BTW - I have 3 pieces of equipment in this setup: pair of speakers, integrated amp, SONOS connect - that's it. No CD, no hard drive source, no turntable, etc.....

Hey Charliecoyote,
I did a little checking on Sonos connect and Google music, I cannot find any information about what kind of files they offer.
BUT I did not check too hard.
Since there was no mention of resolution it MAY mean (perhaps not) that these are just MP3 files and not that great a source for the otherwise wonderful system you have.
I don't know anything about streaming music other than what I have experienced at my son-in-law's place where he streamed some music off the net, MP3 music through a two speaker thingamajig which simply provided an approximation of music in the background while we were all preparing dinner. The WHOLE point here was EASE of USE, not quality. IOW, IF you knew the song you could make it out, recognize what was playing.
Your great TRefs are being wasted IF that is the kind of source you are feeding it. Hopefully yours is MUCH better quality.
But you might want to think about getting an Oppo (can play any kind of disc) player or such, and playing an SACD or DVD-A disc, even a CD and see how that sounds through you system, you may be surprised what you might be missing.
Just a suggestion toward greater sonic enjoyment! (The better the source of the music, the better the sound!!!!)
God Bless,
Wayne

Wayne:

Thanks for the tip and attempting help me enjoy music even more, but after many hours of research, listening and spending over $16,000 - I'm good on my current source. I did try vinyl in this setup (on Triton 2s) for all of a couple hours - liked the sound, but not a big enough difference to manually change song/artist (tried CD, same opinion from my ears). Plus, the cost of re-doing my vinyl collection that was pawned off in 1988 to buy final semester college textbooks I don't feel like incurring those costs again, nor do I want to re supply myself on CDs that I traded for 9mm ammunition a few years back.

I use Deezer when I want better sound quality - Google Music is solid, but not quite as good as Deezer - tried Tidal, didn't like their UI or catalog. To my ears, Deezer is better sound quality than Google, just not as good of music library. And Deezer is $10/month vs Tidal at $20/month.

As another aside, music portability matters to me as I drive 30,000 miles per year: I mark a song as a 'favorite' on G Music or Deezer - I get a copy on my phone, then when I'm in my vehicle which has a tricked out after market system - I can listen to all the music I want and not 'dent' my data plan on cell carrier. That level of music portability convenience is well worth a 1% loss of sonic quality at home (the 1% is my perception).

You should listen to a system of similar components with streaming as the source - your perspective on streaming may change, maybe not.

I'm not a 'specs' person other than for some guidance - I let my ears tell me what I want. A friend of a friend that has about $20,000 into his system (which is nice, FOCAL speakers, Older MacIntosh Amps, etc...) - heard my system with the Triton Twos (and Google Music via SONOs connect) - he was shocked and commented "Why do I have stacks and stacks of vinyl, CDs, etc... still laying around?'. He'll freak when that same guy hears the T Refs.

We used to ride horses to work.

Wanted to echo what Wayne mentioned regarding the OPPO. I use my Oppo 105d for my 2 channel listeningIt plays all discs including SACD & CD's.Also plays high res recordings The quality is outstanding & I recommend an OPPO for you disc playback needs.

Ha ha Charliecoyote!!!!
Used to ride horses to work???? I have ridden helicopters to work LOTS, never horses.
BUT I hear ya.
I am old fashioned, agreed, admitted. Guilty as charged.
Portability is another matter entirely, and I have music files for that, actually for two reasons.
I found some of my CDs getting corrupted so I ripped all my CDs to FLAC files. I play them in my car and on a DAP with some wonderful ciems in my ears as I walk an hour every day. Love my portable music, much of which is DSD Hi Res files and all the rest are FLAC files, the least of which quality wise is CD quality.
My ears are messed up from helicopter rides and work on oil rigs, but most times I can still hear the difference between good quality music and the stuff most of the kids listen to.
To each his own, enjoy your music, that is all that matters.
Thank you to understand I was just trying to help out.
Happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

Hey, Charliecoyote

I’ve been following the dialog re SONOS. I do have SONOS as a streaming option, plus an Oppo 105 as a disc playing source.

Love what I can do with either. When I stream via SONOS, I usually use DeezerElite as the source, which is 16 bit FLAC, or basically CD quality. If that is what you are streaming, it can rival CD quality. What I did find is that I was hearing some glare from that source vs. playing the Oppo. I installed a Wyred4Sound Remedy reclocker/upsampler on the SONOS Connect awhile ago, which reclocks the digital out and up samples to 96k. It definitely smoothed out what is streamed. Made it similar to the Oppo feeds from CD discs. In my opinion a darn good $400 investment!!! Something to think about. Leaves you all the simplicity and advantages of your current system, and takes out any grunge the feed from streaming may have picked up along the way.

Enjoy your system, and those amazing speakers!

Rick