Review and Measurements of SONOS Amp

[Dj7675]

I recently purchased a Sonos Amp and so far am quite happy with its sound quality, playing solely from streaming sources in the local network and from Internet streaming services. However I am just a guy who enjoys listening to music and by no means an audiophile.

In terms of features, I would have liked to see a headphone output, bi-directional Bluetooth and a built-in microphone for voice assistants. The last one is quite easily remedied with a Echo Dot or a similar device from Google, though for me it would have been nicer and cleaner to have the microphone built into the Sonos Amp.

Basically what I would look for is a love child of the Sonos Amp and the Bluesound Powernode 2i: Some of the hardware features of the Bluesound combined with the ease of use, better support for streaming services (no Soundcloud on Bluesound!) and amplification power of the Sonos. If one believes the Internet reviews one could also add the sound quality of the Bluesound, but I doubt I'd hear the difference.

Regards, Robert

The big omission on the Sonos amp is no room eq on non Sonos speakers. Otherwise a nice product.

 

[m_g_s_g]

The big omission on the Sonos amp is no room eq on non Sonos speakers. Otherwise a nice product.

Agree!

 

[the-ninth]

The big omission on the Sonos amp is no room eq on non Sonos speakers. Otherwise a nice product.

Agree as well, that also would have been a good addition.

Regards, Robert

 

[xarkkon]

The big omission on the Sonos amp is no room eq on non Sonos speakers. Otherwise a nice product.

yeah, amazing that they didn't even try. given so many products like minidsp and hifiberry DSP all allow room eq, one would have thought they would at least try.

 

[Dj7675]

Thought I would post an update. I had an old sonos connect that stopped working so took advantage of the Sonos Trade up program which gets 30% off. Picked up a Sonos Amp for $450. At first I was irritated that it didn't have any eq options besides treble/bass, and loudness. Used it to drive 2 pairs of speakers in the garage/deck. Decided to swap out the Denon x3500 for the Sonos Amp in a basic living room system and see how it goes
Equipment:
TV
Pair of Revel M106 speakers
Apple TV 4K
Dish 4K Hopper
Sonos Amp (Roon endpoint)
Setup: Hooked up ARC on TV to HDMI on Sonos AMP, changed the sourses to go to the TV instead of the receiver

Some random thoughts
-Form factor is great for a living room setup. Compact, no distracting lights, runs very cool
-ARC seems to work really very well (so far).
-Switching inputs on via TV works very well. Changing volume with TV IR controls volume on Sonos amp
-Power is very good powering M106s.
-Roon endpoint works very well. You start playing a song, input switching automatically. Roon volume changes the Sonos Amp volume which seems obvious but is important.
-Speaker terminals are fancy but seem strange.
-Like Sonos always incuding 2 network ports to use like a hub for other devices
-EQ for TV-This is the biggest downer as already mentioned. Just Treble/Bass and Loudness. This is a glaring omission for sure. Sonos has automated EQ that works pretty well called Trueplay. Not sure what they were thinking not including it on the Sonos Play. Since this is just for casual tv/music listening I am going to go without any eq for TV. M106 sound fine with tv without it.
-EQ for Music-I have measured the space with REW and will use a few filters eq some of the worst peaks under 200hz and call it good. At least for music, roon saves the day
The Sonos Amp is a pretty ideal piece of hardware for a living room. We are going to keep using it in the living room and sell the Denon x3500. It works well and is even more straightforward to use than the receiver for the living room.

 

[xarkkon]

Thought I would post an update. I had an old sonos connect that stopped working so took advantage of the Sonos Trade up program which gets 30% off. Picked up a Sonos Amp for $450. At first I was irritated that it didn't have any eq options besides treble/bass, and loudness. Used it to drive 2 pairs of speakers in the garage/deck. Decided to swap out the Denon x3500 for the Sonos Amp in a basic living room system and see how it goes
Equipment:
TV
Pair of Revel M106 speakers
Apple TV 4K
Dish 4K Hopper
Sonos Amp (Roon endpoint)
Setup: Hooked up ARC on TV to HDMI on Sonos AMP, changed the sourses to go to the TV instead of the receiver

