Sonos Connect:Amp and Airplay 2



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36 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +20
If Airport Express can handle this update, I gotta think that there are no hardware challenges.
You may think that, but you'd be wrong.
djpyrax,

And just to add to what pwt is saying, that you need to remember that Sonos Airplay-2 compatible devices don’t just output to themselves, but they can also send the output to dozens of other Sonos speakers grouped with them on the local network and output the stream in perfect sync, sometimes aligned to a playing video stream too on an Apple device... there is no way an Airport Express can achieve that sort of processing capability.

You are perhaps forgetting that Sonos is a multi-room wireless audio system first ...and the Airplay-2 protocol has been adapted to fit in with those overarching Sonos capabilities.

At the moment there are only 5 Sonos devices with the processing power and memory ability to achieve these things...

Sonos One
Beam
PlayBase
Play:5 (Gen 2)
Sonos Amp (when released)

You just need to buy one of those to add AirPlay-2 to all your Sonos devices ... there is just one proviso, the device used cannot Airplay if it’s also being used for HT rear surround sound purposes... otherwise any of these products listed, will happily act as a Sonos system Airplay-2 controller.
Userlevel 3
Badge +4
This maybe a daft question

If I have a Sonos connect which also has an Airport Express connected can I use tunein radio from the Sonos app and send this out to airport2 speakers or would I need a Sonos speaker with AirPlay support?
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
If you have an airport express hooked to connect that is an airplay method for you. Group any speakers you want to send airplay to with the connect and it will play.
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Hi,

I'm trying to understand what can and cannot be done:

* I have a connect:amp in my living room
* I have a single Play:1 in my kitchen
* If I add a Sonos:One in my kitchen to act as a stereo pair with my Play:1:
- first : is that combination possible Sonos One + Play:1 = 1 stereo pair ?
- can I use AirPlay to stream to my living room while not playing in my kitchen ?
- can I use AirPlay to stream to my living room while playing something else in my kitchen ?
- can I use AirPlay to stream "music A" to my living room and use AirPlay to stream "music B" to my kitchen at the same time ?

Thanks for your insight !
Kevin
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
I'm trying to understand what can and cannot be done:
* I have a connect:amp in my living room
* I have a single Play:1 in my kitchen

* If I add a Sonos:One in my kitchen to act as a stereo pair with my Play:1:
- first : is that combination possible Sonos One + Play:1 = 1 stereo pair ?

Only unofficially, and not via the Sonos app. However, you can use SonoSequencr on iOS to do this [1].

- can I use AirPlay to stream to my living room while not playing in my kitchen?

Yes, by grouping the kitchen and living room, and turning down the volume on the kitchen speakers.

- can I use AirPlay to stream to my living room while playing something else in my kitchen?
- can I use AirPlay to stream "music A" to my living room and use AirPlay to stream "music B" to my kitchen at the same time?

No to both of these.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sonosequencr/id967043604
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Thank you !

I'm a bit disappointed then, I was expecting some more flexibility. Having to group explicitly the room with the one that has Airplay capability will not help my wife send easily music to the living room without using the Sonos app (that was what I was hoping to achieve). Just an Airplay entry point to the whole Sonos network that could be used anywhere.

I guess I'll wait a bit before investing again in multiroom equipment... Keep it simple for now and wait for something that could manage both Chromecast and Airplay anywhere in the house.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
I'm a bit disappointed then, I was expecting some more flexibility. Having to group explicitly the room with the one that has Airplay capability will not help my wife send easily music to the living room without using the Sonos app (that was what I was hoping to achieve). Just an Airplay entry point to the whole Sonos network that could be used anywhere.
I agree. I was expecting AirPlay to present as a kind of Line-In when the audio is being sent to other players. There must be technical reasons why this was not feasible.

In connection with AirPlay, I usually mention that it's possible to add AirPlay v1 to any Sonos player by running AirConnect [1], although it requires a little technical know-how. All of my Sonos devices, even the old ones, work perfectly as normal, direct AirPlay targets.

[1] https://github.com/philippe44/AirConnect
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AirConnect looks interesting, there's even a Synology package that could be pretty handy in my situation.
I'll give it a try.

Thanks !
Userlevel 5
Badge +10
I'm super disappointed those of us early Sonos adopters and huge fans, now get screwed. Honestly, I built an AirPlay driver for a music company (you've all heard of) and I know the protocol. It isn't limited by hardware, if an iPhone can support Airplay, a Connect:AMP and Play:3 at least will do it. It's super lame Sonos isn't investing in us who love the product. I'm only connect:amp and one Play:3 and can't see myself going down the Sonos path any longer if they don't start innovating and supporting products evenly. There's no technical reason it won't work, and I challenge them to be more transparent on that claim.

Or at a Minimum, if Sonos won't support us who bought these claimed "older units", why don't they do a buyback program like Apple and at least buy this stuff back they won't support so we can upgrade. Your stuff isn't cheap and shouldn't be like cheap Amazon throw away stuff they at least support better (for the record, I bought this connect:amp LAST year for 400 bucks or whatever) and the Play:3 a few years back


It’s limited by memory and processor which you should know if you know the airplay 2 sdk as well as you claim. It actually sound like you are referencing the 1st version of airpay. Comparing it to an iPhone etc makes no sense for something that was designed 10 years ago. There is very likely a technical reason it won’t work that being processor and memory. It doesn’t need much but lots of older audio hardware can’t do airplay 2.