Contributor I

Answered

Sonos Beam Optical input no longer working

58 replies
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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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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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Lyricist III

No. It had to have PCM output over the optical

Lyricist III

I m too confused, thought the Toslink is the PCM output over optical.

please help me pick one converter on amazon.au

thanks for help

Lyricist III

What is that a photo of ? What device

Lyricist III

that photo is from previous reply, i got that from amazon.

Lyricist III

Ok. But it’s not showing it supports PMC out of the Optical Port. So it will not work.

Just search for analog to digital optical with PMC support.

Lyricist I

@Rhodie114
I had been using a random ADC off Amazon to connect the 3.5mm out of my PC to a Ray also. It was working fine until a few days ago when I went into the app to ungroup speakers and was forced to do the update. The only time I really use their app is to ungroup speakers, which was much easier in the old version.

Someone mentioned on another thread that they were able to get this ADC to work with the new update: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CJXNDLMW

I gave it a shot, and it does work now. Apparently, whatever they did with the update made it so that it no longer work with SPDIF signals, and it now requires PCM, which this ADC supports.

Lyricist III

Correct. PCM is the key.

Lyricist I

How about a bluetooth to optical adapter with PCM support? I tested this one Amazon.com: KAIY Bluetooth 5.3 Receiver for Home Stereo, Low Latency & HD Music Audio Bluetooth to RCA Adapter for Stereo/Speakers/Wired Speakers/Home Music Streaming Stereo System, Support Optical AUX 3.5mm : Electronics and it didn’t work. Detected the optical signal but no actual audio output.

Lyricist III

I don’t see where it does PCM support but on a Bluetooth adapter that’s not a converter it may need a PCM signal in to give a PCM out. you need a converter that will take any audio and make it PCM

Lyricist III

so the latest firmware update fix the problem, its working again and I have 2 adapter now 😂

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