Some random thoughts
-Form factor is great for a living room setup. Compact, no distracting lights, runs very cool
-ARC seems to work really very well (so far).
-Switching inputs on via TV works very well. Changing volume with TV IR controls volume on Sonos amp
-Power is very good powering M106s.
-Roon endpoint works very well. You start playing a song, input switching automatically. Roon volume changes the Sonos Amp volume which seems obvious but is important.
-Speaker terminals are fancy but seem strange.
-Like Sonos always incuding 2 network ports to use like a hub for other devices
-EQ for TV-This is the biggest downer as already mentioned. Just Treble/Bass and Loudness. This is a glaring omission for sure. Sonos has automated EQ that works pretty well called Trueplay. Not sure what they were thinking not including it on the Sonos Play. Since this is just for casual tv/music listening I am going to go without any eq for TV. M106 sound fine with tv without it.
-EQ for Music-I have measured the space with REW and will use a few filters eq some of the worst peaks under 200hz and call it good. At least for music, roon saves the day
The Sonos Amp is a pretty ideal piece of hardware for a living room. We are going to keep using it in the living room and sell the Denon x3500. It works well and is even more straightforward to use than the receiver for the living room.

Alas, most users of Sonos probably wouldn't have paid up for Roon. As you say, a huge glaring error to not have auto room correction

 

[Dj7675]

Alas, most users of Sonos probably wouldn't have paid up for Roon. As you say, a huge glaring error to not have auto room correction

Completely agree. But if you are already a roon user, have good speakers, and TV material sounds fine without EQ in your room, it is a family friendly unit that looks and works well. For me, It would not be part of my main 2 channel listening space but here it does rather well.

 

[JohnKay]

Completely agree. But if you are already a roon user, have good speakers, and TV material sounds fine without EQ in your room, it is a family friendly unit that looks and works well. For me, It would not be part of my main 2 channel listening space but here it does rather well.

Many thanks for the feedback on the amp. Out of curiosity, how does it sound without Roon dsp? If you had to use the EQ (treble / bass) alone, would it be ok for music and TV?

 

[Dj7675]

Many thanks for the feedback on the amp. Out of curiosity, how does it sound without Roon dsp? If you had to use the EQ (treble / bass) alone, would it be ok for music and TV?

Sounds fine to me on these speakers in this room without DSP. Bass has some peaks but at low/medium volumes it sounds good that way. It is a very lively room with hardwood floors/lots of windows etc but still sounds fine for tv. Music sounds fine too, but better with a few filters, in particular at louder volumes.
Edit: I would add I don’t use it for anything analog. Measurements of the line level inputs are terrible. If I needed an analog input I would look elsewhere for sure. After having it hooked up for several days, I find it to be a perfect living room unit. Listing to music.. starts playing music (with roon in our case) in turns on and it is just plays. Want to use apple TV 4K, wife can select the tv button and tv turns on to the right input, Apple TV comes on and it is ready to use. If you just have some digital sources it works well.

 

[ksulliva01]

If the Elac DBR62 is small enough, it might fit the bill

I have this combo running right now in my living room. Sounds excellent. In my room, a sub is not needed. If I didn't have nice neighbors living downstairs I would run a sub. That being said, I'm totally fine without one, and this has not been the case with other bookshelves in this space.

With flat EQ the Sonos amp sounds... well... a little flat. I push bass up to +4 to +6 depending on the recording, and slide treble down -2, just to smooth the top end a little bit, which is solely my preference.

FWIW, the Amp never sounded overly bright to me. What is the deal with that rumor? Over on the Sonos forums, someone posted a freq. response comparison of the Amp and a Peachtree Nova 125 SE (well-loved and known for it's "Smoothness, Warmth, Delicacy, Musicality etc. etc.") and they are almost completely identical.

I only stream to this amp via Spotify, and send TV audio in through the ARC input. In a real-world setting, what would be the downside to the noisy line-in?

 

[Dj7675]

I have this combo running right now in my living room. Sounds excellent. In my room, a sub is not needed. If I didn't have nice neighbors living downstairs I would run a sub. That being said, I'm totally fine without one, and this has not been the case with other bookshelves in this space.

