Home Live Stream Replay – Streamers: Sonos – Bluesound – Yamaha – Metrum

Live Stream Replay – Streamers: Sonos – Bluesound – Yamaha – Metrum

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Price: € 549

Intro

Contents

Streamers have become a standard source in many high-quality audio systems. This is not surprising, given that all major brands have had a streamer in their range for more than five years. Sonos even around fifteen years. In short: streamers are now mature sources. We are curious about the current status of the hardware. After all: Sonos has the new Sonos Port. And Bluesound now has the Node 2i. Time for a battle! Live… with you!

Streamers come in many shapes and sizes. And in various classes. We are regularly asked to test affordable audio. Not everyone has the freedom to spend a significant amount of money on hi-fi. Incidentally, it is very interesting for us to test in that class, because it is more difficult for a manufacturer to work with a limited budget.

Choices

Now ‘affordable price class’ is very relative. After all, what is ‘affordable’? And what is entry level audio? We consider the ‘Sonos Port’ class as entry-level class. Is there nothing cheaper? There certainly is. But we decided a long time ago to start testing at that price point. For several reasons: that’s when we think are the best deals in terms of quality and price. Think of support, sound, finishing, et cetera. There are really exceptions of course.

As candidates we’re considering: Sonos Port, Bluesound Node2i, Heos Link (2nd generation), Yamaha WXC50, Metrum Acoustics Baby Ambre and of course there are systems from Bose, Harman and for example Bowers & Wilkins. However, these have no ‘single player’ to connect to a hifi-systemen, or no single player in this price class. The Formation Link for example is a little bit too expensive. And the new Volumio player was still on a cargo ship. A reader points us to the lack of the Allo player. Of course there are numerous alternatives. And we believe that the Allo player is good. However, there is no official importer of the Allo player, which is in fact a Rasberry Pi with an extra board/modification.

The HEOS Link – and Marantz or Denon alternatives – are not available. So it comes to a comparison of the Sonos Port, Bluesound Node2i, Yamaha WXC50 and Metrum Baby Ambre. The latter is deliberately a bit of an odd choice: it does fall in this price range, but it needs an external converter and a ROON license. In short: extra costs. But we would like to take this one into the live multi test.

The test setup

We use our well-known reference set:

We use a fixed playlist to play the same music. That turned out to be a challenge in the first round in which we played native via the apps of the streamers. Not all apps are equally convenient with searching in our library. And Tidal via BubbleUpnp did something strange. However, we did manage to play all tracks under the same conditions. The playlist can be found in the description of the Youtube Video. Including all time stamps (so you can quickly switch between the streamers).

Winkels met Bluesound

Sint-Antoniusstraat 15
2300 Turnhout, BE
Joseph Bensstraat 21
1180 Ukkel, BE
Pleinweg 136
3083 EP Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, NL
Bredabaan 1031
B-2930 Brasschaat, BE
Pelikaanstraat 126
2018 Antwerpen, BE
Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
Grotestraat 23
5931 CS Tegelen, NL
Parkweg 23
8084GG 't Harde, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Geldropseweg 105
5611 SE Eindhoven, NL
Breestraat 146-148
2311CX Leiden, Zuid Holland, NL
Korte Jansstraat 11
3512GM Utrecht, NL
Hermesweg 2
3741 GP Baarn, Utrecht, NL
Theresiastraat 151 - 157
2593 AG Den Haag, Noord Holland, NL
St.-Katelijnevest 53
2000 Antwerpen, BE
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL

Winkels met Sonos

Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Theresiastraat 151 - 157
2593 AG Den Haag, Noord Holland, NL
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL

Winkels met Yamaha

Sint-Antoniusstraat 15
2300 Turnhout, BE
Joseph Bensstraat 21
1180 Ukkel, BE
Pleinweg 136
3083 EP Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, NL
Hooikade 13
2627 Delft, Zuid Holland, NL
Bredabaan 1031
B-2930 Brasschaat, BE
Pelikaanstraat 126
2018 Antwerpen, BE
Schoenmakersstraat 19
6041EX Roermond, NL
Grotestraat 23
5931 CS Tegelen, NL
Parkweg 23
8084GG 't Harde, NL
Stationsweg 87
9471 GM Zuidlaren, NL
St. Ceciliastraat 28
5038 HA Tilburg, NL
Hermesweg 2
3741 GP Baarn, Utrecht, NL
Korevaarstraat 2 e-f
2311 JS Leiden, NL
Steenstraat 54
6828 CM Arnhem, Gelderland, NL
St.-Katelijnevest 53
2000 Antwerpen, BE
Beethovenstraat 9-b
1077 HL Amsterdam, Noord Holland, NL