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Surround setup with Amp & Ones over Airplay or HDMI switch

  • 29 December 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 298 views
J
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  • jgf3
  • Avid Contributor II
  • 6 replies

Hi

I have recently bought an Amp and put together a setup with two front passive speakers and also recycled my existing two Ones as back surround speakers.

I use an AppleTV 4K connected to the TV via HDMI, that provides all the content in this setup. My current TV is very old and does not support ARC, and I don't see much point in springing for the optical adapter. A new TV with ARC will come eventually, but its not a huge priority right now.

I have been using Airplay 2 for a long time to drive the two Ones as a stereo pair for TV watching purposes, and have so far been happy with the results and usability (if only AppleTV could be permanently set to use Airplay 2, it would be perfect).

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that (to the best of my understanding) surround sound also works quite well, over Airplay 2, in this setup. This means I can clearly hear surround effects from all 4 sides of the room. The Apple TV is set to play PLCM and not change audio format.

Is there a way to verify the format of the sound played by the Amp and Ones?

Would you recommend buying a switch to directly connect the AppleTV to the Amp?

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Best answer by jgf3 29 December 2020, 03:05

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5 replies

buzz

Go to Settings → System → About My System, then scroll to AMP. The current audio format will be listed for AMP.

A simple switch will not do the job because you need two outputs, one for the TV and one for AMP, but there are not any current switches that will handle ARC. Arcana can deal with eARC.

Airgetlam

You can check what the Sonos is receiving by opening the controller, going to Settings, then System,  and select ‘About my system’. At the bottom of the area about the Amp, it should indicate what sort of signal it’s receiving. Although I don’t know what it will show for AirPlay 2. That data might be restricted to either the analog or ARC inputs. 

It’s my understanding that Apple will only send a stereo signal to non-Apple devices, I’d be surprised if you came back and said it said Dolby Digital 5.1. My guess would be the Amp is using the normal ‘ambient’ or ‘full’ settings for music to send some signal to the surround speakers, since the input is not coming in through the ARC digital input. 

The only device I’m aware of that would create an ARC signal, rather than just passing one that it is receiving is the HD Fury Arcana, as discussed here. That being said, I’ve never done a Google search or an Amazon search for one, either. And yes, I would absolutely recommend one. Although in your case, I’d get a much more common HDMI switch that has an optical out, rather than searching for one that creates ARC. You could then connect that optical output from the switch to an adapter sold by Sonos that takes optical outputs and switches it to ARC signals. You can see that adapter here.

Bruce
J
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The super speedy replies are much appreciated guys!

I fear that Settings → System → About My System shows just “Audio In:” without any info.

Switching the surround setting from “ambient” to “full” greatly changes the sound, with “ambient” being much closer to a surround experience. “full” just seems to copy the sound to the back speakers.

The “Fury Arcana” does not seems to be a good investment, for this amount of money you can almost buy a new TV :)

My venerable TV does have an optical out though, I guess I could use that instead of a switch, what audio format would the Sonos adapter pass on to the Amp in this case?

Airgetlam

Dolby Digital is what the optical cable and Sonos can handle, assuming the TV is capable of outputting it. There are very few TVs that can’t, but there are some, so it’s worth double checking, especially on older TVs. 

Bruce
J
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Everything works like a charm with the optical adapter. Thanks for the great help!

Now I need to work on the new TV to get a direct HDMI connection.

Do you guys know anything about HDMI 2.1 and Sonos Amp? I understand HDMI 2.1 is needed for better audio than Dolby Digital Plus?

 

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