With flat EQ the Sonos amp sounds... well... a little flat. I push bass up to +4 to +6 depending on the recording, and slide treble down -2, just to smooth the top end a little bit, which is solely my preference.

FWIW, the Amp never sounded overly bright to me. What is the deal with that rumor? Over on the Sonos forums, someone posted a freq. response comparison of the Amp and a Peachtree Nova 125 SE (well-loved and known for it's "Smoothness, Warmth, Delicacy, Musicality etc. etc.") and they are almost completely identical.

I only stream to this amp via Spotify, and send TV audio in through the ARC input. In a real-world setting, what would be the downside to the noisy line-in?

I have this combo running right now in my living room. Sounds excellent. In my room, a sub is not needed. If I didn't have nice neighbors living downstairs I would run a sub. That being said, I'm totally fine without one, and this has not been the case with other bookshelves in this space.

With flat EQ the Sonos amp sounds... well... a little flat. I push bass up to +4 to +6 depending on the recording, and slide treble down -2, just to smooth the top end a little bit, which is solely my preference.

FWIW, the Amp never sounded overly bright to me. What is the deal with that rumor? Over on the Sonos forums, someone posted a freq. response comparison of the Amp and a Peachtree Nova 125 SE (well-loved and known for it's "Smoothness, Warmth, Delicacy, Musicality etc. etc.") and they are almost completely identical.

I only stream to this amp via Spotify, and send TV audio in through the ARC input. In a real-world setting, what would be the downside to the noisy line-in?

Couple of thoughts..
-If you don't use the poor line inputs, it appears this is a very good unit for digital audio/video.
-From the tests done, it doesn't appear to have any issues at high frequencies. Much of what you hear is just things people have repeated about class d amps in general IMHO, which aren't true in a well designed amp
An issue I have is when I play 5.1 sources the dialogue is much more quite that the music/explosions etc (not just a little, but a lot). DId not have this issue with the receiver it replaced. Have you noticed anything like this?

 

[ksulliva01]

Couple of thoughts..
-If you don't use the poor line inputs, it appears this is a very good unit for digital audio/video.
-From the tests done, it doesn't appear to have any issues at high frequencies. Much of what you hear is just things people have repeated about class d amps in general IMHO, which aren't true in a well designed amp
An issue I have is when I play 5.1 sources the dialogue is much more quite that the music/explosions etc (not just a little, but a lot). DId not have this issue with the receiver it replaced. Have you noticed anything like this?

I do notice this issue a bit. Chalked it up to my lack of a center channel (despite the phantom center). It’s not a huge issue, I just find that it I turn it up loud enough that dialogue in quiet scenes is easily heard, when the action kicks in I end up turning it down a few notches as my living room gets destroyed by explosions. Night mode and speech enhancement do help quite a bit, but I find night mode adds too much compression so atmospheric background noises get brought up too much, and speech enhancement bumps the upper mids enough to make everything sound a little harsh and less rich or smooth. I just ride the volume on my remote as needed, and generally only in super intense action scenes.

 

[Dj7675]

I do notice this issue a bit. Chalked it up to my lack of a center channel (despite the phantom center). It’s not a huge issue, I just find that it I turn it up loud enough that dialogue in quiet scenes is easily heard, when the action kicks in I end up turning it down a few notches as my living room gets destroyed by explosions. Night mode and speech enhancement do help quite a bit, but I find night mode adds too much compression so atmospheric background noises get brought up too much, and speech enhancement bumps the upper mids enough to make everything sound a little harsh and less rich or smooth. I just ride the volume on my remote as needed, and generally only in super intense action scenes.

Glad it isn’t just me... Do you notice it with all programming or just Dolby or DTS material? I have looked through the app, but where is night mode? On the Apple TV 4K I found “reduce loud sounds” which I am guessing is some sort of compression but it does help quite a lot, but I don’t know if it works “too well” and robs all of the dynamic range. I don’t want to always have to mess with the volume all the time... too loud, too soft etc. The receiver I replaced it with didn’t have this issue.

 

[ksulliva01]

but where is night mode?

