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What can I Connect to the Sonos Connect

  • 18 February 2019
  • 7 replies
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Hey all,

New to the Sonos community. Not sure how to ask this question.

I was recently given a Sonos Connect XP90. Can I only connect this to an amp and to wired speakers, or can i use this to connect to wireless speakers?
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Best answer by Airgetlam 18 February 2019, 22:20

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7 replies

To the former, yes, to the latter, not really, although it would integrate with a Sonos system. Just not anyone else's wireless speakers.
Let me amend that. You could use the audio output jacks on the CONNECT to attach to an audio input jack on another company's wireless speaker system....so it wouldn't be a wireless connection.
gotcha.. so can i connect Sonos Speakers to it, or will that not work either?
Ummm. Connect is an odd way to put that. The CONNECT would become part of a Sonos system, which the Sonos speakers would be part of as well. But the CONNECT is designed to take what the Sonos system is, and send it to an external device, such as a normal amplifier/receiver that you'd have in your home.

You don't need to have a CONNECT to have Sonos speakers, or any Sonos system. You only need a CONNECT if you're attaching your Sonos system to an receiver, or if you want to use the analog inputs to attach some other device (like a CD or turntable) to your Sonos system.
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As per Bruce.

I have two Connects. Both are part of a traditional hifi system. They allow a non-Sonos system to integrate with Sonos as a multi room solution. I have Sonos speakers in my living room and Cambridge pre and power amps with Kef speakers in my dining room. The dining room can play the same music as the living room because I have the Connect attached to the Cambridge pre amp. Make sense?
One can use CONNECT as one would use a Cassette deck. There is a Line-In that will accept any line level analog stereo source. This could be used, for example, to attach an analog turntable to the SONOS system. Any combination of SONOS players could select the attached turntable as their source. Also included is Line-Out that can be used as a stereo analog input to other devices, such as a receiver or power amplifier. In addition to the analog Line-Out there is a coax digital output and a TOSLINK optical output. Line-Out is not wedded to Line-In and can deliver any source available to the SONOS system.

As an additional benefit, the CONNECT will provide another mesh point for SonosNet.

Note that there is a 70ms latency between Line-In and Line-Out. This latency will be an annoyance for anyone attempting to use CONNECT in a live music setting (DJ's, for example), but CONNECT will be in perfect time alignment with all of the other SONOS players.

CONNECT cannot connect to generic wireless speakers unless one uses some sort of "dongle" that provides an appropriate wireless link to the speaker from CONNECT's Line-Out.
Another opportunity here is to use the Connect wired to powered speakers that don't need separate amplification, and cover one zone/room that way. There are many excellent and cheap powered/active speakers in the market that qualify for the HiFi tag.

And anything you play wired to the line in on the Connect can be played on other Sonos speakers wirelessly, along with the speakers wired to the Connect, or even with the latter left silent.