Smart speaker or smart-enable a traditional setup?

[SimonMac]

I am a firm fan of SONOS, the kit is fantastic, I am not sure what true audiophiles think of the quality but I cannot fault it, but I guess it depends on the source quality, can't blame the speaker if it's playing a low quality MP3 file

[SteelyDan]

...I guess it depends on the source quality, can't blame the speaker if it's playing a low quality MP3 file

Indeed.

It's not a major issue, but I do wish it had the capability to balance/equalize all sound levels [such as my phone music app does; Galaxy S7].

[vwdan]

I am a firm fan of SONOS, the kit is fantastic, I am not sure what true audiophiles think of the quality but I cannot fault it, but I guess it depends on the source quality, can't blame the speaker if it's playing a low quality MP3 file

Same - have a few Play:1's and the Soundbar and really don't have a single complaint.

Treated ourselves to a Play5 and a Turntable over the weekend - shan't lie, the cost left me nervous but as with every other Sonos unboxing I was left very happy indeed. It all just works so so well.

[WTFH]

Indeed.

It's not a major issue, but I do wish it had the capability to balance/equalize all sound levels [such as my phone music app does; Galaxy S7].

You can.
https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answe...e-and-loudness

[SteelyDan]

You can.
https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answe...e-and-loudness

Oh yeah, sorry should've been clearer...I meant, there are times when the level of a particular album is quieter than others, so there's a need to manually increase volume; next album could be at a louder level so you need to decrease volume. That's fine if listening to one album, but if tracks from various albums form part of a playlist then that's where it becomes an issue. On my android phone, I can set the volume level to be the same across all tracks, which isn't possible with Sonos, as far as I'm aware.

[d000hg]

So while I was quite interested in Sonos, especially given you can get the One for £134 and therefore a stereo pair for under £300, I went into my local Richer Sounds and their strong advice was "get a traditional system". In my budget the Cambridge Audio AM10 was their recommendation, I tested it against a similar priced Onkyo (which won some What Hifi award) and with some Monitor One speakers and the AM10 was a clear winner.

Amp priced £179, speakers £249 IIRC but got for £379. It sounded pretty great, and looks nicer to me than some Sonos cans.

Thanks for your advice.