Question

Sonos Ports in Home Theater?

  • 10 September 2020
  • 12 replies
  • 2102 views
C

I’m considering the switch to sonos, but not sure if it will fit my use case.

I would like to setup a whole home audio system that incorporates some of the existing speakers (the “height” speakers specifically) in my home theatres (2), without having to go through the expensive proprietary systems like Control4.

My question is if sonos ports would work if used between an audio processor (receiver), and dedicated amplifiers via RCA preouts.

Do the ports create a bunch of latency when directly connected via RCA?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

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12 replies

J

Hi.  Sorry, no, I don’t think this will work at all.  Sonos Ports have no role to play in surround sound systems.  You could use a Port as an input to an AV receiver in order to stream stereo music to a conventional surround sound setup, but that’s about it.

Sonos HT systems are pretty much self-contained, with no role for a conventional receiver.  Third party passive speakers can be used with the Sonos Amp, and where the Amp is used to drive the front L & R, a third party powered subwoofer can be used.

So there is a way to incorporate your speakers, but not your receiver, if you want to go down the Sonos whole-home audio route.  But it would use Sonos Amps, not Ports.

C

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply. 
 

I think I may have been a little unclear in my original question.  
I’m not looking for the ports to do any sort of surround processing.
 

For music mode, each of the ports would output audio over rca from a network audio source ie. devices on the network.   This output would feed a power amplifier which then in turn feeds the speakers.  

For home theater mode, they would simply pass through their respective RCA input to the rca outputs on the same port.  
 

I assume a scene would have to be set on the Sonos app to tell each of the ports to output their own rca input.   


Essentially, the rca input on each port would be treated as a separate source within Sonos.

 

My understanding is that the port and the amp are basically the same device, only the amp has an integrated amplifier.   
I already have high end power amplifiers, so I don’t require the amp portion of the device.


if you have a look at the second image above, everything is working as shown without the Sonos ports.  The processor outputs rca for each channel to a dedicated power amplifier.   This is quite common in high end home theaters.   By inserting ports downstream of the processor, and before the amp, it would allow me to choose between the channel leaving the processor, or another network audio source, like my phone.

 

I’m fairly certain that the system will do what I’m proposing, but the question  is if the port introduces any latency when it outputs it’s own input source.   

 

J

Hi.  Yes the Ports would introduce latency.  The analog inputs have designed in latency to produce the buffer needed for multiroom sync.  The Port is not designed for AV applications.

There is no concept of a ‘scene’ in the Sonos app - at least not anything labelled as such.  Semi-permanent groupings can be made of speakers / devices.

I am not sure how you would balance the volumes of the Ports’ outputs 

If you want to play music using Sonos through your system, you could use a single Port as an input to your existing HT setup.  

C

Thanks John, I appreciate the help.  
 

I guess I need to rethink my approach.  
 

There are multi zone amplifiers and complex automation systems that will accomplish what I’m after, but not worth the upfront cost (I was quoted $15K by a local installer).  
 

Thanks again.  

J

I am unclear (and i am sure it is me) what you would gain from your setup by introducing all these Ports.  For HT they would just pass through sound, so would be pointless even with zero latency.

For music sources (e.g Tidal, or locally stored music library) you could play through all the speakers using a single Port.

What is this missing that you want?

What am I missing?!!

C

Ah yes - why use a scalpel when an axe is at hand.  Lol.  
 

What I’m after is low level ambient audio - podcasts, music etc., when working around the house.  

The full home theater system is a bit much for this type of audio.  

I already have in-ceiling speakers in the rest of the house that would tie in nicely to a single port.  They also happen to be almost identical to the height speakers in the home theaters.

I’m currently using heos and Bluetooth to stream to the speakers in the rest of the house, but it doesn’t play nicely with my home theater setups.  
 

Another option would be to install an additional ceiling speaker in each of the rooms with the home theaters, essentially segregating the Sonos system from the home theaters.  

 

 

 

J

I may be misunderstanding the setup, but existing ceiling speakers could be run with one or more Sonos Amps, possibly also impedance matching speaker switch(es).  This could all be synched with the Port for music purposes, provided you can bypass any DSP in the HT that might create latency.

I should say 2 Ports - one per HT

C

Home theater 1 has a mix of a receiver driving some speakers, combined with power amplifiers via balanced interconnects driving the others.  


Home theater 2 utilizes a HT processor and amplifiers for each channel.  
 

Both systems have balanced and rca outputs available to drive each amplifier.  
 

The speakers in the remainder of the house are currently being driven by power amplifiers (7 channel home theater amplifiers to be precise).
Feeding this system is a marantz network audio player which I can connect to using heos or Bluetooth. 
 

Everything is in a rack, so I could easily connect the “whole home” system to each of the home theaters via rca.   
 

What I can’t do with the current setup is bypass the majority of the HT speakers, and just drive the height speakers.   
If the receiver and processor had the ability to map an rca input to a particular speaker, my problems would be solved.  
Unfortunately, both systems treat stereo inputs the same, and send stereo audio to the front L&R and SW.

 

Speaker switches might work, but I don’t want to have to run to the rack to switch sources every time   


 

J

I think I have finally grasped the full nature of the problem now, although I may be kidding myself.

Probably a daft idea, but could you use RCA switches somehow to pull the Ports into play in your original diagrams when you play music, but simply bypass them when in home theatre mode.  

I can see there may be practical difficulties ….

C

That’s certainly an option to have a look at before I start cutting more holes in the ceiling lol.  
 

Thanks again for the chat John.   If I get this sorted, I’ll post the results here.  

J

There has to be an auto-switching RCA switch out there.  There would be no input to the Port, the Port RCA out and the RCA preout would be the inputs to the switch, with the switch output going to the power amp.

I assume the power amps don’t have digital inputs and DACs?

I would certainly be interested to hear the outcome.

C

I hadn’t thought of an automatic rca switch…  that should do exactly what I’m looking to accomplish.  
 

https://canada.newark.com/mcm-custom-audio/50-8396/automatic-two-way-source-selector/dp/29X0259

 

The amps don’t have integrated DACs, just rca and xlr inputs, and rca pass through outputs.  
 

A single port, or even my existing marantz network player combined with these automatic rca source selectors should do the trick!

 

thanks again!!

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