multi room in same room (ARC AMP)

  • 16 September 2023
  • 16 replies
  • 225 views
B

Hello,

 

I currently don’t have sonos system and i am watching for the best system for my needs so i read about each systems..

 

i have a room to watch the TV, in this room (if i go with sonos) i will put:

  • ARC
  • 2x ERA 100 as surround
  • SUB

 

But just behind this « room » i have the dinning room in the same physical room, where i want to put 4x Focal 300 ICW8 speakers (with sonos AMP)

 

During the parties i want to play music from youtube in the whole room, so ARC and AMP grouped

 

I know that with sonos system there is a delay when the ARC HDMI is used as source and when the arc is grouped with another rooms (because speakers directly link to the arc need to be fast and responsive, but for the multiroom it require some latency for perfect synchronisation)

 

So, i am asking if it is possible or not to add a audio delay, to force the audio synchronisation of grouped rooms and loose the video synchronisation?

 

Typically for listening youtube videos from the TV it’s not very important if video is not synced with audio. (chromecast on the TV) (without youtube music)

 

Another question:

  • did we have the delay issue if the bluetooth of era 100 is used as source for the whole grouped soeakers ?
  • is there audio quality loss in bluetooth ? The music is still stereo ?

 

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

16 replies

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

The audio delay is only when a tv source in one room is grouped with another room, and will only be in that other room. For an audio stream, both (all) rooms will play in sync. 

B

Yes i know it, but i want to listen youtube video in the grouped room. (For exemple with arc hdmi from tv)

And as they are in the same physical room, delay is a problem.

 

Thats why i ask if it is possible to add an audio delay to synchronise the grouped speakers

ratty

For parties go into the Arc’s room settings and set TV Dialog Sync to the maximum value (+5), and Group Audio Delay to the minimum value (75ms). It may throw the picture lip-sync off a bit, but for TV audio the Arc will be pretty much in sync with the grouped Amp. Certainly it should be close enough not to matter for the assembled masses. 

Do note that minimising the Group Audio Delay means that the network communications need to be particularly robust, to avoid dropouts. Parties tend to involve bags of water (aka humans) which are rather good at blocking wireless communication, especially at 2.4GHz. 

N
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

In your first post, you said “During the parties i want to play music from youtube in the whole room, so ARC and AMP grouped”. If you add YouTube Music as a service, you can do - synchronised, and hence my reply. 
I don’t have an Amp so I’ll let someone else answer that one. 

B

Yes I understand but i also say *without youtube music*

For youtube music you need to pay each months

B

For parties go into the Arc’s room settings and set TV Dialog Sync to the maximum value (+5), and Group Audio Delay to the minimum value (75ms). It may throw the picture lip-sync off a bit, but for TV audio the Arc will be pretty much in sync with the grouped Amp. Certainly it should be close enough not to matter for the assembled masses. 

Do note that minimising the Group Audio Delay means that the network communications need to be robust, to avoid dropouts. Parties tend to involve bags of water (aka humans) which are rather good at blocking wireless communication, especially at 2.4GHz. 


Thanks,

i’m not sure to understand:

  • This solution make the whole grouped room perfectly synchronised in term of audio?
  • Or this solution « just help a little » by adding some delay to the audio, « but not sure if it is perfectly synced » ?

I think there is no other better solution ?

ratty

For parties go into the Arc’s room settings and set TV Dialog Sync to the maximum value (+5), and Group Audio Delay to the minimum value (75ms). It may throw the picture lip-sync off a bit, but for TV audio the Arc will be pretty much in sync with the grouped Amp. Certainly it should be close enough not to matter for the assembled masses. 

Do note that minimising the Group Audio Delay means that the network communications need to be robust, to avoid dropouts. Parties tend to involve bags of water (aka humans) which are rather good at blocking wireless communication, especially at 2.4GHz. 


Thanks,

i’m not sure to understand:

  • This solution make the whole grouped room perfectly synchronised in term of audio?
  • Or this solution « just help a little » by adding some delay to the audio, « but not sure if it is perfectly synced » ?

I think there is no other better solution ?

