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Quick question about previous Djing post

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Hi Folks,

There have been plenty of questions regarding DJing with Sonos regarding the 70ms latency. Someone once posted this:

START

”1) If you can get the output of your DJ thingy into the Playbar via it's optical input then the audio would NOT be delayed. If you had 2 Play units bonded as surrounds then they would also play audio not delayed (but the signal would NOT be Dolby Digital 5.1 so they would barely get used.
2) Any other way of getting audio into Sonos - via line in on Connect, Connect:amp or Play 5 would be subject to an audio delay
3) If you GROUPED other Plays to a Playbar and played your DJing via the Playbar the audio played through the GROUPED speakers would be delayed by 70ms.”

FINISH

Is the statement in (1) true and if so can one also plug directly into the optical in of a Beam to achieve the same.

Many thanks

John

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Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi John! Statement 1 is very true. All of the Home Theater Sonos speakers are designed to have minimal latency on the TV audio input. That would be the Beam, Playbar, Playbase, and Amp (note that the Amp has an analog input too, which will have a 75 ms delay since it’s not a TV input). Technically there is a slight delay, but it’s not noticeable when watching TV, trying to sync the video and audio together, so I imagine it’d be similarly unnoticed with DJ applications.

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M

mpsjoe

Lyricist I

Hiya,

I fear you may still have the same problem according to the details in the first post of this thread, although the post I lifted it from doesn’t mention the HDMI so maybe. As such you would have to buy the Flexson convertor and third party optical adaptor I used and (using the same HDMI to optical convertor that comes with the Beam), plug into your amp HDMI. I have no idea if this will work or not. But I can tell you that the Beam and Sonos Ones work a treat and I am stoked. :-)

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I was hoping this would work based on the response from Ryan S to your first post , as highlighted below;

“ Hi John! Statement 1 is very true. All of the Home Theater Sonos speakers are designed to have minimal latency on the TV audio input. That would be the Beam, Playbar, Playbase, and Amp (note that the Amp has an analog input too, which will have a 75 ms delay since it’s not a TV input). “

I would obviously not be using the RCA inputs, but the HDMI input instead.

The reason I initially stumbled across this thread was because I had the idea myself that the HDMI input could not possibly have a significant latency, especially as it is primarily being used as an input for TV audio which should not have latency due to the resulting lip sync issues.

I cannot purchase this from Amazon as they don’t deliver to Australia, but I have found a local distributor selling what looks to be exactly the same product, as below;

https://www.selby.com.au/analog-stereo-rca-to-digital-coax-toslink-audio-converter-acdig.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAx_DwBRAfEiwA3vwZYhv9F40OB0ZgDfwHg_SAgqS87IaxEGNbd_2Ymw7XiBCG0bp1da2hExoC3nYQAvD_BwE

I would also just purchase the Sonos Optical Audio adapter (https://www.sonos.com/en-au/shop/optical-audio-adapter.html), with a HDMI 2.0 lead in between this and my SonosAMP.

Fingers crossed. @Ryan S, what are your thoughts?

Ryan S

Retired Sonos Staff

Assuming that converter from selby doesn’t add any delay, you should be all set. It’s a tricky one to say without having all the pieces, but it’s certainly worth a try. Keep in mind that you’re using two adapters to attempt to make something work that isn’t exactly an intended use. But I think you should be fine.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

Airgetlam

Also, as soon as you add other Sonos speakers in another “room”, they’ll have that delay.

So while you may be fine in the first “room” where you’re connected via HDMI-ARC (and not HDMI!) will be fine, any “grouped” rooms will be delayed.

Bruce

M

mpsjoe

Lyricist I

Also, as soon as you add other Sonos speakers in another “room”, they’ll have that delay.

So while you may be fine in the first “room” where you’re connected via HDMI-ARC (and not HDMI!) will be fine, any “grouped” rooms will be delayed.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I’ll be sure to give this a shot…

@Airgetlam does this means that attempting to use Sonos as a means of distributing the TV audio to other rooms with the TV in sight will incur latency/lip sync issue also?

M

mpsjoe

Lyricist I

Also, as soon as you add other Sonos speakers in another “room”, they’ll have that delay.

So while you may be fine in the first “room” where you’re connected via HDMI-ARC (and not HDMI!) will be fine, any “grouped” rooms will be delayed.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I’ll be sure to give this a shot…

@Airgetlam does this means that attempting to use Sonos as a means of distributing the TV audio to other rooms with the TV in sight will incur latency/lip sync issue also?

For the record, my other room is another SonosAMP with hardwired ceiling speakers, and everything is connected via 1000mbp/s LAN, nothing wireless

Airgetlam

Yes. The way the system works, only the room that contains the TV system will be in sync, so either an Amp or a soundbar, and any bonded surrounds and SUB will be in sync, as they’re all connected on a special 5Ghz connection. As soon as you extend that to the 2.4Ghz network that all other speakers are, the system requires enough time / buffering to allow all data to be played in sync across all the other speakers. So the input from the TV has to be transferred from the local room, to be made available to all other rooms, so you end up paying that extra buffering time. And no, there’s no way around that currently.

The other side of that coin, of course, is when you’re streaming anything that’s not coming in from the HDMI input, but instead from the internet, all of the speakers, including the “TV room”, will all be in sync. It’s only the analog inputs that pay that delay, or the extension of the HMDI input from that room to any others that also pay.

And it’s easy to think that because I used 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz to point at it being a wireless problem. but it’s the way the Sonos system was designed, whether wireless or wired. Either way, you pay for that buffering, so that all music can be played in sync.

If you spend any time reading through this forum, you’ll see a multitude of people who want direct pass through, i.e. not to pay for the analog input delay, or the ability to have the TV input in sync across multiple rooms. So far, there’s been no indication that Sonos is interested in rewriting the entire method that underpins their “all music in sync in all rooms’ backbone, which predate the introduction by many years of their TV speakers.

Bruce

Airgetlam

I’m trying to be polite, but honestly, if you’re DJ’ing, the Sonos is not a great system to use. You’re really trying to force a use case that the system is absolutely not designed for. You can see many threads about this, and other threads where people want to use it as a PA style system for weddings, etc. Without exception, there’s negativity from all respondents.

Bruce

J

Jonpaul31Author

Trending Lyricist I

I’m trying to be polite, but honestly, if you’re DJ’ing, the Sonos is not a great system to use. You’re really trying to force a use case that the system is absolutely not designed for. You can see many threads about this, and other threads where people want to use it as a PA style system for weddings, etc. Without exception, there’s negativity from all respondents.

Yes I have seen these also, although the setup I describe works absolutely perfectly. But I can see how other setups would have a negative result.

good luck @mpsjoe

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