For more background to my question:



Looking at getting 5 x Play-5's for the various rooms and floors of our house but a game changer for me is (if I have done enough reading on here so far to deduce this correctly) the inability for such devices as a single Amazon Dot to be able to broadcast "Alexa's" spoken responses to any or all Sonos speakers.



We don't need a Dot in every room but we also don't want to walk into the kitchen every time just to hear the occasional Alexa interaction (the remote already allows us to ask a question from our bedroom upstairs) ... and having one local speaker at a reasonable volume is also not the best compromise for practical reasons.

For us it goes beyond just the Dot too though ... as with a "networked speaker system" I would have liked to think that the technology allows me to be able to play any one of our existing analogue media sources (a turntable, or a feed from my two recording studio rooms, for example).



At a first glance I thought the Sonos Connect would be exactly that ... but from what I understand it does not and I don't really get what the Connect would be useful for at all really as most people with a separates AV system probably already have a receiver ... but that is beside the point.



So back to the question ... is there any way to accomplish this using other manufacturer interfaces or devices etc?



Thanks

Steve

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A Sonos line in jack allows any line level signal it is fed to be wirelessly broadcast across as many Sonos speakers as are grouped together; the speaker to which the line in source is wire connected need not even be a part of the group. The line in jack also has signal autosensing built into it as an option.



The one thing about this is that to permit the perfect sync of output across all Sonos grouped units, there is a 70 ms delay before the signals are sent forth.



I use a couple of Dots wire connected to Sonos line in jacks and this works fine for me.

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The 5/Connect/Connect Amp are the only units that have these jacks. So if someone has a play 1 based set up for example, the only way to get analog sources to them is via one of the above units, usually the Connect.

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So the Connect was designed to work with an existing AV receiver and allow wireless feeds to be broadcast through the AV receiver. It has an analogue input channel that allows an additional source to be broadcast to your entire Sonos set up. Using the switching capabilities of an existing AV receiver to output to the Sonos system through the connect, you can add many additional sources.

My connect is in transit, but when it arrives I plan to set up as above. This will give me the ability to stream to my 7.2 system as well as the rest of the Sonos rooms, and it will allow me to stream other sources through the 7.2 to the rest of the Sonos rooms. Apple TV, Satelite receiver music stations, etc.

the added bonus is that my 7.2 receiver already has zones set up with loudspeakers so it increases the functionality.

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Thanks for the quick and informative answers.



So just to be clear, if I buy a Sonos Connect and then theoretically 6 x Play-1 speakers, all Dot audio (via Connect) including Alexa responses such as weather and news questions/answers will play back over the Sonos speakers if grouped properly?



And what about the Alexa voice control of Sonos - is this affected or compromised if you want ALL Dot audio to play out to grouped speakers via Connect?



My final question is probably only relevant if there are any compromises when hooking a Dot up to a network of Sonos speakers and wanting ALL audio to play back over Sonos:



If I bought a Connect I would have the added bonus of playing streamed content to our home theatre system in our lounge and could then choose Sonos speakers for the various rooms in the house at will, whereas if I bought a Play-5 to hook the Dot up to I would end up with a really good "local" Dot speaker (so a Sonos One on steroids) and still be able to broadcast to the other rooms.

So aside from the loss of getting streams to our home theatre system, is there any preferred reasoning to choose between a Connect and a Play-5 .... with the primary goal being to get a Dot to broadcast all audio output to Sonos network whilst retaining any voice activated Sonia control via Alexa?



Thanks for all help - much appreciated as the information out there is quite confusing to newbies such as myself!



Steve

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Here is the quote from a different thread that has me worried about compromises ... if the ducking is just for a few seconds that would be fine as long as it then returns to the original level ... as I don't have a Sonos system yet I am worried that certain functionality being disabled may make an elaborate system seem a waste to invest in?



If you want to use the Echo Dot hooked by wire to the Sonos unit then DON'T ACTIVATE the Echo Sonos skill. When you activate the Sonos skill in Alexa it will lower the volume of all the Sonos speakers in your house when you ask Alexa a command. When you have an Echo Dot physically wired to a Sonos Play:5 it is acting as the Dot's speaker. So when the Dot then tries to reply something via the Play:5 the Echo Sonos skill is lowering the Play:5 volume (something you do not want).



so deactivate the Sonos skill to use wired.



Or if you want to remove the wire then activate the Sonos skill and remove the wire (and all normal Alexa replies will then come form the Dots speaker and Sonos spekaer will only be music)

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The ducking is only for 2-3 seconds after the command and trigger is complete.

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If you want the receiver to also be part of Sonos, you need the Connect with its line in and line out jacks. Else, the 5 with just the line in is a better idea because it has a speaker that Connect does not.

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