. Maybe the Port does better on high bit-depth inputs than the Connect, but I don't own any 24 bit content.

I haven't seen any measurements of the Port, but my reason for sticking with Sonos was much more about the convenience of the system, ease of use for the rest of the family, seamless integration of NAS/Radio/Spotify/etc, and unique things like being able to run multiple different Spotify streams around the house from one account.

One of my trade-up items was a 10 year old ZP-80 which still works perfectly well, and it got me 30% off a Sonos Move, so they do build and support good hardware, regardless of the recent noise about the V1->V2 upgrade
 

DK11706

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Still missing a link to a review of the port with measurements, anyone? :)

Sonos claim to have improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the DAC by greater than 10dB relative to Connect, so chances are very good for a perfect 16 Bit coax output to a high-end DAC.

I agree that high-res output would have been great, but I'll take a 16 bit quality mastering with great dynamics over a standard compressed high-res mastering any day. What I normally do is to buy the high-res mastering (if dynamic range is good), and then convert it to 16/44, I own what you would call a decent high-end setup and I can't pick the two version over each other. So Sonos might be on to something when they say high-res is a hype created by sales guys, and not a real world issue....but more a question of some high-res releases has been mastered different like vinyl and have better dynamic range sounding so much smoother than the compressed 16 bit version.
 

NirreFirre

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Still missing a link to a review of the port with measurements, anyone? :)

Sonos claim to have improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the DAC by greater than 10dB relative to Connect, so chances are very good for a perfect 16 Bit coax output to a high-end DAC.

I agree that high-res output would have been great, but I'll take a 16 bit quality mastering with great dynamics over a standard compressed high-res mastering any day. What I normally do is to buy the high-res mastering (if dynamic range is good), and then convert it to 16/44, I own what you would call a decent high-end setup and I can't pick the two version over each other. So Sonos might be on to something when they say high-res is a hype created by sales guys, and not a real world issue....but more a question of some high-res releases has been mastered different like vinyl and have better dynamic range sounding so much smoother than the compressed 16 bit version.
I thought this was pretty much common knowledge by now? :)
A last move before "vinyl enthusiasts land" from the non streaming world to eek the most dollares out of non technical/curious consumers. It's all in the masters and recordings themselves and not in the already transparent format
 

holsen

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I'm a little late to this party but I just took advantage of the Upgrade Offer from Sonos and upgraded two Connects to a Port and a Beam Gen 2. The previous Connect I had going into my B&O system and it sound flat and lacking dynamics until putting a DAC between the port and B&O which then sounded amazing. With the Port, I no longer need the DAC. Those AK chips need a few hours of run in but after about 50 hours the port into the B&O is lively and full of dynamic range.
The system stability of S2 over S1 is night and day. There is no stuttering between grouped unit (rooms / zones) when playing local Flac off my NAS. And with the Beam 2 plugged into my TV, my audio set up is so much simpler.

Previously my Living Room audio chain looked like this:
TV > Toslink Switch ch 1 > DAC > B&O Aux In
+
Streaming + Library > Connect > Toslink Switch ch 2 > DAC > B&O Aux In

With this set up I could listen to my library all over the house but I had no way to tie in my TV into other rooms. By connecting a Beam to the TV, it now acts as in interface to the Port and it seamlessly sends the audio signal to my B&O via Port and any other room in my house. I've been able to eliminate the DAC and the switch and now I can send content anywhere around the house. I don't even listen to the Beam, except in the morning, when I listen to radio at low volume. And it actually sounds pretty good, but it's the perfect connector into the rest of the ecosystem. My whole system boots up quicker and switching sources is a breeze. I couldn't be happier.

Is it hi rez? No. Do I care? No. I've got a Bryson set up in another room for critical listening but as for the rest of the house Sonos in the backyard, garage, Bathroom 1, Bathroom 2, Living Room, My Office, Wife Office and everything perfectly sync'd.
 

bevok

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I’m contemplating a Port just to add my room with an AVR into the Sonos interface. Would love to see some measurements out of interest.
There was an interesting interview with Patrick Spence and Giles Martin recently where Spence basically said they looked at hires a few years ago and decided that it wasn’t something worth chasing (unlike Spatial). It’s an interesting interview (see 23:50 in for the hires comment):

Playing hires would be trivial in my view (supported by your discoveries regarding the DAC) - much more likely that avoiding it is about the trade off between reliability and network performance vs audible benefit just doesn’t make it worthwhile.

I’d love to see a next gen Port with Spatial support!
 
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