MUZO Cobblestone Multi-Zone Player

SteveAndBell

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I've been a big fan of SONOS since buying my first ZonePlayer back in 2007. Since then I've basically filled the house with SONOS but mainly with ZonePlayers so I can connect my own Amps & Speakers. I do have a few of their modern 'all-in-one' PLAY units purely for convenience but I enjoy the freedom of combining other gear together more and just let SONOS do what it does best ie. stream content. Since their release there have been other products come & go however none of them seem to have offered everything SONOS does and none of them have been that much cheaper which is probably why none of them are still around.

I recently learnt about a very inexpensive Kickstarter product called MUZO Cobblestone: http://www.muzohifi.com/ It's very basic only offering a simple 3.5mm analog stereo output however it's also very inexpensive at around $59 USD and seems to offer what most 'normal' people would need to stream music from internet radio, cloud based systems, local NAS devices, Shared folders or even from the phone or tablet being used to control the device. It connects to your local network via LAN or Wifi too which is refreshing because it seems most new products are dropping hard-wired options. Adding more units to your network allows you to stream the same music into other zones or play different music in each zone simultaneously which is what SONOS has done so well at for the last 8+ years so it will be interesting to see how these perform.

There are a few reviews floating around however I decided to bite the bullet and buy two purely to see how good or bad they really are, especially with multi-zone performance. They have been touted as 'SONOS Killers' but of course that's already BS because they don't offer anywhere near the features of a SONOS CONNECT but of course they may still be very good at doing the absolute basics for the masses so once they arrive I'll come back here and post my findings.

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OK, took delivery of them earlier today so here's my dodgy little unrehearsed video reviews:
Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oDE8Xrc1SdU
Part 2 - https://youtu.be/NqkkI--Y94g

Sorry for the terrible audio & video quality but I had a camera crisis so had to use an old Smart Phone. Should be enough to show them working though.

They're actually quite good but not 'great' as per the SONOS system however it's only the app that lets them down so maybe they'll be improved with future updates, not sure. Any questions please ask.
 
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The streets are littered with "Sonos killers" over the years, none has come even remotely close to doing the deed.

Not much technical info on these, but they appear to be typical, each requiring its own direct streaming feed. Meaning your streaming service will need to allow multiple simultaneous streams from one account for whole-house listening. Not too many services allow that. Not to mention each stream will require bandwidth. Sonos shares a single stream among up to 32 Sonos devices via its mesh network.

Currently appears to support 2 services in the US, with "more on the way". The check's in the mail. Sonos currently supports 60, plus any hard drive shared on your network.
 
The streets are littered with "Sonos killers" over the years, none has come even remotely close to doing the deed.

Yeah, agreed. Thing is though these are about a tenth of the price and for that money they're relatively impressive ie. a tenth of the price but still with 75% of the functionality. For most of my non 'audio nerd' friends this is all they'll need so fingers crossed they pump some cash into the app :yes:
 
Cobblestone + SONOS Shootout

Hi again.

Just spent the last couple of hours comparing the Cobblestone to the SONOS purely from a Sound Quality perspective. As per the SONOS, I connected the Cobblestones analogue output to an AUX input on my Yamaha C-70 Pre & M-70 Power pair then into my NS-1000s. I used the same FLAC files... the SONOS accessing them from my NAS over the LAN but the Cobblestone pulling them off my Android Tablet as the app is still in its early days and can't see my NAS shares direct. No biggie, still the exact same files. I then setup an identical playlist on both systems and began to play them at the exact same time allowing me to flick between the two inputs for an instant comparison.

Ignoring the fact that the Cobblestone app isn't yet anywhere near as polished as the SONOS app I just couldn't fault the sound quality. I had the PreAmp and the SONOS EQ set as flat as a tack to be fair to the Cobblestone as it has no EQ settings at all yet the Cobblestone performed very, very nicely indeed. The lows on the Cobblestone seemed to be boosted by a tiny fraction and I'm not sure why that would be however I'm being extremely critical here as I was purposely trying to nit-pick at least some difference in the sound.

All in all it gets a big thumbs up in the sound reproduction department, it really did surprise me for such an inexpensive device. I think the hardware is about as good as it needs to be for the masses so all they need to do is get the app sorted out and these little players will be great value :thmbsp:
 
Nudies!

Couldn't find any nudie shots elsewhere online so thought I'd better take one for the team and rip one of my units open. Pics below...

