I am planning to set-up a Sonos system for about 5-7 zones in my home in one month during a remodel. There are two zones where I want to have better audio quality than the others.
In the family room which will have the home theater, I am planning on a 5.1 system based on Vienna Acoustics speakers driven by a Pioneer SC-27 140WPC amp. For music, this would be fed by a ZP90.
In my kitchen / dining area I am planning four 8 inch Noble Fidelity in-ceiling speakers. I know in-ceilings have their sonic limitations, but they are required for aesthetic purposes and this is where we will do 75% of our listening. I can go with two ZP120s here or a ZP90 and an upscale amp such as an Arcam, NAD or Rotel.
The question is, how much would I benefit from using an external DAC in both situations? Most of our listening is Rhapsody and iTunes library, which are 160kbps / MP3. I would like to add a collection of lossless music, but this takes time which I don't have much of, so who knows when I'll get there.
If I were to buy a DAC, it would be a lower end one based on my budget such as DACMagic or Musical Fidelity V-DAC D/A processor or such. Are these DACs signficantly better than what is present in a ZP90 or ZP120 and do they substantially improve sound quality if I'm feeding them MP3s or 160kbps.
Thanks,
Dave
In the family room which will have the home theater, I am planning on a 5.1 system based on Vienna Acoustics speakers driven by a Pioneer SC-27 140WPC amp. For music, this would be fed by a ZP90.
In my kitchen / dining area I am planning four 8 inch Noble Fidelity in-ceiling speakers. I know in-ceilings have their sonic limitations, but they are required for aesthetic purposes and this is where we will do 75% of our listening. I can go with two ZP120s here or a ZP90 and an upscale amp such as an Arcam, NAD or Rotel.
The question is, how much would I benefit from using an external DAC in both situations? Most of our listening is Rhapsody and iTunes library, which are 160kbps / MP3. I would like to add a collection of lossless music, but this takes time which I don't have much of, so who knows when I'll get there.
If I were to buy a DAC, it would be a lower end one based on my budget such as DACMagic or Musical Fidelity V-DAC D/A processor or such. Are these DACs signficantly better than what is present in a ZP90 or ZP120 and do they substantially improve sound quality if I'm feeding them MP3s or 160kbps.
Thanks,
Dave
