TCL S405 connection to Sonos Play AMP

OK, I've just pulled up a picture of the back of this TV.

I don't see any place that you could plug in RCA cables. Unless you connected one to the A/V in. Which wouldn't do anything.

The article I'm looking at ( https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/tcl/c-series-2017-c807) suggests that it has 2 3.5mm (headphone style) jacks.

I see one of them on that picture of the back of the TV, labeled as Audio out, with a picture of a headphone next to it. That would probably be a good place to plug in a 3.5mm to RCA cable. The RCA end would plug in to the analog input on the CONNECT:AMP. I'd be doing all testing using a source other than Roku, although if you are indeed using the headphone jack, I guess it shouldn't make a difference. You won't ever get surround sound through this, since the output you're having to use won't carry anything other than stereo, not to mention the fact that the only Sonos devices that currently can interpret a 5.1 signal are the PLAYBAR and PLAYBASE.

Oh, one more thing to mention....on any analog input to the Sonos ecosystem, there's a minimum of 70ms delay, and it could be more depending on the settings on the line-in. So you may have issues with lip-sync. And there's no way to overcome this delay, other than purchasing one of their speakers with a digital input, i.e. the PLAYBAR or PLAYBASE.

Thanks for the response. Duh, I failed to notice that the RCA on the TV are INPUTS, not outputs. However, I had also been trying the optical out from the TV as well, and using a digital to analog converter, going into the Sonos amp with RCA cables from the converter, should that not work in theory?

In theory, the optical should work, but I would use the headphone jack. The adapters to RCA are rather cheap and you won't have to be concerned about a converter. You should be able to pick one up at your nearest Best Buy, Target, Walmart...wherever.

I'm actually surprised that your TV didn't come with the adapter. A few months ago, I got an Insignia tv with Roku built in...looks a lot like yours...and it threw in the adapter. And yes, it works fine with the connect:amp, but I don't use it because I the delay Airgetlam mentioned was too much for my taste.

Didn't work with the 3.5 mm to RCA cable. Worked perfectly on my last TV. Just plugged in the RCAs to each side, selected line in for the Sonos signal, and all worked fine. The entire TV works around Roku. Guess I'll need to email their support as it has to be something on their end.

There have been a lot of folks who have posted questions about Roku as separate devices, not integrated into TVs. From what I've been able to glean, or perhaps make assumption on, is that the Roku devices have a hard time being restricted to Dolby Digital, instead using Dolby Digital Plus, or maybe DTS, neither of which can be read by the PLAYBAR/PLAYBASE. But I've no idea how that TV is set up, but it was one of the reasons I was suggesting the headphone jack as a source, since I was confident it would be in simple stereo. You may have to turn the TV volume up to some medium level in order to get enough of a line level output to test with the CONNECT:AMP. Once you have confirmed that it works, you can then start adjusting the TV's actual volume, and the line in level.

But I'd be a bit worried about trying to take any output from the digital output. It would most likely be in some surround format, and depending on the digital to analog converter, it's possible it's still passing an unreadable signal through, something non-stereo.

But I do think your instincts are good in emailing their support for additional clarity 🙂

Thanks for the response. Duh, I failed to notice that the RCA on the TV are INPUTS, not outputs. However, I had also been trying the optical out from the TV as well, and using a digital to analog converter, going into the Sonos amp with RCA cables from the converter, should that not work in theory?

I did the same thing. i have a Sharp Roku TV and ran the RCA from the TV to the Sonos and was baffled why it wasn't working ... before this thread and the explanation of the RCA being INPUTs not outputs. I plugged the headphone jack (which is clearly labeled LINE OUT) into the Sonos and it worked.

Now the issue I have is the TV output on the Sonos is not loud at all. I have the sonos volume at full volume and it's not any louder than the lowest volume setting on the TV. If anyone has any thoughts on solutions to that, please post here.

Take a look at your line-in settings for the Connect and see if you can change the volume levels there.

Also, check the output on the headphone jack. I’d assume that it is controlled by the TV’s volume, it should be around 30 to 50 % of max. Try plugging some real headphones in to check.