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Hello, I wonder if someone could help me understand if my home cinema setup below  could work. 

I have an older projector (infocus sp8600) which i connected to my macbook pro m1 2020 via usbc->hdmi cable. This takes care of the visual only. 

The question is about connecting the Sonos speakers to my macbook pro M1 2020. 

I’m looking two option to buy from Sonos. 


Option A: a Sonos Beam 2nd gen and a Sonos Sub mini.  Can i use airplay to output the sound from my MacBook to the Beam or i need to use a usb-c to hdmi cable with the hdmi optical adapter that comes with the Beam? 

Option B: 2x Era 100 speakers plus a Sub mini. As the Era 100 have Bluetooth i assume i could connect the MacBook to the Era that way? But I’m unsure if i it would work to just connect to one of the Era 100 by bluetooth and the second Era 100 plus the Sub would then pick up the sound from the Era that is connected to the MacBook? Or i could use airplay? Or would need a usbc - > hdmi and hdmi to optical adapter to connect to one of the Era speakers? 

Any help would be appreciated as I’m confused what will work in my setup and how best to connect my MacBook to the Sonos as i don’t have a TV as part of the setup which would create a hdmi arc signal. I

I’m actually not bothered about getting full Dolby Atmos but want decent sound with a setup which involves minimal wiring hence looking at Sonos. 
 

Thank you!

All Sonos soundbars (except the Ray) are looking for an ARC signal, something not created by your MacBook. AirPlay 2 is stereo only to non-Apple products.

Have you read the threads in this area of the forum? 
 

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

Thank you ​@Airgetlam for your response. 

I wasn’t aware of the thread you sent the link. 🙏

I don’t mind to get stereo only as most of the content i watch is not dolby atmos and it’s not crucial for me. I’m looking to get great stereo sound for movies, while the image is displayed by the projector. Hence I’m trying to understand if that would work just through airplay / Bluetooth.

 

 

Thank you ​@Airgetlam for your response. 

I wasn’t aware of the thread you sent the link. 🙏

I don’t mind to get stereo only as most of the content i watch is not dolby atmos and it’s not crucial for me. I’m looking to get great stereo sound for movies, while the image is displayed by the projector. Hence I’m trying to understand if that would work just through airplay / Bluetooth.
 

 

Personally, I think it’s a whole lot of money to only get stereo through Airplay/Bluetooth, which I consider an afterthought to the actual use case of Sonos’ Home Theater devices. 

I’m planning on using the same setup to listen to music etc when not watching so the rest of the time most of the listening will be through Spotify. 
 

I’m planning on using the same setup to listen to music etc when not watching so the rest of the time most of the listening will be through Spotify. 
 

 

My opinion on watching video through a Mac using a Sonos Beam or 2 Era 100s via Airplay/Bluetooth still stands.  Neither are optimum for video, and the Beam isn’t optimum for video or audio. 

​@jgatie thank you for you input. 
May i ask what you would suggest as a better setup? 
 

​@jgatie thank you for you input. 
May i ask what you would suggest as a better setup? 
 

 

A dedicated streamer device and something with an HDMI-ARC output connected to a Sonos soundbar, either via the device itself, or an HDMI-ARC extractor like the HDFury Arcana or Feintech VAX04101.

Or, going the other way, computer speakers connected to the Mac, not trying to force Sonos speakers into use they aren’t designed for. 

​@Airgetlam and ​@jgatie thank you very much for your help with this. 🙏

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