Question

Connect Amp Set Up

  • 13 November 2016
  • 7 replies
  • 548 views

Can I connect a powered subwoofer to the Connect.Amp with 16 g wire or do I need to use an RCA Cable?

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7 replies

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Well, I tried this yesterday after forking it the best part of a grand. I used coax RCA to RCA cable - Total silence - and the side speakers resolved as rears so all I got was background ambience. It's going back to the store today.

I really despair of my huge investment in SONOS - should have just stuck to a wired system (one that was well into the vicinity of three or four grand). With the wired system I plugged in a speaker set and it worked. It all worked - perfect speaker balance every time.

Now with SONOS I need hours of setting up and I still can't get things to function to my needs. Yes, I'm aware of all the techie nerdy software stuff. It's the software that's the problem. SONOS need help from some real experts to get their software functioning properly. This is now nearly the end of 2016 and SONOS are still using locked-up software from the days of the old TANDY 16k computers.

I used the old technique of opening a web browser on my computer or mobile device, (Safari).
I copied the following URL, replacing ####### with the IP address of my PLAYBAR: http://######:1400/wiredsat.htm (e.g., http://192.168.1.4:1400/wiredsat.htm). I followed the on-screen prompts to complete the CONNECT:AMP surround setup.

It just gave me silence on my powered subwoofer and rear effect atmospherics on my side speakers.

I keep thinking my big first mistake was buying the Playbar for the TV and then building a house-hold system around that (Boost, 2x Play 3's, 6x Play1's). Building an investment in a limited 5:1 system in the days of Dolby Atmos and 7:1 is not a wise investment - silly me. But I hadn't realised the limitations of the SONOS system at the time - Strangely SONOS don't seem to advertise the limitations.

Am I grumpy or disaffected with SONOS - probably a bit. The technology is brilliant. It is the over-complex set-up that is the problem. Clarity of instructions is not a strength of the SONOS system. I'm just an ordinary, rather busy person and I don't have all that much time to faff about with techie stuff. Sure, I taught computing at University and I'm a doctor with a busy practice and I should be on top of this stuff - but hell, I have a life as well. I am just a typical SONOS customer who wants to come home and switch on some music to relax as I make dinner. I don't want to bury myself in Nerdsville to do that.

At the end of the day, if I could swap my SONOS system for something that worked intuitively and seamlessly, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

SONOS - you need to think on this. Can't you read the runes?

If I got as many questions on my professional practice as you guys do on the SONOS system I would pretty quickly think something needed looking at.

Oh, to any well-meaning nerd wanting to assuage me into keeping my Connect Amp - DON'T. It will be back in the store by the time you read this.
It is the over-complex set-up that is the problem.
It really isn't complex, and I am no techie. God continue to keep me away from all doctors and hospitals, but it is a lot less complex than medicine. But this is true in the audio realm, and I don't let Sonos come near my TV room, I don't need it there. I also think that a TV application + Sonos can at times be complex to set up.

And a Connect Amp isn't a natural fit for TV/surround applications using Sonos; you are probably trying to do more than Sonos intended to be easily doable for TV if you are using a Connect Amp there.

To the OP, use an RCA cable with appropriate jacks at either end.
Scrivener, if you were trying to use an active third-party sub with the connect:amp after configuring the connect:amp for surround duties with the Playbar then you will get nothing from the sub as the sub output is disabled on the connect:amp when configured for surround (as is the line-in incidentally), probably because the Playbar isn't configured to send the .1 sub channel via the surrounds.

As to the rear speakers themselves being silent, there's only one explanation for that, you're feeding the Playbar a stereo signal, so there's no rear channel information for the surrounds to play.

Neither point has anything to do with the OP's question though.
Scrivener, if you were trying to use an active third-party sub with the connect:amp after configuring the connect:amp for surround duties with the Playbar then you will get nothing from the sub as the sub output is disabled on the connect:amp when configured for surround (as is the line-in incidentally), probably because the Playbar isn't configured to send the .1 sub channel via the surrounds.

Lol. Now that IS complex. Nothing as complex in any pure audio Sonos application AFAIK, and it is usually easier/faster done than put in writing.
Badge +1
Kumar, I think you just gave me an idea. I do need the SONOS system to function at the TV end of the house. But your observation, "I don't let Sonos come near my TV room, I don't need it there." is very illuminating. I think I'll just go back to the wired system for the TV and just park the SONOS speakers I need in that room alongside, but separate. Yes, I think that is a solution - now to buy some hook up wire!!!
Damn pity about the expensive Playbar - so promising, so ineffective.
Think I'll put it up on the net for sale. See if I can recover something at least.
Thanks Kumar, you are a genius. A genius is someone who helps others see things differently. You did that for me. I owe you a sarsaparilla at Christmas.
Happy to help, though I will take a rain check on the offer:-).
Scrivener, if you were trying to use an active third-party sub with the connect:amp after configuring the connect:amp for surround duties with the Playbar then you will get nothing from the sub as the sub output is disabled on the connect:amp when configured for surround (as is the line-in incidentally), probably because the Playbar isn't configured to send the .1 sub channel via the surrounds.

Lol. Now that IS complex. Nothing as complex in any pure audio Sonos application AFAIK, and it is usually easier/faster done than put in writing.


It really isn't, it's very simple: it won't work.