1. Four screws can be found by peeling back the rubber grip pad. Unscrew to separate the halves.
2. The units feel solidly built with a fair bit of weight behind them. Upon opening the case it's easy to see why... a couple of chunks of steel have been glued into one side of the case adding about 190g. The rest of the unit comes in at a lightweight 70g or thereabouts.
3. The innards consist of a Mainboard, a small Wifi Antenna and a small PCB for the Touch Controls & Lights
4. The Mainboard (with attached sub-Board) looks well built and is a compact 80x50mm (approx. 3x2") making it perfect to remove and use in other projects, hmmm :scratch2:
5. The small Wifi antenna is simply connected to the Mainbaord via short cable and standard push-on mini RF connector.
6. Touch Controls & LEDs are on their own small PCB connected back to the Mainboard via cable & connector and I assume the unit will work fine without this connected if need be.

Nice little unit and opens itself up for much hacking & modding into other things if required. I already have several concepts in mind however as these wont integrate with my existing SONOS system there isn't much benefit for me to go too crazy... yet.
 

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Spotify

I recently received a beta Firmware update allowing the Cobblestone to stream Spotify content. Spotify seems to be the fashionable streaming service for many at the moment which is why they escalated this functionality however I'm not a Spotify user after a less-than-ideal trial a few years ago. I've just signed up for another trial purely to test this device.

After the firmware update the Cobblestone produced lots of background noise. I tested the rest of my system to make sure it wasn't something else but proved 100% it was the Cobblestone at fault. I decided to go ahead with the test anyway and within a few seconds I was streaming Spotify content and it sounded OK-ish. About 10 minutes later the whole thing locked up and just stopped, not even a power light! I disconnected & reconnected the power supply and booted it back up. The noise had disappeared and I was enjoying a much nicer sounding Spotify stream.

Played around with it for 3+ hours and had no further problems. The audio sounded a bit 'thinner' to what I was used to as I purposely auditioned similar tracks to what I normally did when played via the SONOS or Cobblestone from FLACs stored on my phone or NAS. I'd say that's just down to the quality of the tracks used by Spotify though or the settings of the stream itself and nothing to do with the Cobblestone. I did a few extra tests to try to break it including playing a queue from locally stored music to interrupt the Spotify stream then restarting the Spotify stream again a few tracks later but it happily changed from one to the other without any dramas so that was good. I didn't test Spotify streaming across multiple zones though but may do soon.

The App is still very klunky and still needs a lot of work but the foundations are there and it's improving as each week passes. Sound quality is still on par with my SONOS but of course all depends on how good the source content is. My FLACs sound great but the Spotify stream was only 'good' to 'very good'. Still very acceptable for non-critical listening.

I'll update this thread whenever anythings updated in case anyone's interested.
 
The Californian based Muzo support people must've seen this thread and/or my dodgy YouTube videos and have been in contact thanking me for the reviews then requested my top requirements to move their product forward. As well as the desperate need to streamline the App my critical list includes direct access to NAS shares, the ability to adjust the basics including name & EQ of each player on-the-fly plus better queue control including adding, removing & editing, again all on-the-fly. This is what SONOS does really well and as it's all just software based I can't see why these little units couldn't do something similar. We'll see...

I took my players over to a mates place who also had one so we could put them through their paces in a multi-zone 'party' type environment. We were controlling streamed and locally stored content to different zones and apart from the klunky App it all worked well and for a good 5-6 hours non-stop! Sounded fantastic too so again these are great little devices as is but just need the improvements to the App before they are deemed 'perfect'.
 
I now have one. I have been collecting streaming devices since the Squeezebox Touch a couple of years ago, then a Sonos Connect when the SBT was discontinued and MOG went under, then a Sonore Sonicorbiter SE running Roon software. They are all still in use. I took the Cobblestone to my office where I have it running into the AUX input of an old Sansui 4000 receiver. I guess I like the SBT the best because of its control surface, I would rather not have to use a phone or a tablet to control playback. But that is the world we are in.

The Cobblestone is just fine for the office. Playback control with android phone is rudimentary, but I am supposed to be working, not looking at metadata! Set up was simple, Tidal sounds great, and TuneIn radio works great. I don't know why in the world Roon can't work something out with TuneIn if Muzo can do it, but that is another topic.

For the price I think it is a fine product.
 
Hi FFAR. Glad to hear you like it. Since my initial post Chromecast Audio was released and I had to do a major downsize to move house so the Cobblestones were sold off. They were a bit of fun but I find the Chromecast Audio equally as good and can be had for about half the price plus integrate into Google Home. I still use a SONOS Connect as my main streaming device connected to the Lounge Hifi system and have other SONOS Connects & Amps scattered around the home but the Chomecast Audio is just brilliant for what it is. If you don't have one I highly recommend grabbing one when next on sale.
 
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