I am not an audiophile (as you'll see), neither do I wish to become one.
I currently have 5 or 6 Sonos Ones around the house, plus a sonos soundbar on the telly. I never find myself really using them the way they are meant to be used ie muti-room, and anyway the sound isn't that special to even my untrained ears.
So I'm considering selling them and putting the cash towards a half-decent setup for our 30 sq m lounge, where I'd end up listening to music. The lounge arrangement of chairs means there's no obvious focal point so positioning speakers might be tricky.
We only stream from Spotify and we no longer have CDs.
I'd expect it to be fairly easy to create a simple-to-use system that is pleasing on the Wife-eye, that fills the room with understated sound quality, no matter where you are sitting.
Where do I start?
Where you should start is with speakers. You're asking for something that can produce a wide sweet spot. There's one brand that comes to mind instantly for that, and it is
KEF.
They put the tweeter in the centre of the mid/bass driver. It's a position that doesn't contribute much to the bass sound, so replacing the dust cap with a tweeter has far more pros than cons. The biggest pro is that the frequency blend between the tweeter and the mid/bass is more coherent, and because of that, there's less of the treble drop-off that you get with conventional stereo speakers. For you, that means being able to sit in a much wider space than the classic 'Hi-Fi' hot spot, and yet still get the benefits of the 3D soundstage that good Hi-Fi speakers can do.
Speaking of pros, you're going to hear a whole load of info that the Sonos Ones haven't been able to reproduce. I'm not just talking about deeper bass. There'll also be stuff in the midrange and the treble that the highly processed active Sonos speakers just struggle with. Even though you're not aiming for the audiophile thing, it's just going to sound better.
Okay. You've had a couple of really strong pros. Here's the catch with any good stereo speakers. If you're playing free Spotify, you're going to hear why it's free. The ability to render more of the info within the music also means they'll show up the holes where stuff is missing. Free Spotify uses 160kbps MP3 as 'best' quality, but it can drop a lot lower too. You should consider a paid
premium subscription if you're not already doing that.
I would recommend auditioning KEF R3 Meta (£599 a pair) with the £699 Bluesound Powernode streaming amp. Add speaker stands and cable for a total around the £1550 mark. Sevenoaks Hi-Fi and Richer Sounds carries both brands. They have branches across the UK.
Bluesound is kryptonite to the once invincible Sonos brand. The app is just as easy to use but far less buggy than the current Sonos app. Also, the brand isn't tainted by the debacle over support for older gen gear that Sonos went through a few years ago. The amps are solid and capable of driving a 4 Ohm load - which the KEF speakers are. This sorts the men from the boys. Wiim streamers are good, but their amp technology lets them down.
When you're buying something that relies very heavily on software, then ongoing support should be a priority consideration. There are any number of standalone streamers and streaming amplifiers. A few are from big names (Sonos, Bluesound, Wiim, and maybe Denon). The rest are either smaller companies, or they're companies that make other products but also include some streaming gear too. Naim, Cambridge Audio, KEF, Argon Audio, Technics, etc.
Alternatives.
An all-in-one streaming solution: If it was a smaller room or even just a desktop system, the KEF LSX II LT speakers (£849) combine streaming with the same 'wide sweet spot' tech as the Q3 Metas. However, they'll struggle with the sort of room size you have. Instead, look at the
Naim Mu-so Qb (gen 2) £650 or the
B&W Zeppelin 2 £499. These are single-point stereo rather than a true stereo pair, but they can each throw quite a wide sound-field.
Cheaper speakers: Nothing pulls off the wide sweet-spot trick like the KEFs, but
Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 (£249/pr) come in black, rosewood, and white oak finishes and they are thoroughly decent speakers. They won't dig as deep as the KEF speakers for bass, but they'll still knock spots off the Sonos Ones.
Cheaper streaming amp: To make a worthwhile reduction, you'd have to drop down to the
Wiim Amp Pro (£399). The streaming bit of this is petty good. The amp side of things less so. It's okay, but even the forgiving Wharfedale speakers will still let you hear where this Wiim is off the pace.
Streamer + separate amp: Wiim Pro Plus streamer (£220) + some external amp (£???). Honestly, compared to the Bluesound Powernode, you're going to struggle to get anything as good in two separate boxes and still achieve a meaningful saving.
