Well, as many other users I've started to look around for replacement of BeoPort and BeoMedia 1 and while the Encore is tempting but missing the still the Digital ML Ethernet bridge component which has been said to be around by now but been delayed.
So SONOS seems like a nice option; has good apps for both Android and iPhone and best of all there are already people who rebuild the SONOS to improve both the digital and analog output. Even if the SONOS, when reading around, seems to get the best reviews in regards of audio output it still has issues with jitter.
From Swedish link I found the following description from Dr. Gert Volk:
"The most important voltage is the supply for the clock. The original clock
is supplied by very raw stabilized 3.3V from the switching PSU. I cut the
supply of the original clock and the clock line. A new board is implemented.
The function is: I take the 12V analogue voltage, witch comes from the
switching PSU (13V) and is stabililized by an analogue regulator to 12V.
This voltage (the ripple on it is already ok) passes a passiv RC filter,
realized by a metal film resistor and a Panasonic FC cap. Now we have 11V.
Next step is an LM317 which regulates the voltage down to 7.8V. But it's not
the normal circuit taken from the datasheet - it comes together with a shunt
regulator, what outplays the normal LM317 circuit by a factor of 100. But
this is only the appetizer! Now comes a circuit called superreg by the
experts. It's a special calculated current source followed by a special very
low noise shunt regulator. Now we are down to very clean 5V. This is the
supply for the reclocker, and be assured, a battery is something like a
noisy source compared to this voltage. But from there I use another 1,7V as
fuel to get 3.3V used as the final supply for the clock, passing a
combination of activ and passiv RC filters (Panasonic FC, one of the best
caps in the world, is used for it of course). Ok, I forgot a LC filter for
the remaining hign frequency rubbish on this PSU line, but now it is as
clean as possible. There is nothing more to do for the best possible supply
a clock can get in this world, I think. And the digital stream coming from
this player is as clean as possible, too. Because one of the best clocks in
the world, Guido's tentclock, is fed by the power supply as described above.
And the remaining little grunge on the outcoming signal is removed by the
reclocking circuit, a first in first out memory, that is supplied by the 5V
described above and clocked by the same clock as the streamer is - the
tentclock. So I think this is the maximum I can get from a ZP90."
and at another Danish link I found the following:
"I am glad to hear, that your ZP80 is doing it's job fine.
What I did: The original clock has been removed and a very
pricise new clock came in (jitter is about 1ps!). Very important for the
performance of the clock ist the power supply, so I did everything what
can be done concerning the supply. Now the superclock controls the data
acquisition. Anyhow, on the way through the chips the rising edge of
data and clock becomes a little bit fuzzy - so reclocking of the s/pdif
data stream by the same superclock is done. The reclocker is a FIFO
memory (first in first out).
Digital data can be different either because data (high and low)
is different, or because the timing of the data is different. Fuzziness
of timing (jitter) is the analogue component of digital data. It
produces destortion of the analogue signal in the DA converter process.
Unfortunately one can not remove the jitter of the source completely in
the DAC, there is some jitter remaining, even if you try to remove it by
asynchronous sample rate converters and so on - cross-talk is the
reason.
So the best you con do is to assure that the data stream coming from the digital source is as accurate as possible.
Best Gert"
And when reading the reviews on the improvements made it clearly is worth the additional 300 euro for the digital upgrade and if needed as well the 300 euros for the analog upgrade.
