Hi,
Client has 4 x B&O amplified active speakers in his set up. Front L/R and Rear L/R.
He wants to add a Beam or ARC, but will the 2 x Ports FL/R and RL/R) if all WIRED by Ethernet cable through a gigabit switch connection run the front & rear speakers active speakers and work as 5.1 or full for music?
If not, is the alternative to get him to throw away his several thousand euro B&O speakers and add Play 1’s?
Cheers
Hi. No, there is no chance of that working I'm afraid. Ports are not designed to be used in Sonos HT systems.
What does your client want to achieve in adding a Sonos sound bar? What problem are you trying to address? Without some idea of that it is impossible to say what a suitable alternative might be.
Hi John,
currently the client has a Yamaha AV amp with NO ARC on output running the B&O amplified active speakers via pre out.
it’s very clumsy and not easy to use. One remote for tv, one for amp etc.
He rents the house and no one can operate it.
we plan to install a Smart Samsung TV which could actually control the Yamaha connected to tv via optical but it’s still pretty messy and he wants to streamline things.
with the old Sonos pre amps we could do this but seems Sonos are missing a trick as we have quite a lot of clients with B&O active speakers (sold by others) and they are not keen to chuck them out.
Very pricey, but so were their speakers... It will power up/down the speakers and do sound processing with no sync worries. (A new B&O “Harmony” really is very nice, though it must be freestanding and not installed into an existing on-wall niche.)
If you really want to use Sonos gear, I think you can install 2xSonos Amp and 2x Russound ADP or Xantech SLLC speaker-to-line-level converters. The front AMP takes HDMI ARC from the TV and the rear Amp gets its channels via the front one. Kind of a waste amplifying the signal then reducing it only to have the speakers amplify it again. But that’s the price of fashion. At least you can eliminate one remote control..
The only wrinkle might be the Samsung-to-Sonos turning off eARC, see the thread:
If you use the AMP and level shifters, don’t strap the AMP’s speaker ground terminals together. On the positive side, it is likely that a cable box voice remote can control the whole mess, but not the TV’s Apps. This is probably also possible with a newer receiver that supports eARC. Before committing to this arrangement, I recommend testing with a loaner unit because there can be some annoying CEC “features”.
Are there any other input devices, such as AppleTV, ROKU, Blu-ray?
Can the TV remote control cable channels?
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