TV to Connect:Amp to Outdoor Speakers?

  • 8 April 2019
  • 7 replies
  • 1500 views

Last Black Friday I bought the Best Buy Connect:Amp + Sonance Outdoor Speaker bundle. Like many, I would like to watch tv/movies in addition to listening to music outdoors.

I know the new Amp handles this specifically. And I realize that the Connect:Amp is not well suited to receive audio from a TV (no HDMI in, just two RCA in jacks) and those who have tried experience a lag, however I’m wondering if anyone has tried something like this HDMI to HDMI + Audio (SPDIF + RCA Stereo) Audio Extractor Converter:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BIQER0E/

I’m thinking of sticking a Fire Stick or running an HDMI from my laptop into it, and splitting the video to HDMI to an outdoor monitor or projector and the audio to RCA into the Connect:AMP (outdoor speakers).

Thank you in advance for your help.

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7 replies

The lag isn't in the wiring, but within the Connect:amp itself. It is built for multi-room audio, and has a built in buffer to allow for all the zones to play together properly. This can't be bypassed in the the Connect:amp. Some people do not mine the delay.

I think there is effectively 3 possible solutions with outdoor speakers capable of playing Sonos audio and TV audio.
1 - Replace your Connect:amp with a Sonos amp.
2 - Replace your Connect:amp with a 3rd party amp (2 inputs) and a Connect. The downside is the TV audio may not be shared with the rest of your Sonos system, depending on the capabilities of your 3rd party amp. You also lose full volume control through Sonos.
3 - Add a 3rd party amp for use with the TV, and a dual source speaker switch like the one below.

https://www.amazon.com/SSVC2-Source-Speaker-Selector-Control/dp/B002C99DW8

This has the same downsides at option 2.
Thanks, Danny.

Is the delay with the Connect:amp 100% certain/guaranteed?
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Is the delay with the Connect:amp 100% certain/guaranteed?
Yes. There's some more detail at the link below:
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1080?language=en_US
Thank you.

The link didn't offer anything else about the certainty of the delay - only that using uncompressed audio the reduces it. Specifically, "A benefit of using Uncompressed is that there will be very little delay from the source and the audio. With uncompressed line-in, the delay is about 75 ms."

Can anyone offer whether such a delay (75 ms) will be suitable for a projection screen movie viewing? Or will it be noticeable / annoying?

I'm kind of miffed at myself for not reading that the Connect:Amp can only handle music and kind of annoyed at Sonos for saying it handles TV; it does, but there's a guaranteed noticeable lag. That should be more clearly stated.
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The link didn't offer anything else about the certainty of the delay - only that using uncompressed audio the reduces it. Specifically, "A benefit of using Uncompressed is that there will be very little delay from the source and the audio. With uncompressed line-in, the delay is about 75 ms.".
The delay is a certainty. (I thought I'd answered that.) There is no current way of circumventing it.

Can anyone offer whether such a delay (75 ms) will be suitable for a projection screen movie viewing? Or will it be noticeable / annoying?

My own opinion is that the 75ms delay is only noticeable if one tries to detect it, but you may find you're more sensitive to such things.
Userlevel 6
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I've done similar - used a TV-> DAC->Connect->Active speakers signal path before. The delay was not noticeable for casual watching in my opinion, but everyone's different. Many people here have tried and called it unwatchable. All you can do is try it out - you've got the equipment already, might as well try before you box it all up to take back.
Thanks.

I don't have either the DAC (assuming that's the audio extractor) nor RCA cable. But I might just spend the $35 to buy them and try it out; with the projector and uncompressed audio, it might be OK.

I won't box anything up because I'm mainly interested in the Sonance speakers which work well for my needs; I just wish I knew the Connect:Amp was only good for outdoor music.