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Connecting a turntable - Sonos Five or Sonos Amp (with 2 x Play 3's as stereo pair)

J

I currently have 2 x Play 3’s (in different rooms) and looking to add a turntable to setup. I thought the only way this was possible was via the Sonos Port but having looked into this a solution i believe is getting a Five and connecting via line-in. I’m just weighing up my options now. I have a few questions/concerns and would appreciate any inputs from the community! 

 

  1. If I was to bring my 2 x Play 3’s together in the same room and pair as L & R - I understand i would need a Sonos Port to connect the turntable to this. Would this give me better sound/pack more of a punch than if i was just to replace with 1 x Five? It’s an average sized living room and currently the 1 x Play 3 in there is adequate for music but i really like the idea of L & R. Could I still get the same richness of sounds from the latest tech and single speaker of the Five? 
  2. My concern on pairing the 2 x Play 3’s is that these speakers are quite old. While they work perfectly fine and use the latest S2 operating system - could these speakers get left behind in the future with updates as speakers get modernised? 

Just need to decide on whether it’s the Five or Port i bring into my setup to connect the turntable so welcome any advice. 

Thanks! 

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Best answer by Antifon 22 April 2021, 15:24

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16 replies

K

In most cases a 5 makes sense because with built in speakers it delivers more value for its price that the Port does, but in your case the Port makes better sense. 

Almost any speaker pair sounds better than a single speaker if you are used to listening to music in stereo because the stereo effect needs a physically separated pair of speakers. You could even try this just now - bring the 3 units into one room, stereo pair them, and see the result.

In your case the concern would more be of the play 3 hardware failing as it ages. If that were to happen, there are options in the future such as replacing it with a One pair, and releasing the 3 that still works for another room.

Be sure you really want a turntable because it can be a pain to use regularly once the novelty wears off, and that it therefore justifies an investment in the Port.

And ideally, if you can get them on a returnable basis, get both Port and 5 to see how the 5 compares for you against the 3 pair. If it sounds as good, keep the 5 and return the Port.

J

Hi.  It’s a no-brainer IMO - get the Five.  For not much more than the price of a Port you can at least replace one of your Play:3s.  Personally, I would consider getting two Fives (using the 15% discount to which your Play:3s entitle you), then sell the Play:3s to recoup some of the money.

 

 

J

Thanks for the responses - i’ve just seen about the 15% discount. I’m guessing as i’ve got 2 x Play 3’s the max discount I can get against a Five would be 15%. A bit too good to be true to think than combining them and get 30% off? 

J

Thanks for the responses - i’ve just seen about the 15% discount. I’m guessing as i’ve got 2 x Play 3’s the max discount I can get against a Five would be 15%. A bit too good to be true to think than combining them and get 30% off? 

Correct - too good to be true.  You might be able to use just one of the credits to get a two-speaker ‘bundle’ if that is currently  being offered, although that may have little benefit for you.

A
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

One other thing that might favour the Five - it has controls on the unit that allow volume control and the ability to Pause/Mute the whole zone. The Port has no such controls, unlike the equivalent older model that it replaced.

J

Thanks for the insight all, been really helpful. 

Think I'm going to opt for the Five. Seems more value for my money. Also like the idea of adding another Five a few years down the line for stereo L + R. 

A final question, once the turntable is plugged into the Five via line in, will this audio play on speakers on other rooms? I originally thought the Port was needed for this feature but I believe from reading around this is possible through just the Five. Is this correct? 

Airgetlam

Yes. The analog line in on any Sonos device can be played on any connected Sonos speaker. In fact, it doesn’t have to play on that Five, you can, if you like, have it play somewhere else.

Bruce
J

Brilliant. I'm totally sold on the Five! 

L
Userlevel 5
Badge +10

It might be worth investigating the new Roam with a Bluetooth transmitter attached to your turntable.

If I understand it correctly, the Roam can accept a Bluetooth input and then either play this or share it across an existing Sonos network. I have yet to see this confirmed by any of the new Roam owners, but if it does work, I would be very interested in it myself. 

It would be a lot less expensive than a Five or Port and gives the advantage of having an ultra portable speaker to take on holiday etc.

J

It might be worth investigating the new Roam with a Bluetooth transmitter attached to your turntable.

If I understand it correctly, the Roam can accept a Bluetooth input and then either play this or share it across an existing Sonos network. I have yet to see this confirmed by any of the new Roam owners, but if it does work, I would be very interested in it myself. 

It would be a lot less expensive than a Five or Port and gives the advantage of having an ultra portable speaker to take on holiday etc.

 

So if i’m correct in thinking from your summary - audio can be played via Roam using Bluetooth and then from there - whatever is going through the Roam can then connect to other Sonos speakers you have on the network? 

This could be a fix for me playing audio from my MacBook through my network of Sonos speakers. 

L
Userlevel 5
Badge +10

That's my understanding but yet to be confirmed by anyone who has actually tried it.

Airgetlam

I’d be slightly, not wildly,  concerned about the mp3 compression of the data stream, but in theory, I agree with lohr500. 

 

Bruce
L
Userlevel 5
Badge +10

It’s a good point Bruce. I need to investigate it further. The Roam specifications say it meets Bluetooth 5.0. So I was hoping that if I used a Bluetooth 5.0 transmitter then the analogue signals from the turntable’s RCA outputs would be encoded using one of the higher definition Bluetooth audio Codecs.

Ideally, as I already have a Move, it would be great if the new functionality on the Roam could be made available on the Move. But perhaps there are hardware limitations inside the Move that would prevent it from being possible.

 

Airgetlam

I use Bluetooth fairly regularly in my car, and haven’t really noticed a quality issue, but I am aware that there is nominally one, and if it was apparent, would be much more likely to be heard in the more critical listening area of the home, using good speakers like Sonos. On the other hand, it’s entirely a personal thing. It may matter to some, and not to others. But having the knowledge is better than not, most often ;)

Bruce
airforceteacher
Userlevel 6
Badge +15

I can confirm that Bluetooth to the Roam can bridge to the other speakers in your ecosystem.  I’ve tested it in the last hour (for another thread) by playing Amazon Prime Video on my iPad Pro, connected to my Roam via Bluetooth, grouped with a Play:1 stereo pair.  Sounds fine, no to minimal echo, and when using just the Play:1s, no discernable sync issues between mouth and dialogue. 

I totally recommend trying out a Roam for your use case using Sonos’ long return period option.

L
Userlevel 5
Badge +10

Thanks for the confirmation airforceteacher. :thumbsup:

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