I have to give a vote for the Vault 2...
I use it for streaming and ripping CD's and find it to be remarkably good sounding... My only frustrations are that it has no XLR outputs and it does take approx 5 mins to rip a CD which seems like long time when I am loading in a batch of CDs all at once...
Other than those issues I love its ease of use and its overall functionality as well as sound quality. Yes, I like the Swiss Army knife analogy... Lots of useful functions.
The company does provide regular software/firmware updates for free and the Vault is connected to my router by a 20' generic cat 5 cable.
The Vault 2 is far better sounding than my previous Sonos set up which was convenient as a tuner and distribution field device for other rooms. In my opinion it did not have the sound quality I wanted as a source for my main listening room system which is all Audio Research gear and quite revealing of source material as well as cables and even fuses.
I do recommend Sonos gear to friends and neighbors who want something easy, inexpensive, even portable,fd and with a nice user interface.
My wife loves music, is not a gear head or audiophile but she recognized the Vault as better sound than the Sonos immediately.
I did upgrade the AC power cord to a moderately priced ($90?) AQ version and I am using Cardas Clear light RCA 1m interconnects... each which improved the imaging, tonality as well as clarity of the Vault 2... I have not experimented with the Cardas Clear cables with it since they cost more than the Vault and I am using them for my ARC CD player... might be interesting at some point.
I am not up on the newer Bluesound gear however Id like to get an extension speaker for another part of the house so I'll be looking into it. Enjoy the music !
I use it for streaming and ripping CD's and find it to be remarkably good sounding... My only frustrations are that it has no XLR outputs and it does take approx 5 mins to rip a CD which seems like long time when I am loading in a batch of CDs all at once...
Other than those issues I love its ease of use and its overall functionality as well as sound quality. Yes, I like the Swiss Army knife analogy... Lots of useful functions.
The company does provide regular software/firmware updates for free and the Vault is connected to my router by a 20' generic cat 5 cable.
The Vault 2 is far better sounding than my previous Sonos set up which was convenient as a tuner and distribution field device for other rooms. In my opinion it did not have the sound quality I wanted as a source for my main listening room system which is all Audio Research gear and quite revealing of source material as well as cables and even fuses.
I do recommend Sonos gear to friends and neighbors who want something easy, inexpensive, even portable,fd and with a nice user interface.
My wife loves music, is not a gear head or audiophile but she recognized the Vault as better sound than the Sonos immediately.
I did upgrade the AC power cord to a moderately priced ($90?) AQ version and I am using Cardas Clear light RCA 1m interconnects... each which improved the imaging, tonality as well as clarity of the Vault 2... I have not experimented with the Cardas Clear cables with it since they cost more than the Vault and I am using them for my ARC CD player... might be interesting at some point.
I am not up on the newer Bluesound gear however Id like to get an extension speaker for another part of the house so I'll be looking into it. Enjoy the music !