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Is it possible to use Beam as a computer speaker with the use of hdmi port?
Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

an Update.

The Beam arrived a day early and i can confirm it sounds amazing, looks excellent, and fits in my own setup seamlessly as a 5.0 computer setup.



For myself, I have invested in Sonos equipement for the whole home/Garden, every major device that outputs Audio is connected and outputs via Sonos and is available through out the whole home except for my PC which is not your normal run of the mill PC but an extremely high spec PC used for Video and Photography retouching, also for the odd game or two.



Upto this point i used to have it connected via a Sonos ConnectAmp, outputing through some old small Cambridge Audio speakers that i Purchased in 1997 and the sound was good but was no where near as good as i would have liked so I stopped using it.



I connected my existing Playbar up as test with two play:1 for surround and was blown away by the difference as you would expect, and whilst it sat perfectly under the three monitors i use (1 x 34 inch curved ultra wide screen Acer x34a in the middle with a Illyama 24inch wide screen monitor in portrait mode on each side) obviously the Playbars size and power was still a little to excessive when your sitting about 1 to 2 feet away from the monitors.



The Beam however is the perfect size, and power output, Movies, videos and music played on the PC sound amazing as expected and Games come alive and are more immersive especially as i have Philips hue lights around the monitors which sync and change colour with the action in game play the same goes with Movies, Now using the Beam i have the sound quality and experience i was looking for, It looks amazing and compliments the whole PC setup, and with Alexa built in whilst not essential is a bonus.
The question is also why would you want to use the beam as a computer speaker it makes almost no sense

Maybe if you use your computer for watching TV or movies (many do) and/or for playing games (many do), and therefore need a low-latency device, but also want the convenience of a single multi-purpose smart speaker or already have a Sonos multi-room setup.



It's a bit of a compromise, but it's a real scenario for some.

I just connected my Sonos Beam to my PC - works like a charm with the Realtek Patch/Unlocker for Dolby Digital 5.1 and optical out on my MSI Mortar Titanium motherboard. The sound if just AMAZING. I’m blown away while gaming 🙂 Thank you Sonos!

 

 

Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup





Thank you for the updates, the info and the pic. This is just what I needed to make sure the Beam is the suitable speaker for my PC.

I will be using it for Music, videos and some movies and as you mentioned it sounds great for all of them.






Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

Looks sweet! Can i ask, is the beam playing all audio from your PC?



If so, how did you set this up?



I have a similar setup but cant get it working. The PC playback device is set to "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)" Is that the same as yours?Well i'm not PaulRBoon (obviously), but i also have the dgx soundcard with the sonos beam, so it shouldn't matter. I'll post a screenshot of my setting in the Audio Center below (It's in german, but shouldn't matter because the menus actually should be the same). Porbably you already checked that, but don't forget to change the setting on your 'sound settings' (if you are using windows). Because my graphic card for example has an adio exit too, so I had to manually change it to the soundcard exit.



Hopefully this will help you



Thanks for the help.

I dont have a sound card, I am hoping to use the motherboard optical out.

Its a MSI z170a M7

- Realtek®️ ALC1150 Codec

- 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio

- Supports S/PDIF output



Does it have to be dolby for the Beam to recognise the signal?



IT DOES! to answer my own question...

All working now, this saved me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcd7tmyR4CA
I'm impressed and jealous. That looks amazing!



Ryan it sounds just as amazing as it looks.

I am looking to do something similar. However I want a TV wall mounted and the beam connected to both the TV and PC so they can be used independently. Would a small spliter work with this. 

Ah okay, sorry i misunderstood. If i'm correct the signal has to be in dolby 2.0, 5.1 or PCM stereo. But i think that should not be the problem in your case. I only know that SONOS defentely can't decode DTS (but it still seems to detect DTS signals). Maybe try to modify the sound settings a bit. But i think i'm too much of an amateur to give you any deep knowledge advise, sorry. I remember I had to update the drivers on my soundcard, maybe that helps with your motherboard as well. I'm sorry that i can't really help you with that. Good luck.
I mounted my Sonos Beam above my Apple Thunderbolt 27 inch display using HTTX female to female optical Toslink digital audio extension cable coupler connector adapter, Wali Universal Soundbar Mount Bracket (SBR201), and Allicaver Wall Mount metal bracket that I picked up on Amazon.



The Sonos Beam connects to a 2013 Mac Pro 6,1 "Trashcan" via the audio out port using the HDMI to optical cable that comes with the Beam. I use the Toslink coupler to extend the cable in order to mount the Beam above the Thunderbolt monitor on the wall.



I also use Soundflower on the Mac to use the volume up / down function keys.



My only complaint is that the Sonos Beam will go to "sleep" after a few minutes if no audio is playing. This gets especially aggravating when trying to watch YouTube videos and you have to wait 2 to 3 seconds for the speaker to wake back up.









So if my motherboard has a optical audio out and I use the included adapter, I will be able to connect the Sonos Beam to my pc without issues?

So if my motherboard has a optical audio out and I use the included adapter, I will be able to connect the Sonos Beam to my pc without issues?


Yes, as long as it is sending DD 2.0 or DD 5.1.

