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Hi folks,

I’m reaching out to try to prevent me making another expensive error!

I’m a long term Sonos user and have 4xPlay 1’s 2 Play 5’s 1x Soundbar and 2x Connects.

My music library is all NAS based and generally works well.

I had until recently a Connect/HiFi separate amplifier combination in my study for use with the PC. This worked well for a long time until the connect died  and the hifi amp had been crackling for a while in one channel so I rashly purchased a Sonos Amp (the white one) 

I posted previously about this, but suffice to say it didn’t meet my requirements as I had failed to realise that the Amp injected the same buffering delay into everything it played back even it there is no remote playing/synchronisation going on.

So what I’ve had to do is rig up a separate cheapo amp and a speaker switch box in the study so that I can use the Sonos AMP alongside the PC with the same set of speakers - this has to say the lease caused me constant irritation  - mainly with myself for failing to understand the product limitations.

Anyway….wind forward 8 months and it’s finally become too much, reading about the new Sonos amp (the black one) the suggestion is that it works with TV/console which means it must be capable of lag-less direct play…?

However, looking at the connectors I can only see HDMI and phono in although I have read that optical in is supported although an adaptor may be required for TV or phono.

My PC can generate an optical audio out signal as well as standard analog , but my question is (and apologies for all the scene setting) if I connect to the line-in on the Sonos AMP will I get lag-less direct play.  I can’t see anything in the manual that clarifies this one?

I’m happy to shell out for the new Amp if it meets this requirement and I suspect it does as it can play TV/console sound, but once bitten….

 

All help/advice gratefully received


Steve

 

No Sonos input has no lag, due to the nature of the Sonos system, which has to buffer the signal for synchronized playback across any/all speakers in the Sonos ecosystem, across a 2.4Ghz network.

The digital input of the HDMI will play at the lower latency in the “room” that is the Amp, but any connected rooms will be subject to the same 75ms delay as the analog inputs are. 

No Sonos input has no lag, due to the nature of the Sonos system, which has to buffer the signal for synchronized playback across any/all speakers in the Sonos ecosystem, across a 2.4Ghz network.

The digital input of the HDMI will play at the lower latency in the “room” that is the Amp, but any connected rooms will be subject to the same 75ms delay as the analog inputs are. 


Thanks Bruce,

I am looking for single room no latency playback from my PC and trying to work out if there is a way of doing that with the new amp -  I know and understand that there has to be buffering for multi-room playback, but that is not what I’m after (for my study when the PC is playing)

The Manual says “

Line-In Sources Supported: Audio device with analogue RCA output or optical output (optical adaptor required). TV device with HDMI ARC or optical output (optical adaptor required). I’m trying to work out if this will work as a low latency input.      

Sonos was not designed to be a PC speaker system, so there are certain design considerations that won’t match your intended use, however, if you’re only playing to speakers directly connected to the Sonos Amp, and not sending to any other “rooms” is the Sonos software, then the HDMI-ARC input might work for you. Note that there are several restrictions on this. First, your PC needs to be able to output Dolby Digital or stereo, the Sonos system won’t be able to interpret other codecs, such as DTS, Dolby Atmos, or Dolby Digital Plus. Then, your PC needs to output this signal via HDMI-ARC, not HDMI, an extremely unlikely thing, or via an optical cable which can be connected to the adapter which can be purchased separately from Sonos. 

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