New Man Cave Set up - what would you do?

[TownIdiot]

Due to one of our kids moving back home I've lost my study/cave and have been banished to the attic.

This has coincided with me completely falling out of love with Sonos - it's borderline unusable since the app update.

It's simple enough to replace the Play 1's around the house so now looking at the set up in my room.

Currently have
Sonos Amp
Marantz TT5005 turntable
Monitor Audio Sliver RS-1 bookshelf speakers on stands

99% of my listening is via Spotify these days so that's the most important, with occasional afternoon messing around with Vinyl.

If sonos worked it would be ideal but have no spent months not being able to control volume, change tracks or see the device I want to use so it needs to go.

Would you just replace the amp with another streaming amp? look for an integrated amp/cd with streaming?

Any bright ideas?

thanks in advance!

[LR90]

I'm looking at these at the moment to replace my old NAD 3020i: https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver...

They look good and have won awards, but I have no experience with them. Interested to see if anyone else has!

[TownIdiot]

LR90 said:

I'm looking at these at the moment to replace my old NAD 3020i: https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver...

They look good and have won awards, but I have no experience with them. Interested to see if anyone else has!

That's exactly the piece of kit that brought me here to post!
Think I'd prefer a WiFi connection rather than Bluetooth but not exactly sure why.

[TEKNOPUG]

Depends how much you want to spend?

Wiim Amp Pro and a sub would be the obvious choice

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 26th November 17:14

[TownIdiot]

TEKNOPUG said:

Depends how much you want to spend?

Wiim Amp Pro and a sub would be the obvious choice

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 26th November 17:14

Looks good.

Would probably get 6-700 for my Sonos stuff and happy to add a few hundred to that for something worthwhile.

[Sporky]

I have a Bluesound Powernode 2i and like it. Mostly Spotify, but also optical from my PC.

[TEKNOPUG]

TownIdiot said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Depends how much you want to spend?

Wiim Amp Pro and a sub would be the obvious choice

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 26th November 17:14

Looks good.

Would probably get 6-700 for my Sonos stuff and happy to add a few hundred to that for something worthwhile.

Add a BK subwoofer https://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers.htm?gad_so... and phono pre-amp.

Spend anything you have left on a subscription to a better streaming service.

[TownIdiot]

TEKNOPUG said:

Add a BK subwoofer https://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers.htm?gad_so... and phono pre-amp.

Spend anything you have left on a subscription to a better streaming service.

Tidal?

[TEKNOPUG]

TownIdiot said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Add a BK subwoofer https://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers.htm?gad_so... and phono pre-amp.

Spend anything you have left on a subscription to a better streaming service.

Tidal?

Or Amazon Unlimited.

[kevinon]

I may be on the wrong tack here. But if Sonos kit works for you, (apart from the app) why not use Apple TV (£149) and it's included remote as your Sonos interface?

Doubly easy if you use an iPhone obvs.

---

I am aware that the newer Sonos app is poor, but because of Apple TV, I've only used the original Sonos apps for setup.

[dxg]

TEKNOPUG said:

Depends how much you want to spend?

Wiim Amp Pro and a sub would be the obvious choice

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Tuesday 26th November 17:14

Just been confirmed on their forum that the Wiim stuff goes on sale on Friday in the UK.

I'm currently waiting for the Amp Pro to drop a little...

[TownIdiot]

I haven't got an apple phone and don't really watch TV in my office apart from football.
My issue with Sonos is from my phone it's just not working. Takes around a minute to find my devices, in effect I can't control the volume and I can't see my services reliably.

It works ok from my pc but that's useless when I'm in the lounge and my computer is in the attic

So may as well ditch the Sonos, buy some Google speakers for the three rooms where it's either background music or radio/podcasts and use the money to kit out my office with something decent.

[Lovey1]

TownIdiot said:

I haven't got an apple phone and don't really watch TV in my office apart from football.
My issue with Sonos is from my phone it's just not working. Takes around a minute to find my devices, in effect I can't control the volume and I can't see my services reliably.

It works ok from my pc but that's useless when I'm in the lounge and my computer is in the attic

So may as well ditch the Sonos, buy some Google speakers for the three rooms where it's either background music or radio/podcasts and use the money to kit out my office with something decent.

I was equally frustrated with the SONOS app issues but these have all been (pretty much) resolved now and I am falling in love again....However i am an Apple user. Have you thought about investing £50 in an IPod Touch and using that as the controller?

[toon10]

I'd be looking at a Naim Uniti Star. I have the Nova which is a bit more powerful, but the Star has a built in CD player. Peter Tyson do refurbished ones, but it all depends on your budget. Even a refurbed one is not cheap. Streamer, amp and Spotify Connect built in.

