What Is Better In General, Sonos Or Say A Network Streamer By Cambridge Audio?

If you are just looking for background music or for casual listening I would say the Sonos would be a good option but I have never heard the Cambridge unit. With the multitude of streamer options on the market right now I am sure you will get quite a few recommendations however the Sonos interface (in my opinion) is very hard to beat. I had a Node2 and although it did sound somewhat better through the analog outputs, when fed to my much more expensive dac the difference was negligible. 

You may also look at the Chromecast as it may suit you even better considering the cost of your system in relation to how much you plan on using it as well as the price of some of the other streamers out there. But of course as in all things YMMV.

Best of luck.

I would consider the Node 2i.   
 
The ChromeCast Audio is good, however no every app streams to it bit-perfect, so I can’t say the apps you would use would sound as good as the Node 2i or similar. However, for $40, it’s an amazing product, just a shame that the Implementation is not uniform, casting from your Chrome browsed on a computer for instance is not bit-perfect, yet casting from Room or an app like Android Hi-Fi Cast is.

Though I do agree that a tube buffered DAC has inherent colorations. Where I disagree is the degree of those colorations over another DAC.

I think the Sonos would be fine for your current system

@zar - Are talking about listening to internet radio stations? Like Radio Paradise or iHeart Radio, etc.? Do you currently have a mobile device, computer/laptop that you are going to use for a source? If so, you may not really need a streamer per se. I use either my mobile phone, iPod or laptop to stream wirelessly via bluetooth to a Auris BluMe Bluetooth Audio Receiver and it works like a champ. They are on sale right now, direct from Auris, for $109 and free shipping. Check it out at theauris.com .

 

Check out Bluesound Node 2i or Vault 2i if you also need a device to rip and store all your music files in addition to streaming 

+1 on Bluesound.  The sound and features are fantastic. I think the software could be better though.

I highly doubt the sound quality of the node vs a sonos on a pair of boston hd5 will be dramatically different so the suggestion of spending $500 on a node 2i makes very little sense. Especially  if he only plans on using it 15% of the time. But thats just me.