Question

Will this setup work as a group with Airplay 2? KEF LSX + PLAY:5 + Sonos One

  • 15 September 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 1654 views

Good day,

I currently own the PLAY:5 (1st generation) and recently bought a pair of KEF LSX which I have upgraded the FW to support Airplay 2.

My plan is to buy an additional Sonos One and group it with the PLAY:5 to bring Airplay 2 to both speakers. Then in step 2, group the KEF LSX and both Sonos speakers via Airplay 2. Objective being to play music on KEF LSX, PLAY:5 and Sonos One at the same time.

Has anyone tried something similar and can share whether this would indeed work?

If so, can you use the voice control while remaining grouped over the brands to change songs and receive the Alexa output?

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4 replies

Thanks again for the answer!

Did you have a chance to try the setup from the 4th Gen aTV? I did not invest in another Sonos yet, waiting for them Black Friday deals hopefully coming.

I have airplayed from my aTV 3rd gen to my Sonos successfully, however I haven't tried to airplay it to more than one speaker (though I'm not sure 3rd Gen supports Airplay 2). But the Apple site implies this is possible on the latest generation:

AirPlay audio from your Apple TV

Whether you're watching a movie or listening to music with your Apple TV, you can use AirPlay to stream audio to one or more HomePod or AirPlay 2-compatible speakers or smart TVs.
  1. Play the audio that you want to stream from your Apple TV, then press and hold Apple TV App/Home

    to bring up Control Center.
  2. Select Airplay

    .
  3. Choose the speaker or TV that you want to stream the current audio to.
Learn more about the requirements for using AirPlay and which speakers are supported.

I'll try from my 4th Gen aTV when I get a chance.
Excellent. Thanks a lot for the answer, it is working very close to how I'd expect it to.

This might be pushing it, but have you tried Airplay 2 get the audio track from a video playing on an Apple TV or Mac? If yes, is the sync working between audio/video?

Cheers!
I own a Sonos Symfonisk and the KEF LSX. I can Airplay to them both and the sync works.
However the KEFs are not recognised by the Sonos app (given they aren't Sonos speakers).
So yes, you can stream to all the speakers on your proposed setup, but not through the Sonos app. You play the music via whichever service on your iPhone / iPad / Mac and then select the speakers in the Airplay 2 dropdown menu. This has nuances. For example you cannot use Spotify Connect as multiroom, despite each of your speakers being Connect enabled.
Re voice, to play via my Echo Dot my LSX's need to be setup as bluetooth speakers. I cannot simultaneously command Alexa to play through them and Sonos at the same time, AFAIK.
In short, yes you can add the LSX's to your Sonos and stream to all your speakers through Airplay, but it's not as neat as Sonos' system.
Hope this helps.