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I'm trying to connect the optical output on my Sonos Connect to my Macbook in order to capture and digitise my vinyl collection. (the turntable is connected to the connect analogue inputs via a phono preamp). My Macbook is aware of the digital connection as it shows up in the Sound Preferences as 'optical digital-in port'. However if I try to record audio signal (say into Audacity), nothing records. Do I need to do anything to ensure there is signal on the optical out, or is it always digitising when the connect is receiving input audio?
No, the output isn't always on. You need to pop into the controller, go to your rooms, and select your CONNECT. From there, you can go to browse, line-in, and select line-in from Sonos CONNECT. Of course, names may be different...



However, that only re-routes the audio from the input to the output. To get your players to work too, you'd need to go back to rooms, and select your preferred room/players/groups. Pop back to browse, and select the line-in again - or you could group your CONNECT with rooms/players and do it in one go.



I want to also let you know that the CONNECT actually digitizes the analog audio to be spread across the network, and turns it back to analog to the line-out resulting in a degradation in audio quality (un-noticeable by most people inc. me). It also doesn't support any higher than 16-bit 41kHz audio so that's what your capped to. High-res audio is out of the equation if you use the line-out on the CONNECT.



EDIT: Saw "optical" in the title so disregard my last paragraph. 😛
I believe it's 16-bit 44.1 KHz...High-res may be out, but lossless certainly isn't. Also, make sure that the Audio Compression setting under Advanced Settings is set to Uncompressed, so that it isn't applying unnecessary compression to the audio signal since you're just playing it locally through the Connect.
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