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I have a sonos playbar and a sonos beam. I want to send the signal from the tv to the soundbar that I select. I do not want to split the signal between both I want to choose which soundbar I send the sound source to. I have looked for a toslink switch (playbar does not have HDMI) that would be one in and then select via a remote either sound bar but I have not been able to find one. Everything I find the switch selects the input and sends it to a single output. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

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Which model TV are you using? The TV may support this directly if it has an optical and ARC or eARC ports. The key here is the TV’s capability to simultaneously send audio to the ARC and TOSLINK (optical) ports.

May I ask what you want to achieve with this set up?

May I ask what you want to achieve with this set up?

Good question. I was wondering that.…

Are the two soundbars in the same room? 

If the aim is use one of these to listen to TV audio in another room then grouping the speakers might be better. But we would need more info about the use case to be able to advise.

 

 

I have a sonos playbar and a sonos beam. I want to send the signal from the tv to the soundbar that I select. I do not want to split the signal between both I want to choose which soundbar I send the sound source to. I have looked for a toslink switch (playbar does not have HDMI) that would be one in and then select via a remote either sound bar but I have not been able to find one. Everything I find the switch selects the input and sends it to a single output. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

I don’t personally see the point in linking two soundbars to a TV, but I guess that’s a matter for yourseIf. I did find this device on Amazon with two optical outputs - whether it can achieve precisely what you’re looking for, might require you to study the detail.

My own thoughts are that it may play audio to one, or both devices at the same time, rather than one, or the ‘other’ Optical output. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LiNKFOR-Optical-Splitter-Switcher-Dolby-AC3/dp/B07VJLYK6H/ref=sr_1_6

Just to add, I’ve not ever used such a switching/audio-splitter device to comment on it’s suitability given this somewhat ‘unusual’ situation of wanting two soundbars connected to a single TV.

 

These devices are passive and might OK for relatively short fiber runs. However:

Several types of fiber can be used for TOSLINK: inexpensive 1 mm plastic optical fiber, higher-quality multistrand plastic optical fibers, or quartz glass optical fibers, depending on the desired bandwidth and application. TOSLINK cables are usually limited to 5 meters in length, with a technical maximum>1] of 10 meters, for reliable transmission without the use of a signal booster or a repeater. However, it is very common for interfaces on newer consumer electronics (satellite receivers and PCs with optical outputs) to easily run over 30 meters on even low-cost (0.82 USD/m 2009) TOSLINK cables. 

The above is from a Wikipedia article. One takeaway is that the specified maximum length limit is fuzzy. I have successfully used 45 foot premium cables. Other points to consider is that a perfect passive splitter will split the energy in half and each cable end will also reduce the energy available to each player.

Bottom line is that beyond about five feet for each segment you are in uncharted water. (notice that I said “about”)

 

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