 

As @nik9669a has already said, for normal audio streams the group is always perfectly synced. For TV audio through the Arc’s HDMI it is not. As you yourself have noted, this is ‘by design’.

My suggested recipe is the best that can be achieved by manually adjusting a couple of delay parameters on the Arc’s settings. I’ve used this approach in the past, albeit on a Beam/gen2 not an Arc, grouped with a Play:1 pair to supplement the front L/R TV sound (not as bonded surrounds). For speech it sounded slightly odd but for music (concert videos etc) it was ‘good enough’.

One other consideration to bear in mind: sound travels about 1 foot (30cm) in 1 millisecond. So if the other half of the room is, say, 20 feet away then there’s already potentially a 20ms offset even if the speakers were perfectly synced at source. 

B

Ok,

 

What about Bluetooth ?

  • if i play music on the ble of a ERA 100 that is part of home theatrer setup (arc,sub, 2xera100), is it possible to play the music in the home theatrer « room » and sonos amp ?
  • if yes is it synchronised or is there audio delay between « rooms » ?
ratty

Audio input via Bluetooth is handled the same as any other regular audio stream. It will play in sync across the group.

Ken_Griffiths

@Bully357,

Just to also say, that the Bluetooth Rx on an Era-100 (and it’s line-in option) are both disabled when used for surround duty within a Sonos HT setup. So you will not have a Bluetooth connection option based on the setup you mention in your initial post unless you (maybe temporarily) unbond the Era-100 players from the Arc. That in-turn will also mean any Truplay tuning options are set aside for the HT room. So it might be worthwhile adding an additional standalone Era-100 (or other Sonos product with a BT Rx) to the proposed setup just for convenient Bluetooth audio playback to all.

Another (cheaper) option of course, is to add a 3rd-party BT Rx to your Sonos Amp, particularly if you plan to position the Amp in the same physical room.

ratty

Just to also say, that the Bluetooth Rx on an Era-100 (and it’s line-in option) are both disabled when used for surround duty within a Sonos HT setup.

Ah yes. Well spotted. 

B

@Bully357,

Just to also say, that the Bluetooth Rx on an Era-100 (and it’s line-in option) are both disabled when used for surround duty within a Sonos HT setup. So you will not have a Bluetooth connection option based on the setup you mention in your initial post unless you (maybe temporarily) unbond the Era-100 players from the Arc. That in-turn will also mean any Truplay tuning options are set aside for the HT room. So it might be worthwhile adding an additional standalone Era-100 (or other Sonos product with a BT Rx) to the proposed setup just for convenient Bluetooth audio playback to all.

Another (cheaper) option of course, is to add a 3rd-party BT Rx to your Sonos Amp, particularly if you plan to position the Amp in the same physical room.


That’s exactly for this kind of limitations why i ask my questions.

The second solution that you talk about is using the line in of sonos amp to plug a bluetooth receiver ?

If yes: very nice

The line in will also be synchronised between rooms right ?

Thanks you for your response

ratty

The line in will also be synchronised between rooms right ?

 

Correct.

B

And just to be sure:

If i play music in the line in of the sonos amp, i can group with the home theatrer (arc,sub,era’s) and the sound will also go out from all the speakers and sub of « home theatrer » ? (Not only front speakers (arc) of home theatrer group)

 

if yes it’s perfect and my issue is solved.

 

Conclusion

For the « home theatrer »:

  • Sonos ARC
  • Sonos Sub
  • Sonos ERA 100 x2

For the dining room:

  • Sonos AMP
  • Ceiling speakers (focal 300 icw8)
  • Bluetooth receiver plugged in the line in of the sonos amp

When we want to do parties we group « home theatrer » + « dinning room » and we can play sound from youtube with a phone connected to the bluetooth receiver for free, or use samba share for local musics or any online (paid) streaming service compatible with sonos

 

Thanks everybody for help.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

This should work, but I have no experience with a samba share. Maybe others could comment.

Sonos also sells in ceiling speakers, made by Sonance. These have the added bonus that you can use six of them on one Amp. Normal speakers max out at four.
 

Ken_Griffiths

Yes, an SMB share is supported by Sonos. See this link:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/use-a-nas-drive-with-sonos

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings