Do I need a connect or connect amp?

Question

New house— I have speakers built into the living room wall already. I’m just not sure if this is a receiver or not (basically do I need a Sonos connect or sonos connect amp)? Here is a picture of what’s there.

Stanley_4 · Accepted Answer

The connections around the outside look like they are tied directly to your speakers so you'd need to feed them from a
Connect Amp or an external amplifier hooked to a Connect.

The top left pairs should be hooked to the Connect Amp to power your front speakers. The center terminals appear to be line-level (low voltage) connections intended to go to self amplified subwoofers. There a Connect Amp would be a great choice as it offers a subwoofer output that should plug right in. An RCA "Y" cable could split the single Sonos Connect Amp's sub output to both of your sub inputs. If you have 8 Ohm speakers you could power the front left/right and surround left/right directly from the Connect Amp.

You have more speakers connections than a Connect Amp can directly power, it can do 4 - 8 Ohm or 2 - 4 Ohm speakers. Using an impedance matching unit could divide the Connect Amp's power to more or lower resistance speakers.

The Center and Rear Surround are a bit of a problem as both are mono, not stereo and the Connect Amp doesn't provide a mono output. If you really want to use them a higher end impedance matching speaker selector with an option to create a mono channel might be found. I don't recall seeing one though.

jgatie · Answer

That is wiring for a 7.1 surround sound setup.  You would need a 7.1 A/V receiver, a powered sub (no the Sonos Sub), and a Sonos Connect to utilize all of the speakers.    Alternatively, you could get a Connect:Amp and use the front two as stereo.  However, since all the wiring is already done for you and hidden away, an A/V receiver and a powered sub with a Sonos Connect would be the way I'd go.

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