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Delay question - Beam (gen 2) set up as PC speakers, with pair of Era 300s as rears

  • 3 April 2024
  • 9 replies
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terriblybritish
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Hi everyone, I recently acquired a Beam (gen 2) that is to be hooked up to a PC set-up as its speaker. I have a pair of Era 300s that I want to link to it as the rears.

 

I bought the Beam to avoid the delay issues that the other Sonos line-in speakers experience, in the context of a gaming/AV use case.

 

The Beam will be connected to my monitor via the HDMI 2.1 connection, with a HDMI 2.1-ready cable, and the monitor connected to the PC tower also via a HDMI 2.1 connection with a HDMI 2.1-ready cable.

 

If relevant, I do have other Sonos products active in the property (2x One SLs, Sub and an Ethernet-connected Arc) - which are currently in their own group in the app.

 

With this in mind, my questions were:

 

1. If I grouped the Beam + 300s in the Sonos app, would the 300s use the 'internal' group network created by the Beam and also share the same zero/near-zero latency the Beam would otherwise have if it was by itself?

 

2. Would there be any confounding issues if the Beam was connected to my router via Ethernet?

 

I may have an incorrect understanding of how some of these elements work, so please feel free to correct me! All I want is that all three speakers are aligned, and have no delay.

 

Many thanks in advance for your input.

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Best answer by Airgetlam 3 April 2024, 06:42

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9 replies

Airgetlam
  1. No. Any ‘grouped’ room with a Sonos soundbar using the (nominally) TV input will be subject to the 75 Ms delay. The Beam is no different in this regard than any other Sonos soundbar. 
     
  2. No, WiFi or Ethernet should make no difference. 
     
  3. The only way to have the Era and the Beam in ‘sync’ for the ARC input is to put them as surrounds to the Beam. While this puts them in the same Sonos ‘room’, and as such, not subject to the latency you’re trying to avoid, they will play ‘surround’ data, and not duplicate the front channels that are carried by the Beam.
Bruce
Airgetlam

Hmmm. Your topic title implies that you do want to use the Era speakers as surrounds. In which case, they’ll work fine with the Beam as bonded ‘surround’ speakers. 

You do need to ensure your PC is sending an ARC signal (not standard HDMI)  to the Beam, and it should be at least a Dolby Digital signal. With merely a stereo signal, you won’t get much activity from the surrounds. 

Bruce
terriblybritish
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Hmmm. Your topic title implies that you do want to use the Era speakers as surrounds. In which case, they’ll work fine with the Beam as bonded ‘surround’ speakers. 

You do need to ensure your PC is sending an ARC signal (not standard HDMI)  to the Beam, and it should be at least a Dolby Digital signal. With merely a stereo signal, you won’t get much activity from the surrounds. 

Thank you Bruce.

When you refer to “bonded surround speakers”, is this simply grouping the speakers in their own group in the Sonos app? Or is there a particular step to achieve this?

Ken_Griffiths

Thank you Bruce.

When you refer to “bonded surround speakers”, is this simply grouping the speakers in their own group in the Sonos app? Or is there a particular step to achieve this?

See this link…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-surround-speakers-to-a-sonos-home-theater

Schlumpf
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@terriblybritish

Take a look here…

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/add-surround-speakers-to-a-sonos-home-theater

EDIT:

Ken won the race… 😉

Ralf
controlav
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Your monitor isn’t likely to have an HDMI-ARC connection, so you’ll need to feed the Beam an optical audio signal. If your PC does not have optical out, a USB S/PDIF adapter will add one at low cost.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
Schlumpf
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

@terriblybritish 

If your multichannel audio output format is max. up to DD5.1, an adapter like @controlav suggested or a hdmi audioextractor with toslink out would be fine. 
But as you are planning to add Era300 as rearspeakers I suppose your intention might be to get Atmos audio. If so, be aware that you will need at least a hdmi ARC or even better hdmi eARC INPUT to connect Beam 2 to. 
Probably your PC won’t support that, so in that case you would need a special hdmi audioextractor like a HD Fury Arcana or a FeinTech VAX04101. 

Ralf
Airgetlam

And don’t forget, there is a whole area dedicated to Sonos’ use as PC speakers:

https://en.community.sonos.com/groups/sonos-products-as-pc-speakers-229137

 

Bruce
terriblybritish
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I love this community. Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

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