Question

Sonos Connect and Bose SoundTouch 300 (Soundbar)

  • 1 January 2018
  • 18 replies
  • 9196 views

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I bought a Bose SoundTouch 300 and didn’t realize you can only connect one device to the SoundTouch. I connected my TV. Is there any solution where I can use my Sonos Connect that doesn’t involve disconnecting my TV and connecting the Sonos Connect via the optical on the Bose SoundTouch?

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18 replies

Not being familiar with the BOSE device, I'm not sure what you're asking. In fact, I'm actually wondering if you shouldn't be posting in a BOSE board, not a Sonos board.

It seems you've connected your TV to the BOSE SoundTouch. Not sure how that connection works. But you want to use a Sonos CONNECT. How do you want to use the CONNECT? What are you planning on pushing through it? Is it an adjunct to the TV? Or is it a music streaming device? What speakers do you want to be playing the streams from the CONNECT on?
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Bose SoundTouch 300 is a soundbar. You can only connect one device to the Soundbar at a time with either an HDMI cable or an optical cable. The Sonos Connect works if I connect it to the Bose soundbar with the optical cable, but then I can’t connect my TV and I want to connect my TV. I thought about connecting my Sonos Connect to my TV and then output the sound through the soundbar like I would do with a Blue Ray, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that. There is a Bluetooth option for the soundbar so maybe there were something I can buy from Sonos make that work with my Sonos Connect. I have all this music on my laptop and would really like to have somewhere to output the music.
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My second to last sentence has some typos. I was wondering if there was a Bluetooth option for the Sonos Connect ?
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I need a recommendation from Sonos not Bose because Bose has clearly stated that you can only connect one device at a time.
Wow. OK, let's try a restate, and you can confirm if I've been able to interpret this correctly.

1) You have some sort of un-named Brand and Model of TV set.
2) Your TV is connected to the BOSE soundbar with an optical cable.
3) The TV's speakers are turned off, all of the sound from the TV comes through the BOSE.
4) You have a CONNECT, and you want to stream music through the BOSE.
5) There isn't another input on the BOSE to connect the CONNECT to.
6) Your music is on your laptop.

So, some questions.

a) What make and model TV set do you have? Does it have an analog input (perhaps labeled Composite - 5 RCA jacks of green, blue, yellow, red and white RCA style?
b) Are you trying to get TV sound into the CONNECT?
c) Do you have any other Sonos speakers that you play sound on?

And at least one answer:

No, Sonos doesn't support Bluetooth on their own. If you wanted to send something to Sonos via bluetooth, you'd need a bluetooth receiver connected to the Analog Input of the CONNECT. Can be done, many people do, just requires another device.
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Thanks for the recap! A couple of updates. I have a Sony XBR65X900E. I’m connecting the TV to the Bose via the HDMI Arc, but there’s an optical option as well.

I used to have Polk 5.1 surround speakers with an Onkyo receiver, but wanted to get rid of all the wires so updated (not sure if was an upgrade) to a Bose soundbar and subwoofer. I just didn’t do enough research so now I’m in a predicament.

To answer your other questions:
1. I have those 5 RCA jacks you mention.
2. I’m not trying to get the TV sound into the CONNECT. I’m not sure how that would happen though because I didn’t think a CONNECT was speaker.
3. I do not have any Sonos speakers.

I could honestly connect my TV somehow to my music on my Mac, but I didn’t want to bail on the Sonos CONNECT since I like the Sonos.
OK, that helps.

If you had other Sonos speakers, getting anything "in" to the CONNECT would allow you to play that data on the other Sonos speakers, since at that point, it would be "inside" the Sonos ecosystem. But, since you don't, it's not a worry. Which helps.

So basically, you're trying to get the Sonos CONNECT to stream the music to the BOSE device. The problem is that you have your TV connected to it with the HDMI ARC cable, and it won't accept the optical connection because the BOSE only allows one connection...either the HDMI or the optical.

Now I'm following you, I think 100%. I've got a potential solution, although it's a little odd and convoluted. Mostly because you're trying to meld two separate companies competing products. :)

My solution requires you to change the BOSE from the HDMI connection to the optical connection. Then, you string a pair of RCA cables from the Analog out on the CONNECT to the red and white RCA connections labeled Component on the back of the TV.

