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New Sonos system with Connect Gen 1?

  • 8 July 2022
  • 4 replies
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Hi, I’ve just bought a Sonos system with Beam Gen 2, 2x Sonos 1 speakers, and 1x Move speaker. I’ve not received all the pieces yet so nothing has been set up but I’ll be controlling everything through the Sonos IOS app. 
 

However, my existing system includes a Bang & Olufsen turntable with mini amplifier and a Tivoli Audio CD player. I’d like to be able to use these sometimes and I understand I need to use a Sonos Connect to do so. Or do I?
 

I’d like to buy a cheaper used Connect; I can get Gen 1 for $100. But will it work with my system? (Since I’m not set up yet I can’t test it.) I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars to connect components I don’t use often, so I need inexpensive solutions.

 

Thanks for your advice!

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Best answer by ratty 8 July 2022, 15:12

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4 replies

I’d like to buy a cheaper used Connect; I can get Gen 1 for $100. But will it work with my system?

No. Beam/gen2 requires S2 software. You’d need a Connect/gen2 to run S2. All the components in a system have to run the same software.

(There’s a reason why Connect/gen1 is resold so cheaply. It can only run S1.)

@ratty Thanks! That’s very helpful.

Do you have any other solutions? I don’t necessarily need to be able to stream the music from these components everywhere, even from 1 speaker is better than none. They will be a few inches from my Beam Gen 2. 
 

Thoughts?

You can run both S1 and S2 on your network, but they are separate systems, requiring separate controllers. It is not possible to Group S1 players with S2 players.

Using S1 for the CONNECT/Turntable and S2 for BEAM would not allow playing the Turntable through BEAM.

Well, in a Sonos system any source can be played through any speaker. Alternative devices with an analog Line-In -- that can run S2 -- are Play:5/gen2, Five and Port (plus Amp and Connect:Amp/gen2).

To be honest buying a Port is rather overkill if all you want to do is pipe in audio from third party kit. At least with a Play:5/g2 or Five you also get an excellent speaker for your money.

 

If your Beam was to be connected to the TV by optical, as opposed to the much more functional HDMI-eARC, in theory you could come up with a somewhat byzantine arrangement which switched the optical input between the TV and an analog-digital converter. Your legacy kit would feed the converter. However in doing so you’d forego the better surround sound (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, etc) as well as control of the Beam via the TV and vice versa (HDMI-CEC).