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Answered

Airplay with Vinyl?

  • 9 March 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 1878 views

My current setup:

TV Area:

Beam (gen1) connected to AppleTV and wireless HD projector 

Sonos sub

2x play:1s 

setup in surround sound 

Living area:

2x HomePods in stereo pair 

2x bookshelf AudioEngine A2s connected to an old Airport Express

 

i generally use Airplay2 to stream across both areas. 


I’m thinking of getting a vinyl player, so of course I’d like one that works with my set up.

 

First question, if I buy a turntable and plug it to a Sonos Port, does that enable it to stream across the whole airplay2 network or only the Sonos speakers?

 

Second question, same for the Victrola Sonos-certified turntables, would they only work via Sonos speakers or once I hit play to the line in on the Sonos app I can expand it via airplay2 to the rest?

 

Third, following up on question 1; any reason to buy a Port instead of an Era 100/300/Five? They all seem to have a line in and similar functionality and the Port isn’t cheap… Any repercussions re: stereo or whatever if it’s one bookshelf speaker? 

  1. Yes, connecting any valid device, including a turntable, allows the signal to be sent anywhere on the Sonos network, including all Sonos speakers. Note there’s the slight delay necessary to buffer the input so it can play in sync across all Sonos rooms.
  2. No idea, might be a better question for the Victrola folks. Since the line in from the Port doesn’t go to your controller, there’d be no opportunity to AirPlay 2 it from there.
  3. Since the Era speakers were announced yesterday, it’s really hard to answer this question definitively. I’d probably suggest that all of them are roughly the same (they run the same software to process the line in) so I’d probably go with the cheapest version. All Sonos line ins have always been stereo, no matter what form factor (RCA or 3.5mm) that’s used. 

Just re: 1, to be clear, my question is, would it work across the airplay2 network, not just the Sonos devices. Can you clarify if that works?

  1. Yes, connecting any valid device, including a turntable, allows the signal to be sent anywhere on the Sonos network, including all Sonos speakers. Note there’s the slight delay necessary to buffer the input so it can play in sync across all Sonos rooms.
  2. No idea, might be a better question for the Victrola folks. Since the line in from the Port doesn’t go to your controller, there’d be no opportunity to AirPlay 2 it from there.
  3. Since the Era speakers were announced yesterday, it’s really hard to answer this question definitively. I’d probably suggest that all of them are roughly the same (they run the same software to process the line in) so I’d probably go with the cheapest version. All Sonos line ins have always been stereo, no matter what form factor (RCA or 3.5mm) that’s used. 

Just re: 1, to be clear, my question is, would it work across the airplay2 network, not just the Sonos devices. Can you clarify if that works?

 

No. Sorry, I didn’t understand the question.

Sonos devices are AirPlay 2 receivers, not AirPlay 2 sending devices. They can not generate an AirPlay 2 signal. 

Edit: to my knowledge, the only devices capable of generating an AirPlay 2 signal are Apple devices. 

Native ERA units do not support Line-In. You will need to add a USB dongle for the turntable’s analog output. 

 

For your use case the fact that The Port has an “out” does not matter, for others this can be important. 

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