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Sonos Amp - CD player connection via hdmi ?

  • 16 January 2019
  • 8 replies
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M
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I am wondering if anyone is using the hdmi connection for anything other than connecting the TV ? I would like to connect the audio hdmi from a Samsung UHD player to it for CD playback. I am assuming that the internal DAC would take care of this via the hdmi input ? Would this always turn on the Amp whenever I turn on the UHD player ?

My other alternative would be to invest in an external DAC unit and connect it to the RCA inputs using a analogue switch (I am already planning on using this input for my turntable). However, I am not up on DACs and don't really want a lot of added expense for the few CDs we listento.

Any help would be appreciated.
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Best answer by melvimbe 16 January 2019, 14:30

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8 replies

melvimbe
I am wondering if anyone is using the hdmi connection for anything other than connecting the TV ? I would like to connect the audio hdmi from a Samsung UHD player to it for CD playback. I am assuming that the internal DAC would take care of this via the hdmi input ? Would this always turn on the Amp whenever I turn on the UHD player ?


No, this isn't likely to work, not directly anyway. The amp, like the beam uses HDMI-ARC, not a normal HDMI signal. So unless your UHD has ARC, which I highly doubt, it will not work the way you think it would.

However, the amp can take in an optical audio signal using the optical audio adapter.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/optical-audio-adaptor.html

So if your UHD has an optical output, you could use that output to connect to the Amp. If not, there are switches out there that can extract the audio signal from HDMI to optical. Seems kind of odd to use 2 adapters and go from HDMI->optical -> HDMI-ARC, but that'show it works. There may even be adapters out there that can go directly from HDMI to HDMI-ARC, but I'm not aware of them.

Would this always turn on the Amp whenever I turn on the UHD player ?


Yes, you can configure the amp to do this.
Danny
M
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Thanks for the reply. I suppose that makes sense. I was avoiding to add another optical switch into the mix as I am already connecting the UHD player to the Beam via an optical switch. So in this case I would need the following :

1) An optical switch that allows me to switch one input into two output
2) Connect one output from switch into the optical switch feeding the Beam
3) Connect the other output to the AMP hdmi inup using the optical-hdmi adapter

Sounds fairly complicated. I am almost tempted to get the Panasonic 820 UHD player instead as it has optical and analogue outputs which would make connection to the AMP easier. It would mean however that I would have watch any DTS film in 2 channel PCM only.
melvimbe
Thanks for the reply. I suppose that makes sense. I was avoiding to add another optical switch into the mix as I am already connecting the UHD player to the Beam via an optical switch. So in this case I would need the following :

1) An optical switch that allows me to switch one input into two output
2) Connect one output from switch into the optical switch feeding the Beam
3) Connect the other output to the AMP hdmi inup using the optical-hdmi adapter

Sounds fairly complicated. I am almost tempted to get the Panasonic 820 UHD player instead as it has optical and analogue outputs which would make connection to the AMP easier. It would mean however that I would have watch any DTS film in 2 channel PCM only.

I think you've way over complicated this. Why would you want the same source to be connected to two different pieces of sonos devices, the Beam and the Amp? It sounds like you want them in the same room as well. Why?

I can't tell exactly what you want, but I'd just connect the Amp to the UHD and use it for both music and Blu-ray audio.
Danny
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I know it sounds weird. It's due to the room layout and speaker position. The hifi speakers to be used on the amp and my listening position for music are different to the speaker positon I require for watching TV. Maybe I can change this in the future but it is too much work at the moment. I could have just bought a seperate CD player purely for listening to music but as I mainly listen to vinyl I felt it would be a waste of money as I could just use the UHD Player. The UHD player also has a HDMI out which transmits audio only. In theory this should be no different than using the Sonos optical to HDMI converter so I will have a play with it when I can get the amp after it is finally released in the UK next month.

The reason why I don't want to use the amp for TV / movie audio is I am not sure that I would like sound for a watching a movie (especially dialogue) that does not eminate from the centre of the screen. If Sonos wants the amp to be used for home cinema then they should have provisioned for a centre speaker connection. I live in the hope that one day Sonos will allow us to use the Beam purely as a centre speaker and have additional speakers as front left and right.
Airgetlam
I’d disagree with your assertion that this should be no different than using the Sonos optical to HDMI converter. The audio transmission would be on the normal HDMI pins for audio, and not on the HDMI-ARC pins that the adapter would be looking for.
Bruce
melvimbe
I know it sounds weird. It's due to the room layout and speaker position. The hifi speakers to be used on the amp and my listening position for music are different to the speaker positon I require for watching TV. Maybe I can change this in the future but it is too much work at the moment. I could have just bought a seperate CD player purely for listening to music but as I mainly listen to vinyl I felt it would be a waste of money as I could just use the UHD Player. The UHD player also has a HDMI out which transmits audio only. In theory this should be no different than using the Sonos optical to HDMI converter so I will have a play with it when I can get the amp after it is finally released in the UK next month.

As stated already HDMI and HDMI-ARC are not equivalent. Your theory won't work.

Understanding your situation a little better, I would connect the UHD to the Beam and then group the Beam with the Amp whenever you want to play music. You'll want to mute the Beam when you do this. Even you setup separate connections for the Beam and Amp, you'd still end needing to mute the Beam...or switch to a different audio source.


The reason why I don't want to use the amp for TV / movie audio is I am not sure that I would like sound for a watching a movie (especially dialogue) that does not eminate from the centre of the screen.


The amp has a phantom center channel. I honestly can't say how well that works, but I would guess that you are 5 feet or more away from the TV, it will be off.


If Sonos wants the amp to be used for home cinema then they should have provisioned for a centre speaker connection. I live in the hope that one day Sonos will allow us to use the Beam purely as a centre speaker and have additional speakers as front left and right.

Highly unlikely in my opinion. If Sonos ever go this route, I think a new center channel speaker will be developed, or you'll have the option to use one of the existing single channel speakers.
Danny
M
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Ok thanks. Looks like I need to get the optical to hdmi adapter. I can get around muting the beam when I play a CD as the UHD will be connected to it via a 4 way optical switch so it will only receive input for watching movies.

Is it possible to control the hdmi port separately on the AMP? I know the beam auto plays when it receives input. I assume this is something that can be switched off on the amp ? If not I might have to go down the external DAC route and convert the optical UHD output to rca when listening to a cd and use an analogue switch to select between that input and the turntable instead.

I'm almost tempted to just get a normal hifi amplifier and a connect instead.
Chris
Userlevel 7
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Couple things here:

1) Sonos sells the optical to HDMI connector on their website. It actually comes with the Beam so you should have one already.

2) the inputs on sonos are device independent. Example: If you hook the CD player up to the analog inputs of the Amp. You can go into amp and set the analog input default to your Beam. So if you played CD it would actually not play out of the Amp but play out of the beam just like if you had it hooked to the Beam itself. You can be playing something completely different on the Amp and turn on CD and it not effect Amp at all but by default send the sound to the Beam.
Respect the Queue (1)Move (2)Beam (1)ARC (1)SonosOne (1)Playbar (4)Play5 (4)Play1 (3)Play3 (1)Port (2)Connect (1)Connect:Amp (3)Sonos Amp (1)Sub + (9) Echo + Smartthings
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