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Autoplay Line-In in Home Theater Mode

  • 20 December 2021
  • 5 replies
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Hello! It seems once you connect a Sonos Five to a home theater setup you are no longer able to initiate auto play through line in. This seems like a weird software issue that could be fixed pretty easily. I understand most people hooking up their home theater probably have another place they setup to listen to records but I would love to be able to use my turntable when I’m not watching TV without having to unpair my fives from the home theater group. Any suggestions (beyond buying a port because I know that’s the easiest solution)? 

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Best answer by jgatie 20 December 2021, 23:55

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It’s not a weird software issue that can be fixed easily.  When used as surrounds, the speaker is configured as a 5 GHz only endpoint for the master device (Arc, Beam, Amp).  All audio going into the Five comes from the master device, and in that configuration, no audio can come from the Five to any other speaker(s).  There is simply no way for the buffered 2.4 GHz configuration for music streaming to coexist with this special 5 GHz configuration.  Best suggestion - Use the Fives for music and get One SLs for surrounds.  Fives are overkill for surrounds anyway.  

I think I understand what you’re saying here, but I can’t imagine it’s that simple since I can hook up all the speakers to play the turntable if I’m using my five on it’s own and then sending everything from there.  Also, if I were to send audio line in to the Port, everything should play nicely that way as well.

I get that the fives are overkill for surrounds (though I do notice a difference after using ones in this setup for about a year) but my dining area is set up in the same room within the surround field, so if we’re eating dinner/playing board games I set up the music through the same system and the fives become the mains. It seems like it would be inefficient to add extra speakers coming from the same direction just to achieve this and the ones sound thinner than the fives as mains. 
 

I’m probably just going to leave my turntable set up mostly for show and use this setup just with streaming music. Just wish sonos was more clear about this when I asked support if this setup would work. 

Not sure what support told you, but Sonos makes it clear right here:

 

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4837?language=en_US

Note that Line-In is disabled when Fives or Play:5s are being used as surround speakers in a Sonos home theater.

Wild, yeah that would’ve been nice to know haha. Oh well, I can always send them back worst case. But it’s nice having a few more speakers around anyway. Thanks for the help, should’ve asked here rather than reaching out to the company I guess

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If you are on a budget I can recommend the Ikea Symfonisk speakers as Surrounds too. 

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