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Just pre-ordered the new Sonos Amp.

Darwin

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I got an e-mail from Sonos that it is available for preorder and will arrive Dec 7th.
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/amp.html
I’ve done the high end AV receiver with cables all over the place and not interested in that anymore.
Currently I’m using a Sonos Beam and two rear Sonos Ones for home theater and stereo paired Homepods for music.
With this I will use tower speakers and a subwoofer and possibly a turntable.
The Elacs are on sale right now so will probably grab those. I can still use my rear Sonos Ones with the amp plus I won’t need the Homepods for music any more.
 
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Darwin

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Let us know how it works out. I was hoping it had DSP in there but seems not.
I will update. I’m rethinking the Elacs because they don’t look very nice. Kind of a rough ash finish.
 

amirm

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I will update. I’m rethinking the Elacs because they don’t look very nice. Kind of a rough ash finish.
Take a look at Revel Performa3 series. They have a high-end finish (and sound) despite being the value series in Revel line.
 

JJB70

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I have been thinking about getting a Yamaha receiver with wireless musicast speakers for the rear for the TV. I would like surround sound but have never been sufficiently enthused to go to trouble of running the necessary wiring. The wife would insist on the cables being properly hidden, with laminate flooring that becomes a pain so I use a 2.1 soundbar. I think the AV outfits missed a trick by not going into wireless earlier as the cabling issue is quite a barrier. I will check out the Sonos option too, thanks for linking.
 

andreasmaaan

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I was informed by a salesperson at the Sonos store in Berlin that the 2 x 6” subwoofer he was pointing at was “the best subwoofer in the world” :facepalm:

Have found it difficult to approach Sonos with anything but extreme prejudice since.
 

Hugo9000

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I was informed by a salesperson at the Sonos store in Berlin that the 2 x 6” subwoofer he was pointing at was “the best subwoofer in the world” :facepalm:

Have found it difficult to approach Sonos with anything but extreme prejudice since.
Perhaps there was a tiny sign on the door stating "Please append the phrase 'made or sold by Sonos' to every opinion offered by our sales staff."

If that's the case, he may not have been lying/mind-bogglingly ignorant. :D

If the store is called World of Sonos, then they may feel they are already covered.
 

HammerSandwich

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Is this their way of stating they believe in equipment break-in? Or is there a secret circuit that actively decreases the unit's distortion the more you use it, as a reward?
Nah, they're just doing like everybody else & releasing it with alpha-quality firmware.
 

Stump909

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Darwin

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I'm liking the Sonos Amp quite a bit. Gobs of power and sounds great. I'm using it with Revel Concerta 2 M16 speakers. Sonos sub, and rear Sonos Ones. My source for everything is a 4K Apple TV. TV is a 55" Sony X930E and a Sanus stand.
I subscribe to Tidal, Apple Music and Pandora and play all of those via either Airplay 2 or their Apple TV apps when I want to see the album art. For music I change the Apple TV to stereo and turn off the Sonos rears which you can do in the Sonos app.
I've had no issues of any kind and I care a lot more about music quality than Home theater but have no real complaints about the Sonos setup for home theater. The phantom center is decent. You can still do dialog enhancement even with 3rd party speakers. It's not quite as effective as from a Beam or Playbar but I don't like soundbars so no big deal.
Throughout the house I have another set of Sonos Ones, two sets of stereo paired Homepods, and a set Kef of LS50W's. I can airplay to everything at once except for the Kefs.
I'm probably going to attach a turntable to the amp as well.
I've done the whole spend thousands on AV receiver, surround sound speakers, cables all over the place deal and prefer to simplify.
Yes I know I need to clean up the cables and I am ordering Target stand for the Revels. These are Monoprice stands I am using for now. ;-)
 

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mi-fu

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I'm liking the Sonos Amp quite a bit. Gobs of power and sounds great. I'm using it with Revel Concerta 2 M16 speakers. Sonos sub, and rear Sonos Ones. My source for everything is a 4K Apple TV. TV is a 55" Sony X930E and a Sanus stand.
I subscribe to Tidal, Apple Music and Pandora and play all of those via either Airplay 2 or their Apple TV apps when I want to see the album art. For music I change the Apple TV to stereo and turn off the Sonos rears which you can do in the Sonos app.
I've had no issues of any kind and I care a lot more about music quality than Home theater but have no real complaints about the Sonos setup for home theater. The phantom center is decent. You can still do dialog enhancement even with 3rd party speakers. It's not quite as effective as from a Beam or Playbar but I don't like soundbars so no big deal.
Throughout the house I have a set of Sonos Ones, two sets of stereo paired Homepods, and a set Kef of LS50W's. I can airplay to everything at once except for the Kefs.
I'm probably going to attach a turntable to the amp as well.
I've done the whole spend thousands on AV receiver, surround sound speakers, cables all over the place deal and prefer to simplify.
Yes I know I need to clean up the cables and I am ordering Target stand for the Revels. These are Monoprice stands I am using for now. ;-)

Hi, thanks for your write-up. Did you do any comparison between Sono Amp + Revel and KEF LS50W?
 
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Darwin

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The Kef's are still better but the Sonos AMP/Revel combination sounds pretty amazing too with a full rich sound with great detail so I have no complaints.
Some of the reviews said the Sonos Amp has pretty high treble and I don't like treble so I chose speakers known to be somewhat warm and I backed the treble down a third in the Sonos app.
Note that you cannot do Trueplay with the amp because of the 3rd party speakers. Sonance is supposed to be coming out with speakers to match the amp and you will be able to do Trueplay with those.
The new Kef LSX which is basically a miniature LS50W does do Airplay 2 and Kef told me airplay is one of the most highly requested features for the LS50W and this before Airplay 2 was out. My guess is the current LS50W can't support it for some reason and the next version will.
 
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DonH56

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Nice to hear the new AMP is doing well (the old one was pretty low in power). I have a SONOS system but use a CONNECT to hook into my main system so I get all the processor's features and have power amps driving my Revels.

I'm probably the only one on the planet who wasn't blown away by the LS50. I like KEF, have a pair upstairs (Q70's, I think), but to me the LS50 sounded like a decent bookshelf but did not strike me as that much better or worse than several others I heard at the time (Revel, Focal, B&W, etc.) It was a very brief listen, however.
 
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Darwin

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The LS50 and the LS50W are not the same thing and everyone who has heard both says that the LS50W sounds better since the internal amps/dac are matched to the speaker among other things.
http://us.kef.com/ls50-wireless
I have always heard the passive LS50 requires very careful partnering with an amplifier to get the best out of it.
The new Sonos AMP has much higher power than the Connect:AMP.
125 watts per channel @ 8 ohms vs 55 watts per channel @ 8 ohms
 

DonH56

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The LS50 and the LS50W are not the same thing and everyone who has heard both says that the LS50W sounds better since the internal amps/dac are matched to the speaker among other things.
http://us.kef.com/ls50-wireless
I have always heard the passive LS50 requires very careful partnering with an amplifier to get the best out of it.
The new Sonos AMP has much higher power than the Connect:AMP.
125 watts per channel @ 8 ohms vs 55 watts per channel @ 8 ohms

That's interesting, I have not followed the LS50. The version I heard was the passive version; I didn't realize it was a gnarly load.

I did know about the AMP differences, but my old Magnepans and new Salon2s are both low-impedance insensitive beasts, and I have had the amps for years (and the CONNECT) so am not looking now except to follow along.
 
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