Contributor I

Answered

Ace TV Audio Swap for Amp, Playbar, and Playbase

22 replies
2322 views

I have seen that the Sonos Ace headphones will have TV Audio Swap at launch for the Arc and will have updates to add that same functionality for the Beam Gen 1 and 2 and the Ray. Is there any reason that the Amp, Playbar, and Playbase would be excluded from that functionality? I’d understand if it was about Dolby Atmos and limited to just the Arc soundbar, but with the Beam and Ray soundbars not being true Dolby Atmos either, I’m wondering if the Amp, Playbar, and Playbase would also be considered for future functionality.

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @lathamspeas

The older components are already pegged at close to their full capacity - they are simply incapable of doing the extra work that supporting Ace would require. Parts of the process are proprietary, so I can’t go into a lot of detail, but the soundbar involved is responsible for downmixing to binaural stereo while also encoding for virtual surround, and then arranging the spatial head-tracking adjustments too. It’s all very processor intensive - although Ray is smaller and cheaper than Playbar was, a decade is a long time in computing power advancement versus cost. Ray was also developed at the same time as Ace, so it makes sense that they were planned for one another.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

V

Vincent0

Lyricist III

+1 @sonos please add support for Amp

V

Vincent0

Lyricist III

Hmm, sorry, this was not supposed to become an answer to the question… Only tried adding weight to the question. I reported my message to Sonos to remove it as “answer”.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @lathamspeas

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Please note, however, that neither Playbar nor Playbase have the CPU or memory resources needed to support Ace. Amp I don’t have word on, but I will let you know once I find out. I suspect it is the same for Amp, though.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

V

Vincent0

Lyricist III

Thanks @Corry P . That gives some insight in the why of the no-support. It still would be an definitive buy of Ace for me if it would be Amp compatible (i understand it won't be Atmos). Now i'm not sure.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @lathamspeas & @Vincent0

I heard back - Amp does not have the resources to support Ace, so support for it will not be on the way. TV Audio Swap will be supported by Arc, Beam (both versions) and Ray only (and only by Arc at Ace’s product launch, the rest “soon”).

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

L

lathamspeasAuthor

Contributor I

@Corry P , Forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but how can a Playbar, Playbase, or Amp connect to and communicate with two surround speakers and a subwoofer but is unable to connect to a single set of headphones?

I’m surprised the entry level Ray has some sort of resource capability that the others do not when it comes to communicating with a pair of headphones in this way.

In the same line of thought, how can the Play 5, Era 100 and 300 communicate with another speaker and subwoofer for line-in audio but not with a single pair of headphones?

jgatie

@Corry P , Forgive me if this is an ignorant question, but how can a Playbar, Playbase, or Amp connect to and communicate with two surround speakers and a subwoofer but is unable to connect to a single set of headphones?

I’m surprised the entry level Ray has some sort of resource capability that the others do not when it comes to communicating with a pair of headphones in this way.

In the same line of thought, how can the Play 5, Era 100 and 300 communicate with another speaker and subwoofer for line-in audio but not with a single pair of headphones?

I have no inside knowledge, but it could be simple as bandwidth capability. A sub and surrounds are 3 channels total. To send 5.1 (never mind Atmos) to the Ace is 6 channels, double the bandwidth (and the front L/C/R are almost always a denser signal than the surrounds and sub). And remember, all this data has to be low latency to synch with the video, which requires less transmission errors, so the cleaner the bandwidth, the better.

L

lathamspeasAuthor

Contributor I

@jgatie I’m not assuming Atmos, as the Ray doesn’t have Atmos capability either, but even stereo sound shouldn’t be that much bandwidth compared to a sub and 2 surround speakers.
It just seems like an excuse to get people to buy their newer speakers for this functionality rather than using the capability of their older speakers, so now someone with a Playbar might consider buying a pair of headphones AND a new soundbar.

I’m just trying to understand if there is truly something I’m not understanding about the hardware here that would cause these limitations, but at present it doesn’t seem like that should be the case.

jgatie

@jgatie I’m not assuming Atmos, as the Ray doesn’t have Atmos capability either, but even stereo sound shouldn’t be that much bandwidth compared to a sub and 2 surround speakers.
It just seems like an excuse to get people to buy their newer speakers for this functionality rather than using the capability of their older speakers, so now someone with a Playbar might consider buying a pair of headphones AND a new soundbar.

I’m just trying to understand if there is truly something I’m not understanding about the hardware here that would cause these limitations, but at present it doesn’t seem like that should be the case.

Sonos has no history of not allowing older devices access to newer functions in order to sell new units. Alexa/Google support went back to the original ZP units from 2005, well over a decade old when Alex/Google Asst. were released. Playbar surrounds went back to the Play:3 (the first Sonos unit to have the 5 GHz radio required). Sonos even jury rigged the ZP100 to be used as surrounds by hardwire. Airplay 2 was released for all devices that could use it, including the original Beam. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

L

lathamspeasAuthor

Contributor I

@jgatie fair enough, even bringing the Playbar/Playbase over to S2 shows the continued support of older speakers, which perhaps is why this particular case seems strange to me. At present I just don't seem to understand how the surround/sub communication support differs wildly from the headphone communication, which is why I’m asking here about it.

Show more replies

Sign up

Login to the community