Article: The Sonos Port Isn't Bit Perfect

[DK11706]

HDCD has to be supported by the DAC, maybe the port doesn't support the extended low level flags and ignores them. Port has to be bitperfect I just bought one because I read that they had fixed the bitperfect issue 😁

[DK11706]

Well HDCD have a control signal, and only works if supported by the player, so my point is still valid :-)

[DK11706]

Have you reported this to Sonos?

[DK11706]

I did a quick catch up on HDCD and I have to admit that you are right and I'm wrong, the HDCD data is hidden in the last of part of the 16Bit, so if Sonos was bitperfect it should be passed and detected by your DAC.

 

Anyway thank you for a great find, I already requested a return for my product and replaced it with my old trusty ZP80. 

[DK11706]

Hi,

 

I did some testing today, and I can confirm that both my Port and ZP80 are not bitperfect. My new DAC arrived today and works great with all material using my laptop.

 

When I connect Sonos to my DAC it locks to 44.1 Khz and stays there even when feed 48Khz material, so I guess sonos downsamples everything to 16Bit /44Khz.

 

One odd thing I did notice and maybe can be part of the bit perfect problem, is that you are still able to control max volume even with fixed output enabled.

 

Cheers..

[DK11706]

I contacted Sonos support and they told me Coax supported bit depth is 16-bit/24-bit (44.1kHz/48kHz, FLAC/ALAC). 

[DK11706]

I found this, which confirm what support told me but it still looks like everything is down samples to 44.1Khz. My DAC does not show Bit Depth, so maybe you can check that part :-) 

 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/79?language=en_US

[DK11706]

I contacted Sonos support again and was passed on to some senior people. Coax is only 44.1.Khz output, 48Khz is internal processing only.

 

That is very bad news as the old connect was terrible at down sampling introducing tons of noise in the signal. They still claim that 16bit 44.1Khz is bitperfect, but we already know that it's not true.

 

They will change the spec. in the link as soon as possible...and my Port will be returned.