Connect:Amp & Playbar

No, the only units with the 5Ghz wireless which is necessary for 5.1 are the Playbar, SUB, and Play:3. The other models pre-date the 5GHz standard.

Is this still a true statement after the 4.2 update?
This is in the product manual of the Connect Amp as of 11/5/2013.
"
Surround SpeakersYou can easily pair two PLAY:1 or PLAY:3 speakers with a PLAYBAR to function as left and right surround channels in your Sonos surround sound experience. For more information about these products, please review the product guides at www.sonos.com/support.If you have a CONNECT:AMP and speakers, the release of Sonos software update 4.2 makes it possible to configure the CONNECT:AMP for this purpose. (Both the CONNECT:AMP and the PLAYBAR must be wired in this configuration.)"

What I want to know is can it connect the wired sub out of the Connect:Amp to use it as the sub instead of buying the Play:Sub. Would save me a nice chunk of money.

Is this still a true statement after the 4.2 update?
This is in the product manual of the Connect Amp as of 11/5/2013.
"
Surround SpeakersYou can easily pair two PLAY:1 or PLAY:3 speakers with a PLAYBAR to function as left and right surround channels in your Sonos surround sound experience. For more information about these products, please review the product guides at www.sonos.com/support.If you have a CONNECT:AMP and speakers, the release of Sonos software update 4.2 makes it possible to configure the CONNECT:AMP for this purpose. (Both the CONNECT:AMP and the PLAYBAR must be wired in this configuration.)"

What I want to know is can it connect the wired sub out of the Connect:Amp to use it as the sub instead of buying the Play:Sub. Would save me a nice chunk of money.

Jgatie, I think your statement is no longer true. You can use a Connect Amp to drive any 3rd party set of rear speakers as per this article here:
https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answer...

At the moment you need to use a Sonos sub for the .1 but if this feature is implemented:
https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/cr...

Then you could use any 3rd party sub for the .1 i.e. With a Playbar, Connect Amp, 2x 3rd party rear speakers and a 3rd party subwoofer you could setup a 5.1 system.

Ed, you currently can not use a 3rd party subwoofer to create a 5.1 system, however if enough people like this post: https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/creating_5_1_with_non_sonos_subwoofer Then Sonos may implement this feature. I am in a similar situation in that I already have a subwoofer that I would like to pair with the Connect Amp (and Playbar) to create a 5.1 setup but Sonos do not currently offer this feature. Instead they chose to disable the suwoofer output on the Connect Amp when using it to drive 3rd party rear speakers in a 5.1 setup. I am trying to figure out a workaround for this but given that the signal being sent to the Playbar when watching movies is encoded I am not sure how to get another signal to my 3rd party subwoofer that would increase/decrease in volume in-line with the Playbar. I think that Sonos would need to implement this feature in the Connect Amp for it to work seamlessly.

so are we getting an update to use a 3rd party sub any time soon? 

Is this still a true statement after the 4.2 update?
This is in the product manual of the Connect Amp as of 11/5/2013.
"
Surround SpeakersYou can easily pair two PLAY:1 or PLAY:3 speakers with a PLAYBAR to function as left and right surround channels in your Sonos surround sound experience. For more information about these products, please review the product guides at www.sonos.com/support.If you have a CONNECT:AMP and speakers, the release of Sonos software update 4.2 makes it possible to configure the CONNECT:AMP for this purpose. (Both the CONNECT:AMP and the PLAYBAR must be wired in this configuration.)"

What I want to know is can it connect the wired sub out of the Connect:Amp to use it as the sub instead of buying the Play:Sub. Would save me a nice chunk of money.

We need this capability - SONOS please give us the same ability to use an existing Sub the same way you gave us the ability to use a wired CONNECT amp for rear speakers!

so are we getting an update to use a 3rd party sub any time soon? 
would be nice if we did.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.

Is this still a true statement after the 4.2 update?
This is in the product manual of the Connect Amp as of 11/5/2013.
"
Surround SpeakersYou can easily pair two PLAY:1 or PLAY:3 speakers with a PLAYBAR to function as left and right surround channels in your Sonos surround sound experience. For more information about these products, please review the product guides at www.sonos.com/support.If you have a CONNECT:AMP and speakers, the release of Sonos software update 4.2 makes it possible to configure the CONNECT:AMP for this purpose. (Both the CONNECT:AMP and the PLAYBAR must be wired in this configuration.)"

What I want to know is can it connect the wired sub out of the Connect:Amp to use it as the sub instead of buying the Play:Sub. Would save me a nice chunk of money.

agree... based on this have decided to not make purchase of any @sonos gear until this is enabled.  $1500 of sonos players in my amazon cart but won't pull trigger until this happens.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
so ridiculous.  was very close to checking out at amazon w/ $1500+ in sonos gear (playbar, amp, and play1s for 3 bedrooms but will not do it until they make this work.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
thanks for the marketing spiel .... you seem to forget that some of us already over very good subwoofers so don't need to or want to go out and buy another subwoofer no matter how good it is claimed to be.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
I don't disagree that the sonos Subwoofer would be better but @aleks has a point, the connect:amp can take a powered sub when used as a standalone so why not utilises this in a 5.1 setup. Really £599 is a large chunk when you add in the PlayBar and connect:amp (Plus speakers). I have a Yamaha Sub for under £150 that can run from the connect:amp and sounds good enough for me. So @kmjy although I agree with your comments I think sonos should allow a powered subwoofer to be added to the connect:amp in a 5.1 setup, however if someone can say and explain if there are any technical reasons why this can't happen?

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
The technical reason is that the Connect:Amp is a two channel component, which only receives the sound for the surround channels.  It's is impossible to send the third '.1' channel for the sub and the 2 channels of surround to a system that is only able to receive 2 channel stereo..

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
I kind of understand but when I connect my powered sub to my connect:amp (Bathroom) the Base is isolated from the stereo and comes out the sub, what is different that the Base can't be isolated when a connect:amp is used for surround sound?

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
i think what is being implied is that when used as a connect amp there are two channels sent to the amp, the connect amp then splits out the LFE of the two channels and sends it to the sub (if a sub is connected).

To use it as a 2.1 you would need 2.1 channels (3 channels to be sent) to the connect amp,

What I don't get is that the connect amp was already modified to allow it to become the 2 rear channels of a 5.1 setup i.e. somehow it was modified to receive 2 channels of audio that it was not designed to receive. 

Why then can it not be sent the rear two channels and the .1 channel  mixed in as 2 channels and let it the split out the LFE (as it does when it is being used as a connect amp) for the subwoofer?

In this setup it could support the 2 rear channels and the .1 channel of a 5.1 setup.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
Using the Connect:Amp as surrounds was an afterthought, requested well after the Playbar was designed.  So I doubt the Playbar had the circuitry to combine 3 digital signals designed into it at release, and retooling the entire Playbar for a request which yields no financial gain is a little much to ask of any corporation..

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
Yeh I get that but like you can't see why the same doesn't apply for the SS setup

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
😞

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
If it is not possible to do it then it is not possible to do it, however I am sure it would be possible to either:

a) release a new connect amp that does the leg work
b) release a new sonos playbar that does the leg work

or if it's all about making more money rather than supporting the existing user base:

c) release a new cheap device that does the leg work e.g. £50-ish

PS: (Jgatie) You use the word "doubt" in your response .... I am still not entirely convinced that it is impossible to do this, it seems more like Sonos just aren't interested.

yes it would. I currently have my sonos gear up for sale. I can't spend another $600 just to have bass. That's ridiculous.
Clarity, thanks @Chris

In order for the Connect:Amp to work there would need to be a new version of the Connect:Amp.  We have no idea when Sonos will release the next version but I would expect the next version to have the capability you want...if they release one.The current connect:amp came out long before the playbar.  It doesn't have the proper wifi bandwidth to sync to the Playbar (thus the need to hard wire it) and it doesn't have a direct LFE pass through (the LFE is derived from the internal crossover) so it can't pass the .1 signal to the subwoofer output.This is not about making money it is the fact that Connect:Amp doesn't have the proper circuitry because when it came out the Playbar was not close to development.  The fact that the Connect:Amp can be used for surrounds is the exact opposite (Sonos responded to those not wanting to buy 3's or 1's and use their existing Connect:Amp to power surround speakers ... and Sonos delivered with a firmware update).

So do you reckon the connect: amp would work if both the playbar and the connect: amp were wired into wireless extenders on the same network or, less preferably, powerline networking of some sort?

For me its not going to be easy to directly wire the two together directly or via a switch and impossible to wire them directly to the router.