Then when you want to listen to the Sonos stream (any and all of them, from your PC or the internet), you'd have to turn on the TV and switch it to the Component input.

This is pretty ugly, I'll be honest. I wouldn't want my TV to have to be on in order to listen to just music. But the only pther way I can think of to get this to work is for you to replace the BOSE with a Sonos PLAYBAR or PLAYBASE. Or, maybe get rid of the CONNECT, and use BOSE's system to access your music, if that's possible. But using competing companies tech to do stuff together will never be clean or easy.
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I just bought the Bose Soundbar and the subwoofer and have thrown away all the packaging so I’m not buying anything else. 😉

One solution that will work is to disconnect the TV and connect the Sonos CONNECT every time I want to use it. Totally not ideal and messy. I can definitely find another solution without the Sonos CONNECT, but I was hoping for a solution that involves the Sonos CONNECT. Oh well...

Thank you for all of your insight. Note to everyone is if you have a Sonos CONNECT and want to keep using it when you get rid of your amplifier/ receiver, don’t upgrade to a Bose Soundbar.
Yup. If you're going to jump in to one pool, stick with that pool. Don't dabble toes in multiple pools.

Sorry I couldn't come up with a better solution for you.
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P.S. I don’t want to not use the HDMI ARC to connect the TV to the Bose Soundbar.
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Agreed! Thank you again!
P.P.S. Doesn't that restrict you to only the data on that HDMI? What if you connect DVD player or Blu-ray player on another HDMI port on the TV? Does it still carry over to the BOSE?
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Yes. If I connect my Apple TV to the TV via an HDMI cable, the sound comes out of the Bose Soundbar. I tried the messy solution you suggested, but it didn’t work and I gave up. I also was using the HDMI for the TV connection to the Bose as opposed to the optical cable so I’m not sure if that mattered.
Userlevel 5
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Using a Sonos connect only for accessing music on your laptop to me seems overkill.

Other options:

Buy a chromecast and connect to the TV.

Or install on your laptop a dlna software (kodi, plex, wmplayer) and use this to play to your TV via dlna client.
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I kind of agree with you, but I’m not exactly sure what the benefit of the CONNECT is anymore vs. say an Apple TV?
Userlevel 2
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If you're really just looking to get music from your laptop to play through the Bose, why not do it via the Bose's bluetooth or built-in wifi streaming capabilities and phone app? Understand the Bose will only take one (wired) input at a time, but that shouldn't keep you from using its bluetooth and streaming functions. There's really not a clean way for the Connect to fit in this setup and the Bose Soundtouch line is meant to be a Sonos-like product anyway.
I agree with User385289, just use the Soundtouch App already embedded with Bose and sell the Sonos Connect.
If are hard pressed to use the Sonos connect, then buy an analog to HDMI adapter.
https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIV06X5061133&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBizMKPL-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBizMKPL-PC-_-pla-_-Cables+-+HDMI+Cables-_-9SIV06X5061133&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqM3VBRCwARIsAKcekb3d0YJtnnp34-6BszresrkXtBTGynzMj4ZTspsJm5kVuWubEUQvMHAaAvfAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
then plug it into the HDMI input on the soundbar and configure the soundbar button to select the HDMI input. there you go! PROBLEM SOLVED!:$
I agree with User385289, just use the Soundtouch App already embedded with Bose and sell the Sonos Connect.
If are hard pressed to use the Sonos connect, then buy an analog to HDMI adapter.
https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIV06X5061133&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBizMKPL-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBizMKPL-PC-_-pla-_-Cables+-+HDMI+Cables-_-9SIV06X5061133&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqM3VBRCwARIsAKcekb3d0YJtnnp34-6BszresrkXtBTGynzMj4ZTspsJm5kVuWubEUQvMHAaAvfAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
then plug it into the HDMI input on the soundbar and configure the soundbar button to select the HDMI input. there you go! PROBLEM SOLVED!:$


:? Du you even know what the Sonos Connect is?