Skip to main content

Hi,

I just moved, and need to put my existing SONOS system back together, I also have some legacy equipment that I’d like to include.  (Most of this was incorporated previously, but everything is jumbled around into different rooms because the sizes and layout of the new house are different.)

Specifically, I want to include a CD player, receiver, and legacy speakers. (I know; CD players are so 20th century. All my CDs have been ripped to my computer, and I play them from there. But I have a wife who will never figure out how to run the SONOS system from her phone. She also likes to use the receiver for the amazingly old-fashioned purpose of tuning into over-the-air radio, especially NPR.)  It seems that the right configuration is

  CD Player  (RCA)=>  SONOS Port  (RCA)=>  Receiver  =>  Speakers

It’s clear to me that this works to play physical CDs into any part of the SONOS system. However, it also seems that to play other SONOS music through the legacy speakers, I have to either use a separate remote or physically walk over to the receiver to turn it on. Is that correct? Or can I configure things so the receiver automatically plays the SONOS Port output when I add that room for output?

Would it work more easily to skip the receiver entirely and configure things as

  CD Player (RCA)=> SONOS Amp => Speakers ??

Maybe I can get my wife to stream radio off the internet through the SONOS system and live with the CD player….

Thanks,

  Kevin

It’s clear to me that this works to play physical CDs into any part of the SONOS system. However, it also seems that to play other SONOS music through the legacy speakers, I have to either use a separate remote or physically walk over to the receiver to turn it on. Is that correct? Or can I configure things so the receiver automatically plays the SONOS Port output when I add that room for output?

 

 

The answer depends on what receiver you have.  The Port has a 12V trigger that can send a signal to your receiver to turn on/off when needed, but your receiver has to be compatible with that feature.  There are also some receivers that can sense when audio is coming in on an input, and will automatically come off standby mode to play the audio. Unlikely your receiver has this though.  There are also some Onkyo/Pioneer recievers that have a  ‘works with Sonos’ method for doing this.  So it depends.

 

Would it work more easily to skip the receiver entirely and configure things as

  CD Player (RCA)=> SONOS Amp => Speakers ??

 

That would work just fine, but I can’t speculate whether it would pass WAF (Wife Approval Factor).

One arrangement would be to wire PORT to your receiver as if PORT is a traditional cassette deck. Your wife could play the Tuner and CD as usual and you would use PORT when you integrate with the SONOS system. At times you may run into a time delay issue when playing the CD player through the receiver and SONOS, but if your receiver has a TAPE MONITOR feature, you can eliminate the delay. However, I doubt that you will bump into this because you will probably not be using the CD player and we already know that your wife will not use SONOS.

Thanks. The receiver is a Denon AVR-X2000, which (as you suspected) doesn’t have a 12V trigger input. But I am hunting through the 220-page manual and there is a section on “input mode” whose description includes “Automatically detect input signal and perform playback”.  I’ll have to test it to see if it that works, since it also says that “input modes available for selection may vary depending on the input source”. 

See page 145. I’m not sure how well this will work for you because a cable box is typically always ON.

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings