Line-In Latency/Delay Disable PLAY:5

Having this same issue and am confounded by the response. I DJ and discovered the latency issue across the entire Sonos range. Sonos Amp, Sonos Play Five. The latency completely throws off my mixing. Fast cuts? Forget about it. 

I understand the need for the delay if we are synchronizing multiple Sonos devices wirelessly. But for basic single line in on the Sonos Amp or Play Five? That is completely unnecessary, unexpected and had I know, I would never have bought these devices. 

Sonos seems to be ignoring this.

Sonos has never been suitable for DJ use, or PA use, or other “live” analog sources, and that is not likely to change.

That’s a real shame. They are missing a large pain point and market expansion opportunity. Additionally, the website advertising which has pictures of turntables everywhere in the marketing makes people believe otherwise about the use for DJs. One would think seeing a line input on the Amp or Sonos Five that it would behave just like any other line input without a delay. 

One would also think that buyers of an expensive multiroom speakers system would invest in a little more research than the pictures on the Sonos website (that show turntables but should not show DJ set ups) but or acting on what one would think when seeing a line input. Yes, the 70ms delay is a disadvantage in some use cases, but it is not a hidden fact and plausible seeing the multiroom system.

Thanks for your condescending reply; does that line of response net you many friends? When 99% of consumers see a line input on a device, they don’t immediately run for the FAQ to find out if there is or isn’t a delay on said line input. They just expect it to work like any other line input. Sonos doesn’t advertise that fact on the product box or anywhere obvious, so we all get to “discover” this in real time after buying it. I found a great solution though by putting my Sonos device on Craigslist. 

I did not mean to be condescending. I’m just very surprised when people do not read up on stuff before they buy.

Thanks for acknowledging that. Most persons lives are busy enough that they tend not to read every detail about a product, particularly a feature of a product that works in a particular manner in their experience. When someone views a line-in, they do not necessarily ask themselves “does it work like other line-ins” because in their experience, there is a specific pattern for line inputs. They rarely have delays. Clearly Sonos wants to do the right thing, clearly they want as much marketshare and customers as possible. They can either add functionality such that when there is a line input and there are not other Sonos speakers in the network, the delay is 0. Or they can adjust their marketing materials to simply note the delay more upfront and then customers like myself won’t be surprised or caught off guard with what is otherwise a first class experience.

Yes! The bypass is really needed when you want to use the system for beat mixing records or watching movies. At that point any speaker connected should play audio directly! I don’t care at any sync issue of others speakers, as I need to sync my record to the beat or watch an movie in lipsync… strange that this is not implemented. Feels broken now, and can’t recommend Sonos to anyone that uses it for these setups...

please fix this

 

just want to add my voice of support for a feature to remove the latency in an ungrouped / local mode

yes this is a scope-creep request- it isn’t how sonos was designed

i have a playbar, sub, two play:1 surrounds, and a play:5… and they work quite well as a connected home theater

but i also play electric guitar with a boss kitana mk2 amp that doesn’t have looping hardware, and an external rc-500 loop station that i would love to be able to throw into the play:5.  it would save having to buy yet another bulky non-sonos speaker or upgrade the whole guitar amp- and could be done with a basic software patch

i’m an electrical & computer engineer so i understand the sync issue and a product manager by trade and yes it’s a questionable call to prioritize building and supporting it

but there’s a big community of passionate hackers and musicians that would benefit from sonos understanding and making a fairly small edit

hopefully folks will continue to post their use-cases here so (1)some people can search and find that the delay won’t work for their particular need before they buy, and (2) maybe sonos will pay attention and decide solving for this community should be in their company DNA

rock on

Great that Sonos has seen this issue and replied in this thread. However, the articles provided do not provide any solution to the problem presented here. 

I would like to connect my Play 5 (Gen 2) via Line-In to another system - a Naim Atom that is already connected to speakers but can also connect via RCA. If there was no delay on the Play 5, this would mean that the Play 5/5 (and its older, almost redundant brother the Gen 1) could have further use in third party set ups (not to mention all those listed above).