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How to connect Sonos Connect to receiver

  • 24 November 2017
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How do I connect a Sonos Connect to a receiver so that I can listen to CDs on my Play 1 speakers? I’ve connected the audio out on the Connect to the CD audio in on the receiver - nothing plays. I’ve hooked it up to the Tape audio in on the receiver, tuned the receiver to Tape, again nothing happens. As best I can tell, the Connect was successfully hooked up through the Sonos app at the beginning of this process which, I assume, means Connect and Play 1 speakers will work together once I get receiver hooked up appropriately. Help! Thanks.
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Best answer by pwt 25 November 2017, 16:06

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24 replies

I think you may have connected it backwards. The audio out from the receiver (often a tape out jack) goes to the analog audio in on the Connect. Then, when you play the CD on the receiver, it will go to the CONNECT as well, and when you turn on the line-in in the Sonos controller app, and adjust it properly, the music should play through the PLAY:1s.

Note that all analog line-ins on Sonos devices do incur at least an approximate 70ms delay, for processing, so the Sonos speakers will be in sync with each other, but not with the speakers on the receiver.
By the way, if the only input you'd be using is the CD, and not anything else, you could just connect the CD player directly to the analog audio-in jacks on the connect, and ditch the receiver. But that's only if the CD is the only thing you're listening to.
Hi Bruce - thanks for your responses. I reversed as you suggested, and used the tape out, and still no sound. Then I connected directly to the CD player and still nothing. I contacted Sonos and they tell me the Connect and Play 1s are working.

Above you mentioned going into the Sonos app to the in-line, and “adjusting it properly”. What did you mean? Are you talking about ensuring I’m going through the Rooms, in my case family room as this is where I initially connected the Connect? I know I can get to Portable or Family Room in this section and I am tapping on the Family Room. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense but it’s what the Sonos folks asked me to do.

I’ve confirmed the CD player is working. I’ve tried a different set of analog jacks. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again!
Susan
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- Connect the CDP analog outputs to the CONNECT analog inputs. Sounds like you’ve done that.
- Choose the ‘Room’ you want the music to play in via the Sonos controller
- Go to ‘Browse’, Line In, select the CONNECT’s input
- Your chosen Room will now play the CDP’s output.

I’d say it’s most likely you’re omitting the third step above.
Good advice already given. I would like to check one additional thing. You said '..... family room as this is where I initially connected the Connect'. Can you confirm that when you added the Connect you gave it a unique room name, and did not name it the same as an existing speaker? It sounded a bit like you had named it the same as an existing room, but I may be completely misinterpreting your words. If I am wrong, please ignore this post!
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for all of the responses but it just doesn’t work. It knows it’s connected to an AV component (through Browse, line-in, and tap on family room). The little bars next to Family Room are changing in height (assume this means music is being played). In family room box, there’s a Group box and assume this means speakers and Connect are in sync. Also a Family Room is a unique name (speakers alone is called Portable).

I am going directly into CD player as this seemed simplest. I’ve tried using the optical line from Connect to CD, as this is how I had it set up to receiver originally and know this line works (Sonos thought the analog jacks they sent may not be working), I’ve tried other analog jacks which Sonos confirmed worked through diagnostic. I even tried to reconnect Connect but Sonos app knew it was connected. I’m thinking it shouldn’t be this hard.

So before I box it up and send it back, any additional thoughts? THANKS!
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It's a little hard to figure out what you've connected where without a picture or connectivity diagram. It's rather unlikely that the CONNECT is defective, so it's more likely to be a connection or configuration issue.

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you simplify the device connections just for now by leaving the receiver completely out of the picture and connecting the CD Player analog outputs to the CONNECT Analog audio in Inputs (identified in the picture below), using standard phono/RCA cables. Connect the mains cable and the Ethernet cable if applicable, and nothing else.



Then try it again.
Very good advice again from @pwt. Just to emphasise... please remove the optical connection - it cannot do anything for you and may be sabotaging things. The optical connection on the Connect is an OUTPUT and so connecting it to the CD player's output is doomed to failure.

