Trueplay for Connect:AMP

Hey there, Gophir. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. I am happy to forward this topic along to the team for consideration and visibility. Thanks for the feedback and keep it coming!

I think you might have a long wait, i'm afraid. It must be a rather different exercise from the Play speakers. There is a huge possible range of speakers, and Sonos does not have complete control over the sound.

I hope I am wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if this never happens.

I would think it is less about the speakers and just about using the phone microphone and tying to an equalizer for the amp. Then, regardless about the speakers or their placement in the room, Trueplay can raise or lower different frequencies to deliver a more neutral response.

It may even be a limitation of the DSP capability of the Connect Amp. Don't also forget the scope to do a lot of tuning by moving the speakers around even just a little.

There are many solutions that do not require controlling the speakers. Representative solutions include D.C.A.C. EX, D.C.A.C. and Advanced D.C.A.C., Audyssey MultEQ, etc. Every retail AV receiver uses one of these solutions to optimize for each of the speakers and the room. They take into account the varying capabilities of each individual speaker, the placement of the speaker and it's relative position to the listener, the acoustics of room, the size of the room (including ceiling height for reflections), and how the speakers interact with each other. At least one solution, D.C.A.C. EX, matches the phase across all the speakers despite any poor wiring by the user. These solutions have been available for many years.

These AV receivers use wired microphones, which is less elegant than using an iPhone. So Sonos should be able to make it work with an even better user experience, which is the hallmark of the Sonos brand.

With Trueplay available for multiple devices, it seems like most of the code is already written. How hard can it be to extend Trueplay to the most expensive audio solution Sonos offers?

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With Trueplay available for multiple devices, it seems like most of the code is already written. How hard can it be to extend Trueplay to the most expensive audio solution Sonos offers?

But is it really the most expensive audio solution? Playbar/base and sub are all far more expensive and play 5 is same price. Really the Connect Amp is a £350 streaming enabler with a £150 amp tacked on. I know it does not help the matter in hand, but personally If I was going to use more traditional speakers with sonos, I’d want a proper amp or av receiver with the features you described paired with a connect to bring Sonos to the party. Not a basic amp. To my mind the connect amp is aimed more the custom install market where there are dozens of in ceiling speakers. I could be wrong though. Having said that assuming the eq is all done in software is there a technical reason it can not be enabled on the connect devices? Is the trueplay analysis done on the iphone app or the Play device? I’m guessing a big part if the issue is that the connect would have no means of adjusting the individual drivers so the result of a left/right truplay would I imagine be limited to eq and not include driver timing (asuming I understood how trulay works on play devices correctly).

Another factor to consider is that Sonos doesn't if the user attached more than one pair of speakers to the amp, possibly even different rooms. These sort of things could be dealt with though by telling the user that Trueplay may not work well under some conditions, and giving the user the ability to reset back to a standard configuration if they don't like the result.

Melvimbe, you raise a good point. But sending a single signal to multiple speakers is a problem that any of the AV receivers would have to manage as well. And the AV receivers still provide these solutions. And you're right, that if the results are in any way unsatisfactory, the user can simply revert back to a flat acoustical setting.

It would be great to hear from the Sonos staff about this. There doesn't appear to be any technical reason as to why Sonos doesn't support their Connect Amp product with Trueplay. And spending $500 (before paying significantly more money to add the necessary speakers for an excellent stereo solution) should earn some support. Particularly when that needed support is already provided for solutions that cost $150 'all in'.

Sonos, how about it?

There doesn't appear to be any technical reason as to why Sonos doesn't support their Connect Amp product with Trueplay.
Only because you elected to ignore Kumar's entirely logical thesis:

It may even be a limitation of the DSP capability of the Connect Amp.

Single-amped setups, driving passive speakers, are crude beasts. EQ capabilities are basic. At least with an active, per-driver, multi-amped speaker Sonos has the opportunity to apply a reasonably fine-grained DRC filter profile.

I’m guessing that there’s also a marketing angle to this. TP being a usp on their speaker rather rather than ability to soend $ elsewhere. If you’re spending significantly more than say the cost of a pair of play 5s to get an ‘audiophile’ experience then using a cheap amp seems somewhat counter intuitive. And I’m not sure the connect/amp is on their product development roadmap as they are what, a decade or more old? Reading the product history pages, seems they changed their whole approach away from the connect model. Indoubt they consider it anywhere near their flagship model, even if the end result is expensive if you add high end speakers. There is an easier way of getting room correction with sonos and 3rd party speakers too. Assuming an AV receiver not part of the mix. Use active speakers with a connect. Better amplification ‘tuned’ to the speakers. Just like Sonos play devices.