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BEAM Connection

  • 11 March 2022
  • 4 replies
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Hello,

Is it possible to connect Beam with iMac with a cable Thunderbolt/HDMI ?

How does it works?

Can I have 5.1 from a blu ray with this system?

Thanks 

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Best answer by Airgetlam 12 March 2022, 16:36

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4 replies

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No. The Beam requires either an HDMI-ARC or Toslink (optical) connection, using the HDMI-to-optical adapter.

Thank you. Is there any possibility with an adapter ?

If your Mac has an optical output, you could connect the optical output to the Sonos adapter, and plug the adapter into the Beam. You would then need to restrict both the Mac OS settings, and often each piece of software in use to use a maximum of Dolby Digital, as anything higher than that requires more bandwidth than is available across the optical cable.

At one point, I think there were Macs with an optical output, but none of the ones I currently own have one.
You could, however, throw in an HDMI switch that has an optical output into the mix, and put that into the mix, and achieve the goal. So it would be Mac HDMI to switch, with an optical cable from the switch to the Sonos adapter, which then plugs in to the Beam. You could then also connect another monitor to the HDMI output from the switch, for additional video.

This isn’t a great solution, although it should work. The simple fact is there isn’t a Sonos solution designed for use as computer speakers. Somewhere around these forums is a thread for people who have done something like this, and have made it work. 

In fact, here is that thread: