Sonos amp with Rotel ra-01 pre out

I see you have a Connect as well; that affords you the opportunity of using the excellent Rotel to also drive its own speakers wired to its speaker terminals. Wire the tape out of the Rotel to the input of the Connect and the outputs of the Connect to the tape in on the Rotel. With the Rotel set to Tape, instead of source, the speakers wired to the Rotel will be in perfect sync with those Sonos speakers that get their signal from the Connect.

This allows for the music to be played in more parts of the home, and the Rotel is then more than just an expensive switch.

Thanks Kumar really appreciate your excellent responses.

Will convince the wife we now need some nice tannoys.

Good idea; I used my 02 version that is identical, except it has a remote control, for many years since the time I bought it in 2004. It now continues to serve just as well as new at my daughter’s home for many years as well. Rotel have excellent design+build quality at affordable price points and the RA 01/02 are keepers.

And passive speakers are excellent value these days too, leaving aside the huge Tannoys! It is more an issue of how much space you have for the speakers, especially if you score some great buys in the used market.

So I managed to get it all working using Tape Out. When using Pre Out it was distorting, even with the Source Level on the lowest setting. This must be something to do with the Pre Out signal from the Rotel. I also found the Phone Preamp connected to the Aux In to be better quality.

Thanks again for all the advice.

While this is possible, it is also possible that the phono preamp is delivering a higher voltage signal and therefore sounding louder than the TT direct to Rotel route. Even slightly louder always sounds better which is why the first thing to do when comparing sound quality is to match sound - not volume knob - levels as well as possible. If this is indeed the case, the solution is simple, of just bumping up the volume knob a notch or two when using the direct route. 

On the other hand, even once sound levels are matched, the external phono preamp may be delivering better sound quality - in which case the extra box is justified.