In the Sonos app, while TV audio is currently playing through the Amp, go to "system", where you route the audio, and you should see something like TV Audio on the little tab for your amp. Select that tab, and when it pops open there are two circular buttons at the bottom for night mode and speech enhancement. It's only selectable when TV audio is playing through the amp.

Pretty sure I notice it with all sources, but like I said it's only an issue in movies that have excessively loud action scenes. Rewatched Interstellar last weekend and yeah - I was back and forth on the volume quite a bit.

Would be nice if the compression of night mode acted more like a limiter and only brought down the loud noises without bringing up the soft noises.

 

[Dj7675]

In the Sonos app, while TV audio is currently playing through the Amp, go to "system", where you route the audio, and you should see something like TV Audio on the little tab for your amp. Select that tab, and when it pops open there are two circular buttons at the bottom for night mode and speech enhancement. It's only selectable when TV audio is playing through the amp.

Pretty sure I notice it with all sources, but like I said it's only an issue in movies that have excessively loud action scenes. Rewatched Interstellar last weekend and yeah - I was back and forth on the volume quite a bit.

Would be nice if the compression of night mode acted more like a limiter and only brought down the loud noises without bringing up the soft noises.

Thanks for that Info. I assumed it would be in the system settings... nope. I think using the setting in the Apple TV 4k may work but I will try it on the Sonos app. Any idea if I enable the night mode in the app while tv is playing if that setting sticks and is used with music too, or is it only used while watching video?
I am still thinking there is a downmixing issue with levels on 5.1 material. If I can resolve this issue I will keep it as it is a very convenient living room unit. Quite a lot of power, runs cool, compact and just works. But definitely can’t live with adjusting the volume all the time. Explosions, crashes etc in movies are very very loud. Makes me wonder if it is the LFE channel levels getting downmixed improperly to stereo or something...

 

[John76]

I’ve been running a couple Sonos Amps since they came out. One is in my three season porch connected to my TV and main system’s pre-amp tape output. The other one is in my Living Room also connected my main system. They replaced audiophile integrated amps. I also have a Play 3 in my kitchen.

The Sonos Amps have been a game changer as I now stream music, something that I rarely did before. I also enjoying listening to LP’s and find no drop off in quality from my all analog rig. Here’s a shot of the Living Room:

 

[ksulliva01]

find no drop off in quality from my all analog rig.

The other day I bought a Mid-70's Pioneer SA5200 for fun off of craigslist. Thought it would sound loads more "analog" or "warm" than the Sonos. To my surprise they sound extremely similar. To the point that I would probably not be able to tell which one was playing in the room, if I just walked in without knowing. The Pioneer is rated at 10 wpc but has no issues driving the 87db Elac DBR62s to overly loud listening levels.

 

[John76]

I use a pretty high spec LP12 with a dedicated MC phono stage for an analog source and have been thrilled with how the Sonos Amp handles the line input fed from it. It has me thinking Sonos had a great team engineering the product as it performs so well. I’m very curious about what DA chip they used but I’m unwilling to open the unit to find out.

 

[ZinMe]

Two comparisons to the Sonos amp would be the Bluesound Powernode, and the NAD CI 720 V2. Both have the advantage of 24bit/192k support, but the amp section is lower power rating (60 v 120) but I’m not sure about the amp architecture comparison of hybrid digital vs the Sonos class D approach.

 

[curiouspeter]

60W vs 120W is only a matter of 3db.

I use a Sonos Amp and a Teac AX-505 in my living room setup. I use the Sonos for AV/Surround and the Teac for music. They share the same front speakers.

I think the Teac sounds better, and it has some nice VU meters to distract me. Roon only streams 16/44.1 to Sonos endpoints but I can throw anything at the Teac (via Raspberry Pi and external DAC).

For AV setups, Sonos is unbeatable. Wireless surround bonding is just so easy. It just works. Bluesound is supposedly better but that costs more, and you will still be itching to get something "proper" for music.

Sonos handles vinly just fine, but I use the line input of my Teac for that. To me, vinyl is more about the experience. Those VU meters certainly add to that. Perhaps I am missing something, but I would not choose vinyl as a format if I want the best sound quality. Those cracklings and pops would drive me crazy if I pay too much attention.