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Question

Sonos Beam Optical input no longer working

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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57 replies

W

Great news,

I will give mine a try tomorrow 

cheers

W

Great news,

I will give mine a try tomorrow 

cheers

And just like that it is now working the way it has been for over 12 months with the optical converter 

thank you Sonos 😊

E

The converter I added the link for will 100% work as it has PCM output.  Same as a TV.  

I still just can’t get mine to work 😓. I bought the exact piece off amazon you linked, have the adapter powered with it connected with my line out port. Going the other way, the adapter is digital audio out to HDMI converter to HDMI to Beam. 

 

I have a “Realtek USB Audio” output show up when I do this, but nothing plays out of it. Any suggestions?

E

The converter I added the link for will 100% work as it has PCM output.  Same as a TV.  

I still just can’t get mine to work 😓. I bought the exact piece off amazon you linked, have the adapter powered with it connected with my line out port. Going the other way, the adapter is digital audio out to HDMI converter to HDMI to Beam. 

 

I have a “Realtek USB Audio” output show up when I do this, but nothing plays out of it. Any suggestions?

Just kidding! Reset the Beam in the app, and setup with optical output! :D

R

yeah, the SPDIF input on all Sonos products is complete and utter garbage since whatever update they pushed a couple of months ago. I had zero problems whatsoever setting up multiple devices using optical audio.  then one day they all started acting up, coincidentally coinciding with the last major "feature" update.  holy wow the new version of the app is trash.

 

finally got it working? don't f***ing touch it, ever.  the best advice I can offer is to recall your youth, trying to get an NES cartridge to work - you just gotta unplug and plug it until the stupid device decides to recognize the input.  

 

 

MOD NOTE: POST EDITED TO MEET COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

H

For real,  I've stopped automatic updates for the speakers as I've managed to get them back to how they were for me "pre- update,  pre-app fiasco"

Not going to let them update until I'm forced to. 

J

I’m still having this exact issue with my Playbar. Just started 2 days ago. Anybody have any solves for this?

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