[Brubacca]

Actually they just got back to me and activated the Trial.

 

[canali]

am interested in this speaker too.
for my smallish desktop...going either wifi or powered monitors
(emotiva 4s etc)
 
one comparative review on new sonica model below.
hope it can  become a good contender for the audiophile crowd.
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/sonos-player/
sonos wins overall, in the review, however, against other wls systems.
 
excerpt, midway down:
Oppo, best known for its Blu-ray players and headphones, has entered the whole-home audio arena  with its Sonica wireless speaker. The Sonica supports individual playback or grouping speakers together, handles 24/192 high-resolution audio, works with Bluetooth and AirPlay, offers some basic room correction, and has both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi support. In our listening tests, the Sonica sounded better than the similarly priced Sonos PLAY:3 speaker, with better bass definition and a clearer top end.
Right now, however, the Sonica supports only Tidal for a streaming service. AirPlay will let you stream lossless-quality audio to the Sonica, but AirPlay won’t allow you to group two Sonicas as a stereo pair. Bluetooth will work with speakers in a stereo pair, but then you won’t get lossless audio quality, which removes one of the reasons for choosing such speakers in the first place. We expect eventual support for Spotify and other music services, but we’ve heard no timeframe for such features. Given all of this, the Sonica is too limited for us to choose it as our whole-home audio speaker. But we will be testing it against our Bluetooth and AirPlay speaker picks to see how it performs in that regard.

 

[Smarty-pants]

This is a really nice comprehensive review.

Oppo Digital Sonica Wi-Fi Speaker Reviewed
By: Adrienne Maxwell, August 15, 2016

http://hometheaterreview.com/oppo-di...aker-reviewed/



.

 

[Smarty-pants]

NEW firmware update now available for both the Sonica app and the Sonica WiFi speaker.


  

http://www.oppodigital.com/sonica/sonica-WiFi-Speaker-Support.aspx
 
Latest Official Release Version

 
Release date: August 18, 2016.
Category: Latest Official Release

Version: Sonica-19-0816


Installation Instructions and Download Link: Click Here

 

Special Notice:

• Once this firmware version is installed on Sonica, you will not be able to revert back to any previous official or public beta firmware. There will be no problem upgrading to any future official or beta firmware release.
• This firmware is designed to work with Apple iOS and Android OPPO Sonica applications version 2.0 or later.

 

Comparing to the previous Official release version Sonica-15-0608, the major changes included in this version are:

• Resolved playback issues with FLAC and ALAC files from certain DLNA servers and USB drives.
• Resolved an issue where the AUX input would become inactive after a period of time.
• Resolved an issue where the TIDAL sub-app would sometimes display incorrect playback information.
• Reduced audio delay when playing to a single speaker through the AUX input, Bluetooth, and AirPlay.
• Improved sound quality and stability when streaming via Bluetooth and AirPlay.

 

[canali]

thanks for that updated review...i'm surprised they didnt' compare it to the peachtree audio deepblue 2
http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/deepblue2.html
or something from the bluesound line
http://www.bluesound.com/?cl
...these 2 companies' products seem to me to be more about higher end fidelity for a comparison
than would be something from Sonos.

 

[austinpop]

Too bad the Sonica does not have any DSD support. I'm one of those anomalous souls with a large DSD collection.
 
Unless something changes on the Oppo front, I'm keeping me eye on the Denon Heos family, where DSD is "coming soon."

 

[polecrab]

So this can play FLAC files from an external USB HDD? And if you have everything organized in a bunch of sub folders, is navigation user-friendly and fast?

Also, anyone compare the sound to a Squeezebox Boom, which is the best portable wireless speaker I've heard?

 

[Jupit3r]

Never a fan of OPPO. Hate their shameless marketing.

 

[goldendarko]

  Never a fan of OPPO. Hate their shameless marketing.

You do realize that without any back story you come across as a nut?

 

[zilch0md]

So this can play FLAC files from an external USB HDD? And if you have everything organized in a bunch of sub folders, is navigation user-friendly and fast?

Also, anyone compare the sound to a Squeezebox Boom, which is the best portable wireless speaker I've heard?

 
I haven't compared it to a Squeezebox Boom, but regarding the play of USB HDD...  specifically, via the Sonica App for iOS (I have no experience with the Android version), the app's navigation of the files on your USB stick or HDD is really nice.  It parses through all the files - of any supported format - and presents them by Artist or Album or Song.  I've even tried putting songs 14 subfolders deep, beneath the root level of the drive - and it finds them and displays them, no problem.  In addition to the Artist, Album or Song lists that the Sonica App displays, it also allows you to manually navigate by Folder.  And it offers a Search that allows you to put in any portion of a song title, artist name, or album and it returns every possible result - as a "contains" search. For example, Searching for "pa" will return a song titled "Be Patient", an album titled "Pause" and an artist called "Chappaqua," for example.  Impressive - it makes searching so easy. 
 
And if that were't an awesome enough UI - all controlled via WiFi from your mobile device - you can mark "Favorites" and play only Favorites, later, if you choose.  Any one of the lists can be played straight through, shuffled, repeated, repeat album, repeat song, etc.  It's really very nice - especially if you have any experience working with the spectacularly lousy UIs that we're used to seeing with many DAP manufacturers.  
 
Add to that, the ability to stream Tidal from your iDevice or play songs stored on your iDevice, but the Sonica App's handling of USB-attached devices containing audio files is the best I've seen of any UI. (Again, I only have experience with the iOS version of the Sonica App, and by the way, only with a mix of 44.1/16, 44.1/24, 48/24, 88/24 and 96/24 kHz FLAC and WAV files.)

 

[canali]

recent review by Digital Trends
 

Oppo Sonica review

Oppo's Sonica multiroom speaker may be small, but it doesn't fake the bass

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/wireless-speaker-dock-reviews/oppo-sonica-review/#ixzz4KQlgWzNq 
Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook
 
seem like many more of these are coming out, just like the area of wls/blutooth iems/cans is fast growing.
 
Trusted Reviews is said to be be doing a review in the next few months, too....prob closer to Xmas is when we'll see more of these wls speakers coming out.
 
at bottom of article other wls/blutooth reviews are there, too.
 
not dirtly thread related, so excuse me, but the Amazon Echo has some interesting approaches and tech (voice commands, easy setup)
http://www.digitaltrends.com/media-streamer-reviews/amazon-echo-dot-review/
 
creative iRoar also looks interesting.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wireless-speaker-dock-reviews/creative-iroar-review/
 
as does JBL charge 3
http://www.pcmag.com/review/345476/jbl-charge-3
 
http://www.pcmag.com/roundup/289429/
the-best-wireless-speakersThe Best Wireless Speakers of 2016

 

[polecrab]

I haven't compared it to a Squeezebox Boom, but regarding the play of USB HDD...

Thanks, that's the exact info I was looking for. I have almost 1TB worth of music on an HD, and sounds like the Oppo will handle it easily.

 

[Smarty-pants]

​

 ​

www.oppodigital.com/sonica-grand/
 ​

 

[canali]

anyone heard one, yet?
seems this is delayed coming to canada 'til at least end of oct.....

 

[HasturTheYellow]

The Sonica is shipping, but the Sonica Grand is not yet shipping. The Grand can heard at the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival next week and at our office in Menlo Park.