Denon Cocoon Stream rather than Sonos?

[SwissJonese]

I don't need multi room functionality as this unit will replace my ageing and broken (only one side of speakers working) Squeezebox boom in the kitchen. Hence why I think Sonos is a bit overkill and slightly more expensive.

I want to play Flac files from my Nas via Wifi and listen to Internet radio. I also like the idea of some pre-set buttons for instant playing of internet radio, rather than having to grab the iPad, Android phone etc.

So looking at the Denon Cocoon Stream as it seems to fit the bill and I've had a few Denon products before and they have all been excellent.
http://www.denon.co.uk

Wild card is the discounted Marantz MS7000 Consolette which can be had for 300 notes which sound pretty amazing but I doubt the app software will ever be updated so might be an issue.

Anyone have either systems and are they any good, or should I just follow the crowd and get a Sonos Play 3?

[rhinochopig]

Can't comment on the Marantz with respect to how good a streamer it is, but having just bought a budget Marantz amp as a stop-gap as my old amp went pop, I cannot recommend them highly enough when it comes to musical performance per pound. I auditioned a few budget amps all the way up to 1k and the Marantz (it was only 300 notes) was simply astonishing for the money.

[sparkyhx]

If you are not going multi room and only doing NAS and not streaming from some weird place then Sonos doesn't mak a lot of sense there are cheaper alternatives.

Denon, Bose, Royd. there are more and more entrants into this sector every week.

[SwissJonese]

rhinochopig said:

Can't comment on the Marantz with respect to how good a streamer it is, but having just bought a budget Marantz amp as a stop-gap as my old amp went pop, I cannot recommend them highly enough when it comes to musical performance per pound. I auditioned a few budget amps all the way up to 1k and the Marantz (it was only 300 notes) was simply astonishing for the money.

I went and bought the Marantz Consolette rather than the Denon Cocoon as all the reviews seem to point to superior sound quality from Marantz. 300 notes seems good value so should arrive in the next week or so (Amazon UK but coming from Germany?).

[sparkyhx]

I was impressed by the Bose when I heard it, but it doesn't support NAS which was a deal breaker for me.

[SwissJonese]

Well bought a Marantz Consolette after reading loads of reviews etc. It arrived yesterday and despite all the reviews saying it complicated to set-up on wifi it took me precisely 2 minutes using a Laptop. The only thing I did notice is the DHCP seemed to be playing up (not sure if it was my WiFi router or the unit) so I just set this with a static IP, and no problems since.

Sound quality is seriously good. I use Yamaha studio monitors in my office and the Marantz sound just as good. I notice the sound was a little bassy for my liking so I've turned it to a lower setting. First off I downloaded the only Marantz app that came up on iTunes for iPad and it didn't seem to do anything. Then I found a Marantz Consolette specific app and this worked perfectly. I've managed to stream flac files from my DLNA router no problem and the sound quality again is really superb. Internet music stations sound equally impressive and it is nice to have a few pre-set buttons on the unit which is 90 percent of what we will use it for (so I don't have to grab the iPad and run an app).

Only problem so far being the firmware upgrade just doesn't seem to work gets stuck at SYS:0%?

Overall very happy with the unit, even the missus was a bit shocked by the size of it, but the quality of the sound has won her over. My 2 year old son is fascinated by it and is bopping his head to more tracks so thumbs up from him.