I’ve had a Sonos Beam for several years, hooked up to a system to allow me to play output from my computer. This required a bit of tinkering to get right! I had to:Buy a device that converts USB → SPDIF Get a SPDIF → HDMI converter Connect all that up so that I had USB → SPDIF → HDMI → HDMI into the BeamSince getting that sorted it has worked great! Until yesterday, when suddenly I could no longer get any audio through this setup :(. In all other respects the Beam works fine - I can connect to it through the app and play audio that way, and it correctly makes noises when I press the buttons.Things I’ve tried to fix the problem:Unplug and replug all of the various connections Reboot computer Reboot Beam Fiddle around with the audio output settings from my computer (as far as I can tell they are all fine) Rotate the HDMI-HDMI cableI’m pretty sure that everything is fine as far as the USB->SPDIF converter, because you don’t have an optical cable plugged in you can see the red light that the converter sends down the the SPDIF out. And nothing has happened recently that would explain why the rest of the cabling has stopped working. So I was wondering if perhaps there has been a firmware update of some kind for the Beam that might have broken this.Anyone have any ideas what the cause might be, and what I could try to fix it?

Contributor I

Answered

Sonos Beam Optical input no longer working

58 replies
4892 views

I’ve had a Sonos Beam for several years, hooked up to a system to allow me to play output from my computer. This required a bit of tinkering to get right! I had to:

Buy a device that converts USB → SPDIF
Get a SPDIF → HDMI converter
Connect all that up so that I had USB → SPDIF → HDMI → HDMI into the Beam

Since getting that sorted it has worked great! Until yesterday, when suddenly I could no longer get any audio through this setup :(. In all other respects the Beam works fine - I can connect to it through the app and play audio that way, and it correctly makes noises when I press the buttons.

Things I’ve tried to fix the problem:

Unplug and replug all of the various connections
Reboot computer
Reboot Beam
Fiddle around with the audio output settings from my computer (as far as I can tell they are all fine)
Rotate the HDMI-HDMI cable

I’m pretty sure that everything is fine as far as the USB->SPDIF converter, because you don’t have an optical cable plugged in you can see the red light that the converter sends down the the SPDIF out. And nothing has happened recently that would explain why the rest of the cabling has stopped working. So I was wondering if perhaps there has been a firmware update of some kind for the Beam that might have broken this.

Anyone have any ideas what the cause might be, and what I could try to fix it?

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Corry PAnswer

Sonos Staff

Hi @BoredTrevor et al

In case anyone has not tried this functionality in a while, all Sonos products should now be able to play from an optical input.

If you are still having this problem, please ensure your Sonos system is up to date: Settings icon » Manage » System Updates » Check for Updates

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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C

Cheapo

Lyricist III

Hour and a half later for support to just tell me “you’re lucky it used to work for years before the app update, but it was not due to the app update that caused it not to work. its an unsupported connection and it shouldnt work”

Like thanks guys. Real helpful.

Then I tried to use my Era 100 USB C to Line in adapter just for fun to see if I could route it that way. Doesnt even detect a line in anymore. Well done Sonos.

S

SmallhillCZ

Trending Lyricist I

How is it not because of the update if it worked before and doesn’t work now? 🤦‍♀️

They told me the same with PC, but they actually have PC gaming as a featured use case on their website.

C

Cheapo

Lyricist III

Right. Its 100% the update to the app or the speaker firmware. Either way I’m out of ideas and have no idea around this. Other than a Sonos Connect, which I’ve heard has quite a bit of latency

D

DanDS

Lyricist II

Yea, it’s annoying that they say that because the source isn’t a TV specifically that it isn’t supported and shouldn’t work for optical in. What if my source was a receiver used to process multiple inputs? I just don’t get it, audio over optical is audio over optical be it from a computer, TV, or receiver.

I can literally plug the end of my optical cable coming from say the computer into an external headphone DAC and it’ll play fine, unplug it from the DAC and into the Sonos without stopping playback and get nothing. It refuses to acknowledge input.

W

Woodrock

Contributor I

Right. It’s 100% the update to the app or the speaker firmware. Either way I’m out of ideas and have no idea around this. Other than a Sonos Connect, which I’ve heard has quite a bit of latency

im using an old ZP-80 that has an analog in and optical out then into the Sonos optical to HDMI adapter and it works a treat, no latency at all you can adjust the audio delay.

if you look around you can pick up the old ZP-80 cheap.

S

SmallhillCZ

Trending Lyricist I

Yea, it’s annoying that they say that because the source isn’t a TV specifically that it isn’t supported and shouldn’t work for optical in. What if my source was a receiver used to process multiple inputs? I just don’t get it, audio over optical is audio over optical be it from a computer, TV, or receiver.

They say the same thing with Sonos Ray, for which they specifically mention PC optical connection on their website as one of the options. It looks more like lost all their engineers, something broke, they don’t know what and how to fix it and PR tries to cover up with nonsense.

C

Cheapo

Lyricist III

Right. It’s 100% the update to the app or the speaker firmware. Either way I’m out of ideas and have no idea around this. Other than a Sonos Connect, which I’ve heard has quite a bit of latency

im using an old ZP-80 that has an analog in and optical out then into the Sonos optical to HDMI adapter and it works a treat, no latency at all you can adjust the audio delay.

if you look around you can pick up the old ZP-80 cheap.

Do you use it for DJing? No latency at all? might have to look into this.

W

Woodrock

Contributor I

Right. It’s 100% the update to the app or the speaker firmware. Either way I’m out of ideas and have no idea around this. Other than a Sonos Connect, which I’ve heard has quite a bit of latency

im using an old ZP-80 that has an analog in and optical out then into the Sonos optical to HDMI adapter and it works a treat, no latency at all you can adjust the audio delay.

if you look around you can pick up the old ZP-80 cheap.

Do you use it for DJing? No latency at all? might have to look into this.

no I don’t but I use it to get sound from my old Pioneer Kuro, audio is in perfect sync with my picture. You can go in and alter the delay time if the ZP-80 which gets it in sync

A

Addis

Contributor I

Can you reverse the update ?

A

average_customer

Lyricist II

Hello,

same setup here, however I can use it, but only for half an hour to an hour at most. After this time, the sound is distorted and the only option left is to restart Beam gen 2. And so it goes again every time. Previously it worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, I live in a country where the device is sold, but there is no support in my language. I'm very disappointed.

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