I thought the apocalypse had come and I was all alone. Just me and the tumbleweed! Such a shame, there used to be some real characters on this board.. Anyway, sure is nice to see a new face!

mtymous1 wrote:

Congratulations...on ditching the proprietary Sonos "ecosystem"!

Thanks, but I don't really feel congratulations are in order. I really liked the Sonos in so many ways and it was more than good enough for feeding everything (bedrooms, dining room, kitchen - all background music) except the bigrig. There it was always a stop-gap, but in retrospect I am surprised how long it has taken me to "land". My 10-year, multiple-iteration (Sonos, Logitech, Aurilac, Mac Mini, Devialet AIR) quest to find an acceptable (UI/SQ) way of feeding hi res audio to the bigrig has currently culminated in my current Roon/SonicTransporter/microRendu config which is the first setup ever that I am really happy with. Sonos would have been fine for the other rooms/users but for their use cases (Spotify/Youtube from iPhone) the Airport Express-based solution presents a simpler UI and for the systems (like the kitchen) where the AE is feeding a decent DAC via Toslink (so not relying on the AE for DAC at which it admittedly sucks) it is even providing better SQ - on both compressed and CD-res program.

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While convenient for the masses, I never regarded it as an audiophile-grade solution.

Agreed. But even audiophiles have non-audiophile use cases and stakeholders. I have 7 systems in my apartment (like WOW, I've never counted them up before) of which only 3 are really used for critical listening. The remaining 4 are in three kids' bedrooms and the kitchen.

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However, am curious as to why you are limiting your capabilities with...

struts wrote:

...an Airport Express feeding a NAD D 3020... {and} ...standardized interface (Airplay)...

...knowing that AirPlay downsamples anything above 96 kHz.

The NAD D 3020 has a 24-bit/192kHz DAC with 8 channels mixed to 2 channels for playback of your high-resolution digital music. Assuming you are streaming any 192 kHz content, AirPlay is halving your potential.

I'm not, but the kitchen is a special case. In this room (only) I am mostly (80%) streaming internet radio @128kbps and the remaining 20% either Tidal or ripped CDs from the NAS. If I want to play anything hi resolution I can either use the Devialet Phantoms in the dining room or the bigrig. From my perspective it is more a case of the NAD being overkill than the AE being underkill.

But appreciate the comments and the interest. Always open to new ideas and there's most always something I've missed!