Sonos has transformed my house!

same here but with the Squeezeboxes except that I have ripped to a nas and it is easier to take my CD collection with me as I move about.

Dead right Sonos transforms ones listening. Its a battle now in our house as to who gets to the controller first! Just in process of completing CD ripping to the NAS drive. I find 320 kbps quite acceptable and at the end of the day if the original recording is rubbish doesn't matter what bit rate it is. Great fun!

I think your post demonstrates how exciting the hifi world is these days, there are now more than a few ways to get high quality sound.

I use an ipod classic with files converted to AIFF and love the flexibility of having my whole collection available instantly, I wouldn't use streaming services myself but it's good that these things exist.

The most important thing in owning a hifi is having a smile on your face because of the music, if your system does that then something must be right.

Welcome to the club  

As for the ripping... It depends on your musical tastes. There are some things just not on Spotify. There are some things that are but are then withdrawn. For me, ripping is still part of the process. 

Parties are a joy though. I just leave the iPad on the worktop and people treat it like a jukebox. People play songs they haven't heard for years.

Have been sold for some time on the benefits of a centralised library and/or Spotify Premium.  I think there's a way togo before SP becomes my only source of listening, as there are some artists/albums I like who/which simply aren't on there.  For the time being though, it covers about 95% of it...

Sonus has transformed listening in our house too, although my 16 year old would rather listen to her iPod via headphones, or it's dock.

I've also spent more time listening to streaming services and internet radio channels, than listening to the CD's I've ripped to ALAC or our two iTunes libraries.

Regarding 320 kbps steams, just remember that the Premium service promises "up to 320 kbps....".

Back in July, it was reported that only about a third of Spotify Premium content was being pushed out at that bit rate, with two thirds being at a lower 160 kbps.

Spotify have since said that they now have approximately 60% of their catalogue available in 320 kbps, so if that's correct the situation is improving.

Other 320 kbps services such as Deezer, also say "up to 320 kbps...." so Spotify are not unique in this.

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Get a dac, will improve the sound of a Z90 a lot.

Agree with all you said, after a while, just getting up to put a cd on became a pain (I'm lazy).

I converted to straming a year ago and not looked back it is so simple and I can have misic in 1 or 4 rooms in the house .

Not gone for spotify I still Buy CD's usually used from Amazon but they go no where near a CD player they get ripped and put away.

I agree totally. Just finished ripping 2095 cds in FLAC to my server- boring but worth it. I "Sonosed" the whole house (See signature) after playing with a friend's system in the states, I took me two years to make the leap - nearly buying into the NaimUniti system in the meantime. I kept speakers and amps, sold everything else. The ease of use across the whole concept is great, everybody can't believe how well it works. Try the Aupeo game, type in any genre or artist/band into the search function and see what comes up. I have just re-bought The Congos-Heart of the Congos as a result of this. My wife thinks of it as a giant Ipod, my son (13) is now into retro rock (old AC/DC/Thin Lizzy etc), and I have a new taste for reggae (last listened to in the 70s). Found some great radio stations in Australia and the USA, punk fm being one of them, and New Zealand Radio was great during their quakes - some mad/bad ones out there also, so beware. We wake up to the Sonos alarm and house work is a blast in "party" mode. homework with my son starts with a discussion on which albums and in what order. also catching up on missed BBC Radio is now just a case of searching and adding to a playlist. How easy is that for a bit of GQT, Friday Night Comedy or Woman's Hour.

As far as I am concerned there are not enough hours in the day.  I am thinking of adding a Cambridge DAC to feed from the ZP90 into the Linn Amp, but even that can wait as we are just enjoying, enjoying, enjoying. Well off now as I am about to listen to the Kaiser Chiefs - The Future is Medieval. Spread the word............. and the word is Sonos. Enjoy.

Spotify streams in the ogg vorbis format....and as I can see from my 3000 downloads I have most stuff, including streams is 256.

But then, most of my music is 40s 50s 60s and 70s and digital wasn't about. I lost interest in most music after those years.

I want to be able to listen to real singers recording in a real studio with real musicians. This was being lost from the 60s onwards.

Just listen to some albums which showed the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Little Richard doing a few takes with live musicians untill they got it just right.... Raw unadulerated music....MAGIC!

Now a lot of music is just on a loop with not a real musician in sight! And even some singing is 'doctored'! 

Of course this is just my subjective  view...so please do not try and squeeze my nuts!

Anyway, back to the point... ....I use Wireworld Ultraviolet USB cable from my Laptop to  my Arcam RDAC Converter sent down my QED Quinex phono cable to my Arcam A85 amplifier outed to my KEF Model ONE-2 Floorstanding Speakers.

Sounds good to me.

Out of interest, what do people use to rip their music?

I'm thinking of iTunes so that I have one central location for all my music which I can load on to iPhone, iPad, play on the computer, display artwork etc, but if there is something better, please say.

thanks

if you have a number of iThings then I guess iTunes is the best thing to use, personally I wouldn't have it in the house but I don't have any Apple products. I use dbPowerAmp.

Good for you, but all those people cant be wrong?

Or can they?

Sonos and Apple/itunes works for me too I have to admit.

I don't think The_Lhc said people using iTunes are wrong. He merely stated his preference, & the reasoning for not using iTunes.

Anyway, what bigboss said...