help me make sonos better

So Larryski2 and Edgejazz are both running a standard unmodded Sonos through a modestly priced DAC and are getting results they are pleased with... and a better quality DAC gives better sound, as expected.

Bryoncunningham is enhancing the Sonos much as a modded Cullen Sonos would do with a reclocker. Could you comment on whether the addition of the Pace Car is a subtle or significant improvement in the sound quality. Also, will a better DAC also reduce jitter.

Soundgasm has both a standard and modded Sonos wih good cables and good DAC's. The mod to the ZP-90 is $550.00. From testing your combinations, do you feel the money should be spent on the mod, or would it be better spent on a better DAC... Moving up to a Benchmark or Bryston DAC?

Thanks to everyone for your comments, it really helps.

Paul

paul did a great summary of answers so far to my original question. hoping that by weeks end a clear path will be found via a few more responses. maybe then we should all get a little cash-o-la from sonos ala bill murray's to "the father" in caddyshack for "the effort"!

I should clarify that my DACs are very modest (as is the rest of my system), and that I have maybe a year's experience listening critically...that is to say, almost no experience at all in comparison with most who post here.

That said, it's my understanding that the benefits of the Cullen mod are only available at the digital outputs, so there's no way to really 'just' do the mod in lieu of adding a DAC. Gotta do both.

My thinking was that I'd like the source to be as good as it can be, and my first affordable experiment in that regard was with Cullen. I'd do it again for sure...although I'm thinking I should try the Empirical route next, if only so somebody could provide head-to-head comparison between the two. :-)

In the meanwhile, I'm free to take an incrementalist approach to swapping out other modest (~1k) DACs. But honestly, rIght now I'm trying to just chill out, listen to music, and grow into my ears. I know that my 'persistence of hearing' isn't yet accurate enough for me to discern extremely subtle differences when it takes 5 minutes to go from 'A' to 'B' while swapping out components in the chain.

Soundgasm... I certainly appreciate your comments and many times a "lack of experience" should be viewed by our readers as a "fresh approach". ;)

I realize that a DAC is still needed with the Sonos Mod, I was wondering if the MOD was needed with a better DAC since some of the better DAC's speak of "jitter reduction" circuitry. That may be just more marketing. Your approach of getting the source as clean as possible is certainly valid.

Sounds like you also feel that the $550 for a Sonos Mod was money well spent and the digital output is a significant improvement over an unmodded unit.

Thanks for your comments!

Could you comment on whether the addition of the Pace Car is a subtle or significant improvement in the sound quality.

I think the answer to this question is system-dependent. With highly resolving components, the addition of the Pace Car results in significant improvements. With moderately resolving components, I believe the improvements would be more subtle. You can read more about my experiences with the Pace car in a review I wrote.

Also, will a better DAC also reduce jitter?

It depends on the dac. Some do, some don't. Keep in mind that the "gold standard" for jitter reduction is a FIFO buffer, which discards the timing data altogether and relclocks the audio data with a high precision clock. This is the approach in the Pace Car. Many dac's that advertise their jitter reduction capabilities do not use a FIFO buffer, but use some other approach.

I do not have the breath of experience to generalize about how much better a FIFO buffer is than other possible approaches. I can say that my Meridian G68 uses PLL's and ASRC to reduce jitter, and even with that, the addition of the Pace Car resulted in significant improvements. Again, this assumes a certain level of resolution among the rest of the system's components.

I don't know the OP's system, but since he has not yet added an external dac to his Sonos, I am now thinking that the Pace Car might be overkill for him. In that case, a more sensible option might be the Cullen mods in combination with a moderately priced dac, and a good S/PDIF cable between them.