I just connected my Sonos Beam to my PC - works like a charm with the Realtek Patch/Unlocker for Dolby Digital 5.1 and optical out on my MSI Mortar Titanium motherboard. The sound if just AMAZING. I’m blown away while gaming 🙂 Thank you Sonos!

 

 

Looks amazing!

 

im thinking about doing a similar setup, but i wonder: with the placement you have on the play one’s, do you just use them as an extra set of stero speakers in a different “room”, and then group the “rooms” to listen to all speakers? Or are they setup as rears?

 

regards

Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup



Looks sweet! Can i ask, is the beam playing all audio from your PC?



If so, how did you set this up?



I have a similar setup but cant get it working. The PC playback device is set to "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)" Is that the same as yours?

Remember, the Beam plays an HDMI ARC signal, and not an HDMI signal. Most PCs don’t send an HDMI ARC signal, that usually requires a TV’s electronics. You could use an HDMI switch with an optical output though, and connect to the Beam using the optical to HDMI ARC adapter that comes with the Beam.

Thanks, I know that, what I want it's to be able to play say YouTube audio or other non music services from pc to beam, but also have a connection to the TV. So I can listen to stuff on pc without having the TV on. 

So, if you run your PC to the TV, it would work, if you’re sending a Dolby Digital signal. No, a splitter would not work, the PC is not generating an ARC signal. 

Could the pc be wired through optical to spliter and hdmi arc from TV to spliter and the spliter into the beam? Don't want the TV to have to be on when on pc 

Could the pc be wired through optical to spliter and hdmi arc from TV to spliter and the spliter into the beam? Don't want the TV to have to be on when on pc 


No. The TV generates the HDMI-ARC signal, the PC does not and no splitter does (right now).

I just connected my Sonos Beam to my PC - works like a charm with the Realtek Patch/Unlocker for Dolby Digital 5.1 and optical out on my MSI Mortar Titanium motherboard. The sound if just AMAZING. I’m blown away while gaming 🙂 Thank you Sonos!

 

 

Looks amazing!

 

im thinking about doing a similar setup, but i wonder: with the placement you have on the play one’s, do you just use them as an extra set of stero speakers in a different “room”, and then group the “rooms” to listen to all speakers? Or are they setup as rears?

 

regards

Hi there, I use them as an extra set of stereo speakers. So I don’t group the rooms.

Here’s the latest status of my upgraded build:

 





Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

Looks sweet! Can i ask, is the beam playing all audio from your PC?



If so, how did you set this up?



I have a similar setup but cant get it working. The PC playback device is set to "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)" Is that the same as yours?Well i'm not PaulRBoon (obviously), but i also have the dgx soundcard with the sonos beam, so it shouldn't matter. I'll post a screenshot of my setting in the Audio Center below (It's in german, but shouldn't matter because the menus actually should be the same). Porbably you already checked that, but don't forget to change the setting on your 'sound settings' (if you are using windows). Because my graphic card for example has an adio exit too, so I had to manually change it to the soundcard exit.



Hopefully this will help you





Thanks for the help.

I dont have a sound card, I am hoping to use the motherboard optical out.

Its a MSI z170a M7

- Realtek®️ ALC1150 Codec

- 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio

- Supports S/PDIF output



Does it have to be dolby for the Beam to recognise the signal?


Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

Looks sweet! Can i ask, is the beam playing all audio from your PC?



If so, how did you set this up?



I have a similar setup but cant get it working. The PC playback device is set to "Digital Audio (S/PDIF)" Is that the same as yours?



Well i'm not PaulRBoon (obviously), but i also have the dgx soundcard with the sonos beam, so it shouldn't matter. I'll post a screenshot of my setting in the Audio Center below (It's in german, but shouldn't matter because the menus actually should be the same). Porbably you already checked that, but don't forget to change the setting on your 'sound settings' (if you are using windows). Because my graphic card for example has an adio exit too, so I had to manually change it to the soundcard exit.



Hopefully this will help you



No, this probably wouldn't be possible. Most computers just send a regular HDMI audio stream, but the Beam needs an HDMI-ARC audio signal instead. Unfortunately, they're not the same. Unless you have a computer monitor that happens to have HDMI-ARC (none that I know of do), or are using a TV with HDMI-ARC as your monitor, this probably won't be possible. Not to mention that, IMHO, it seems like it would be a bit large sitting on a desk. 🙂
Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

 Are you using HDMI-ARC or optical converter to connect with your sound card? I am having issues getting my ASUS DGX sound card (Windows 10) working with Sonos Beam.



Dunno if you have already solved your problem, but i had the same with the Asus Xonar DGX soundcard. My solution was, that you have to open the Xonar DGX Adio Center and activate SPDIF, due to the fact that you are using a digital signal (optical converter). You do it by checking the box in front of the drop down menu with 'PCM'. I had to restart my PC but after that it worked perfectly fine

(with the settings:

Audio channel: 2 Channels

Sampling frequency: PCM 48 Hz).



Hopefully it's unnessecary and you already solved your problem. But maybe there will be someone elese with the same.
Just thought i would share what the Beam looks like as part of a Computer 5.1 setup

 Are you using HDMI-ARC or optical converter to connect with your sound card? I am having issues getting my ASUS DGX sound card (Windows 10) working with Sonos Beam.
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