Contributor I

Connect:AMP digital input

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
December 18, 2013
52 replies
11019 views

To use the Connect:amp as a complete living room audio solution, it needs a digital input with its next hardware update. For example I would like to hookup my passive speakers to my TV, without having to manually turn on my receiver. In that case I would need digital input in the connect:AMP for easy setup, and then I wouldnt need a receiver at all and be able to stream music through the connect:amp without having to turn on the TV. It could be done just with a fiber optic input port, or even better with hdmi pass through. Of course with support for digital audio content like DTS. (I know that the playbar will do the job, but want to use my existing speakers)

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J

jtkeep

Enthusiast II

I can see the analogue inputing left/right into the Sonos
system could give this delay 70ms.
But what i am sying is a well designed
optical input into the system with a 30ms
delay or under would work very well from
a TV.
So my question to Sonos is please make
this very simple interface unit.

accguy

Lyricist III

. Sonos does not seem to care about keeping up with much more than software. On the other hand, that software rocks. It makes their OK hardware really attractive.

For a completely different opinion - that hardware rocks and software sucks, see this!:
https://en.community.sonos.com/wireless-speakers-228992/5-star-play1-review-stunning-photos-6734713/index1.html#post15992359

I actually really love it 🙂 It goes to show just how much opinions can differ while still be valid. Nice!

For me, its Sonos's software that sells the product. I just had to put a system in a houseboat. 7 TVs, top deck sound system, owner wanted everything everywhere/anywhere/nowhere/all the time/never / you name it. He tried combinations of 7.1, 11.1, 2 zone, 3 zone, the whole amp market. I put in 2 playbars, 2 subs, 4 play:5s and 2 connects and poof, done. One app and everything is everywhere, and all his existing amps are leveraged with the Connects. He cannot believe it.

ratty

I can see the analogue inputing left/right into the Sonos
system could give this delay 70ms.
But what i am sying is a well designed
optical input into the system with a 30ms
delay or under would work very well from
a TV.

You've misunderstood the problem. An ADC adds virtually nothing to the delay. The delay is there to provide enough buffering to deal with packet jitter over an asynchronous multi-hop wireless mesh network. Insufficient buffering and the stream drops out.

PLAYBAR itself can sail closer to the wind, with a 30ms delay for TV sound, because it's the centre of a local hub/spoke configuration over 5GHz to its own satellites. Indeed if you read the FAQ you'll see that 2.4GHz players grouped with the PLAYBAR are out of sync with it for TV. They lag behind because they need the full 70ms buffering delay.

jgatie

I actually really love it 🙂 It goes to show just how much opinions can differ while still be valid. Nice!

For me, its Sonos's software that sells the product. I just had to put a system in a houseboat. 7 TVs, top deck sound system, owner wanted everything everywhere/anywhere/nowhere/all the time/never / you name it. He tried combinations of 7.1, 11.1, 2 zone, 3 zone, the whole amp market. I put in 2 playbars, 2 subs, 4 play:5s and 2 connects and poof, done. One app and everything is everywhere, and all his existing amps are leveraged with the Connects. He cannot believe it.

I assure you the breadth and length of complaints over the software far outdistance the complaints over the hardware. And all of those far outdistance the complaints from installers who want Sonos to put niche functionality into their units that does not apply to 99.9% of their customers, but will make life a little easier for someone making a lot of money for "custom" installing hardware which is sold at Target.

J

jtkeep

Enthusiast II

Does this mean the Play3 only have 2,4Ghz and not 5Ghz
network, but how would it work if you hard wired the in/out
optical unit,Sonos bridge and Play3 units.
How would the latency be.

J

jtkeep

Enthusiast II

I can see the analogue inputing left/right into the Sonos
system could give this delay 70ms.
But what i am sying is a well designed
optical input into the system with a 30ms
delay or under would work very well from
a TV.

You've misunderstood the problem. An ADC adds virtually nothing to the delay. The delay is there to provide enough buffering to deal with packet jitter over an asynchronous multi-hop wireless mesh network. Insufficient buffering and the stream drops out.

PLAYBAR itself can sail closer to the wind, with a 30ms delay for TV sound, because it's the centre of a local hub/spoke configuration over 5GHz to its own satellites. Indeed if you read the FAQ you'll see that 2.4GHz players grouped with the PLAYBAR are out of sync with it for TV. They lag behind because they need the full 70ms buffering delay.

Yes i can see the problems with a optical in/out interface to the Sonos system
adding TV sound via wifi giveing latency.
Of course the Sonos playbar has direct optical input from the TV and no delay.

jgatie

Yes i can see the problems with a optical in/out interface to the Sonos system
adding TV sound via wifi giveing latency.
Of course the Sonos playbar has direct optical input from the TV and no delay.

Actually, the Playbar lack of delay is only to the 5GHz units that it is bonded with. Other speakers still experience a delay when grouped with the Playbar, illustrating the delay inherent to the Sonos system ratty has described.

jgatie

Does this mean the Play3 only have 2,4Ghz and not 5Ghz
network, but how would it work if you hard wired the in/out
optical unit,Sonos bridge and Play3 units.
How would the latency be.

Sonos has found the reduced range of the 5 GHz band makes it less useful for multi-room streaming and thus it is only used for bonding units at short distances within the same room. Latency can be overcome by hard wiring, but at what point does one allow a niche functionality to negate the major selling point of a truly "wireless" system?

J

jtkeep

Enthusiast II

Of course the wireless will always be best.
But i was trying to see if you could use the
Sonos system for sound on a Flat panrl TV
i can now see that a wifi solution with slow
wifi networks and buffering would be a challenge.
I built an IP system for a FM radio station supplying IP streams over
the internet with Qos from the studio to the transmitter site,
we used 200 ms buffering for a 256Kbs stereo signal,
this was over 100km.
Lets see if the wifi technology will be faster in the near
future, but then we need new Sonos models?

Vitor Madeira

Trending Lyricist I

Would a "simple" stereo digital input onto the sonos connect (either 'normal' and amp) be difficult to implement?

I believe it wouldn't. As a manner of fact, I believe that the point where the digital audio signal would have to enter the unit, is already there "waiting" for us to inject the signal.

Why do I say this? Well, if the analog audio that one can input on the RCA plugs (that are already available on all units) needs to be converted into digital, then there is a point where one could connect the wires in order to inject digital signal into the device.

Doesn't this makes good sense?

(please, excuse my English, as I'm a foreign English speaker...)

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