For now, please ensure that Family Room and Portable are NOT grouped. You need Portable to be the room that is playing, with line-in as the selected source.
Success!! Reconnected everything again and ensured I tapped inline in Browse (think this was my problem as you suggested). Thanks so much for your help.

It may take a village to raise a child, but it clearly takes a global community to help me. Thanks again!!
Excellent. If you haven't done so already you can now connect the optical from the Connect to the receiver, or analog out from the Connect to an input on the receiver (e.g. aux or CD or tape in) and listen through your hifi not just the Play speakers.
Thanks so much for your help!
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By the way, if the only input you'd be using is the CD, and not anything else, you could just connect the CD player directly to the analog audio-in jacks on the connect, and ditch the receiver. But that's only if the CD is the only thing you're listening to.

I was told that you can not connect a CD changer to a connect or a connect AMP. Has anyone done this and gotten it to work ? My Sony CD Changer is not powered, it used to be connected to my Sony amp/receiver but I have since sold that amp and speakers and wanted to use the CD changer to listen to my CD's thru my SONOS speakers. Will this in fact work ?
I can't see why the Sonos CONNECT would care what the source of the input is, as long as it is of the correct volume. Which is why when connecting a turntable, it needs to have a pre-amp, but sure, it should absolutely take a CD player's input.

You'd get lots of people, including me, suggesting that it might make more sense to "rip" the CDs to a hard drive, and play from that instead, which would keep you from having to get up every 40 minutes to swap out CDs. 🙂 But I can't think of any technical reason why a CD player can't be plugged in to a CONNECT.
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Thanks Airgetlam ! I would do the same thing, but it would take a long time to Load all the CD's to my hard drive. The CD player I have is actually a 10 Disc Changer so I could load 10 CD's at once in a magazine, hit random and let it go.
Laugh. No worries. Time and effort are relative. To me, it would be worth spending the time once, so I wouldn't have to do it again, but I also understand your viewpoint. Give it a try, I think you'll end up being pleased either way. And if you can't make it work, come back here and yell at me :)

You're most welcome.
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By the way, does the connect have to be physically connected to my router ?
I would do the same thing, but it would take a long time to Load all the CD's to my hard drive. The CD player I have is actually a 10 Disc Changer so I could load 10 CD's at once in a magazine, hit random and let it go.
On a NAS, you can load all your CDs into one playlist, hit random and let it go! I have some playlists that have 4000 songs in them.
And once you discover streamed services like Apple/Google, you don't even need to rip music to a NAS - nor buy any CDs.
No, not technically. Everything can hang off of your wifi.

But I prefer to keep one device connected to the router, so that the system creates SonosNet, and keeps the music off of my own wifi and on Sonos'. Keeps lag on my systems at a minimum. But that device doesn't have to be the CONNECT, it could be any Sonos speaker, or a BRIDGE/BOOST.
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Thanks again Airgetlam ! My Sonos bridge is physically connected to the router. I didnt want to have the connect and therefore the CD changer in the room where the router is if i didnt have to.
Nope, you're absolutely fine with the BRIDGE connected. You can put the CONNECT and the CD changer anywhere within normal wifi range.

The fact that you have the BRIDGE connected means that all of your devices should be on SonosNet, which is, in my most humble opinion, the best option. Go forth, and enjoy music 🙂
The best way is to plug your CONNECT into the router to create SONOSNet which gets it off of your Router and communication goes through a separate SONOS network.
Just a note. The music still is traveling on your router, just not on your WiFi. It gets moved to a parallel WiFi signal (SonosNet), so any of the devices you use aren’t impacted by the more restrictive bandwidth. But you will alway be limited by what your router can handle...albeit unlikely to hit that limit.
Thanks for clarification on this. Appreciate it.
Happy to point it out. You were essentially on the right track, but the terminology was slightly off, and want people who find this thread later on to be clear. I think I said what you meant.