Is there any reason that you can't use a CONNECT as the rear surround channels with a PlayBar system? I'm wondering if there a technical reason that Sonos doesn't support this or if it's a product decision.
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Hi Michael , Welcome to the community!
It's to do with timing and synchronization, because we can't control or be aware of what the output of the connect is connected to we have no idea what latency (delay) is introduced whilst the signal passes through the third party amplifier / Hifi and therefore can't compensate for it. Whereas with the connect amp we are still in control of the signal chain all the way through to the analogue signal that is being passed to the speakers and can therefore keep it synchronized with the other speakers and the picture. The synchronization is much more important with a picture source, as the transmission of the audio needs to keep up with the picture as we can't delay the picture.
Hope this makes sense.
It's to do with timing and synchronization, because we can't control or be aware of what the output of the connect is connected to we have no idea what latency (delay) is introduced whilst the signal passes through the third party amplifier / Hifi and therefore can't compensate for it. Whereas with the connect amp we are still in control of the signal chain all the way through to the analogue signal that is being passed to the speakers and can therefore keep it synchronized with the other speakers and the picture. The synchronization is much more important with a picture source, as the transmission of the audio needs to keep up with the picture as we can't delay the picture.
Hope this makes sense.
Thanks for the answer, and it does make sense but it would be nice to allow the user to determine if latency is an issue. If I use the analog outputs of the CONNECT connected to an analog amplifier, there won't be any latency issues. Connecting analog output to an amplifier that does digital processing, or using the digital outputs could possibly introduce latency however Sonos doesn't know that, it would be up to the user to configure their system to not introduce latency (if possible) or not use the CONNECT if that's not possible. But I suppose that my use case falls into the 1% category and most people are perfectly happy using Play:1 or CONNECT:AMP for surrounds. I am building a hybrid system for my living room where the PlayBar / Sonos sub / CONNECT:AMP (driving ceiling speakers) are used for casual listening and viewing, and for serious audio, routing the video through my Denon receiver and having that drive the mains, center channel, surround speakers and a Velodyne subwoofer. If I could have used CONNECT for surrounds and fed that to the Denon, I wouldn't have to build an automated speaker switch for the surrounds. But, I'm an engineer and I like building things 😉
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