[TownIdiot]

Lovey1 said:

I was equally frustrated with the SONOS app issues but these have all been (pretty much) resolved now and I am falling in love again....However i am an Apple user. Have you thought about investing £50 in an IPod Touch and using that as the controller?

I carry my phone around with me around the house. I wouldn't do that with an ipod touch. I was lay in bed last night and wanted to switch from the radio to an audio book - it just wasn't happening so I had to get out of bed and press the mute button. It's a first world problem I appreciate but it's seriously annoying. I am now sat in the living room on my laptop with a Tea. The speaker is playing Wildflowers by Warmduscher (which is highly appropriate) but my phone is showing that it's Radio 3. My wife won't use it as she won't piss about with it like me. I have two android phones and it's the same on both.

TBH since we moved I don't really need "multi room" synchronisation due to the layout of the house. In most rooms a google speaker would suffice and it looks like I could get something decent for my office for not much more than I'd get for my sonos kit, and if I am sensible it would be less. It's a shame as I have had Sonos since about 2006/7.

[clockworks]

LR90 said:

I'm looking at these at the moment to replace my old NAD 3020i: https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver...

They look good and have won awards, but I have no experience with them. Interested to see if anyone else has!

I've owned 4 Denon microsystems over the years, the last one being the DM41.
Decent enough for the price - if you need the CD and tuner.

I'm now using Tangent Ampster BT11 amps in 3 rooms. Better sound, more inputs, cheaper - around £150. Mostly used for TV, iMac, and streaming via Roku 2s.
The 2 in the study and workshop are driving Quad L-ite mini bookshelf speakers, the one in the dining room Monitor Audio ceiling speakers.

Cracking little amps for the price.

[JulianHJ]

LR90 said:

I'm looking at these at the moment to replace my old NAD 3020i: https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver...

They look good and have won awards, but I have no experience with them. Interested to see if anyone else has!

I've had one of these for a few years and I'm very happy with it.

[MC Bodge]

I would keep it simple and buy a 2.1 Class D amplifier (Fosi or Aiyima) and a suitably sized sub, with the streaming device of your choice.

Although they are available with Bluetooth connections, the amps typically sound better streaming via a cable than via Bluetooth, but it does depend which you buy.

Fwiw, and I'm not suggesting that you do it, for very little money, I put together a system for our reasonably sized kitchen/dining room from a non-Bluetooth Wingoneer 2.1 Class D amplifier board (mounted neatly in an old Pure aux speaker enclosure), driving a pair of used (like new) JBL Control One speakers and a 6" Sony sub in a DIY sealed enclosure. The sound input is from a dedicated Android tablet, streaming BBC Sounds and Spotify.

I wasn't expecting too much from the amp, but the sound is impressively good and room filling (probably helped by the room acoustics). It has been working well for a couple of years of daily use.

[StescoG66]

Why not keep the 3020i which is a bloody good little amp and add a streamer device like a CambridgevCXN?

[Lucid_AV]

LR90 said:

I'm looking at these at the moment to replace my old NAD 3020i: https://www.richersounds.com/denon-dm41-dab-silver...

They look good and have won awards, but I have no experience with them. Interested to see if anyone else has!

They're not a patch on your 3020i.

Sure, you've got cup holders, an infotainment centre, forward and rear cameras, Alexa and Siri integration, lane assist, self-parking, etc etc. But none of that helps you go, turn, and stop like a sorted chassis and decent engine. The NAD was one of the budget Hi-Fi amps that rewrote the rules about performance-per-£. This, the Rotel RA820BXII and the Creek CAS2020 put the cat amongst the pigeons of the Hi-Fi world in the late 70s and 80s. That they're still stonkingly good amps 40 years on shows just how far ahead of the field they were in their day.

The DM41DAB micro-system is the best amongst its peers, but we're talking "who makes the best MPV".

The power spec is 'creatively massaged' to appear as 30W/ch. They're measuring with a 6 Ohm load rather than 8 which would give them a poorer looking 22W. In top of that, Measuring in a narrowband 1kHz is where the amp is most efficient. A real measurement would be 20Hz-20kHz, so we can take it the figure is bolstered by at least 10%. The other cheat is measuring the power at a high THD% (10% in this case). That's another 10~20%.You're lucky if this thing runs at 16W/ch with a real-world signal into 8 Ohm speakers. The NAD will muller it on power, and you'll her that in stronger bass, a larger sound field, and a tighter grip on the rhythms coming from the speakers.

Having said all that, I still bought one for the FiL along with a pair of Q Acoustics speakers when his old Aiwa microsystem gave up the ghost.