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Image provided by PaulRBoon in this thread: Beam as computer speaker

At Sonos, we don’t make speakers specifically designed for your computer. However, if you are considering integrating your computer sound into your Sonos system, we want to help you get the most out of your products. With this being said, not all computers are built equal, so your mileage may vary, therefore it’s unfortunately not something Sonos can help or support you with setting up outside the general advice here.

In this article, we are going to be focusing on the best ways to get your computer audio coming through a Sonos Playbar, Playbase, Ray, Beam, Arc, Amp, Move, Roam, Era 100 & Era 300. To get this to work, there are two things to look at: how to connect the products and the settings needed.

 

A quick note on Play:5, Five, Connect:Amp, Amp, Port, Connect, Era 100 & Era 300

While it is possible to use these players with a PC by connecting to their line-in ports (Era models will need the USB-C adaptor), this isn’t a recommended solution if you’re planning on doing something that requires audio/video synchronization. There will be a minimum of a 75ms delay on the audio due to the signal processing performed on the line-in side. If synchronization isn’t an issue for you, you can simply connect the device to your PCs headphone or line out jack like you would a pair of regular headphones.

Roam & Era 100/300

Bluetooth links via these models will experience the same delay, as Bluetooth acts as a virtual line-in and also needs buffered for network play.

Connecting: 

 

Depending on the product you’re trying to connect, the method of connecting it to your computer will be slightly different. I’ll group the products with similar connections together to make things a bit easier to follow.

 

Playbar, Playbase & Ray

These products use a TOSLINK/Optical cable to receive audio, so if you’re looking to use these as PC speakers, your PC must be equipped with an Optical Out port. Most PCs don’t come with these built into the motherboard, though some higher end ones do. In most cases, you’ll likely need to use an internal sound card to provide that connection. Simply use an Optical cable to link your Playbar/Playbase/Ray to the Optical out port on your computer; just like you would to hook it up to a TV.

Playbar - use the Digital audio IN port
Playbase - use the Digital audio IN port
Ray - use the Digital audio IN port

Beam, Arc & Amp

If you’re using a Beam, Arc or Amp as computer speakers, there’s one extra step. You’ll need to make use of the Sonos Optical Audio Adapter that is included with your product (excluding Amp). Most computers send a regular HDMI audio stream over their HDMI ports, whereas these products require an HDMI-ARC audio signal. These are not the same. Unless you are using a TV equipped with HDMI-ARC as your monitor, connecting via HDMI-ARC won’t be possible. If that does apply to you, you can check this FAQ to find out how to set up your Beam, Arc or Amp.

How to use the Sonos Optical Audio Adapter

 

With Amp, you also have the option to use the RCA Line-In ports, though you should be aware that there will be a minimum of 75ms delay due to the signal processing performed on this input. Therefore, it’s generally a better experience to use the HDMI ARC port with the optical adapter.


 

Beam - use the HDMI port with the Optical adapter
Arc - use the HDMI port with the Optical adapter
Amp - use either HDMI or Analog audio in connections

 

Move, Move 2, Roam, Era 100 & Era 300 (Bluetooth)

With Moves, Roam and Eras, things are a lot more simple. Hooking up these products is as easy as switching them over to Bluetooth mode, opening the Bluetooth settings of your PC and selecting them from the list, just like you would to connect a mobile device. We’ll show you how to do this in the next section.

Move - push the Mode button to switch to Bluetooth
Roam - push and hold the power button for 2 seconds to switch to Bluetooth
Era 100 - hold the Bluetooth button until you hear a chime to pair​​​​

 

Era 300 - hold the Bluetooth button until you hear a chime to pair

Note that you only need pair a Sonos device to your PC once - from then on, you can use the computer to reinstate the link. 

Settings:
 

Connecting via optical cable or Sonos Optical Audio Adapter

 

Once you are connected with an optical cable, you may need to perform some steps to get everything running smoothly. It would be almost impossible for us to list specific settings for every sound card or motherboard that has an optical port built in, but we can provide some basic recommendations.

 

Once the optical cable is plugged in, click the speaker icon in the bottom-right corner of your Windows taskbar, then click the speaker name above the volume slider to see if an “Optical” or “Digital” sound output has shown up. If it has, just click to enable it. 

Look in this drop-down list for “Optical” or “Digital” sound output

If the speaker doesn’t show up there, right-click the speaker icon in the taskbar, click Open Sound Settings, Sound Control Panel and then the Playback tab.

Right-click anywhere in the list, then click “Show Disabled Devices.”

 

Make sure “Show Disabled Devices” is checked


Once you’ve done that, a device named “digital output” or “optical output” should show up. Right-click it and click “Enable” to switch it on. Once you’ve done that, right-click it again and click “Set as default device.” You should now have optical audio enabled and be able to listen to your PC audio through your Sonos player. You may need to open your Sonos app and select TV from the browse menu if TV Autoplay isn’t enabled.

If this doesn’t work for you, double-check the cable is properly seated in the optical port (it should have a gentle bump or click when fully inserted), and make sure the latest drivers are installed for your sound card or motherboard’s audio processor. If all this checks out, but you’re still not seeing the options show up, get in touch with the manufacturer of your device for further assistance.




Connecting through Bluetooth


Connecting to Moves, Roam or Eras through Bluetooth is relatively quick and easy. Take a look at the GIF below to see how it’s done in Windows 10. Note: not all desktop PCs have Bluetooth built in, so you may need to use an external adapter/dongle.

On Mac, the process is also fairly straightforward. You can use the same method for connecting to Sonos through Bluetooth, or you can establish an Airplay stream to any Airplay 2 capable speakers. Check out our FAQ on Streaming Airplay audio to Sonos.

 

And that’s it! Once you’re connected in either of these ways you’ll be able to enjoy your PC’s audio on your Sonos player. If you’re using the cabled method you’ll be able to group other wireless players in with your PC connected device and have that audio all around your home, just be aware that the players treat the incoming signal as TV audio, so a strong connection is required between players in order to enjoy uninterrupted sound on a large group.

We love to see what our users do with our products, so if you have your Sonos set up in an interesting way with your computer we’d love to see it! Feel free to post your images in this thread :smile:

Hi @Gutemberg Ribeiro 

Using an optical connection, you should be able to receive Dolby Digital 5.1 (not DD+) or DTS 5.1, assuming your Apple TV is willing to output those formats - I assume you’ll need to specify the output format manually.

I have no experience playing games on Apple devices, but if it’s anything like playing on a PC, compressed format surround options like those I mention above may not be available. Movies/TV shows shouldn’t be a problem.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply @Corry P 

Sorry but my question is around a Mac Studio (a Mac computer just like a Mac mini or a Macbook) and not an Apple TV. The reason I asked is because for the Mac to be able to send DTS/DD it needs to detect the multichannel support on the optical device connected to it on MacOS Audio MIDI and not stereo like this.

 

 I'm trying to make sure the converter used by Sonos report the correct number of speakers (5.1) to MacOS so it can output DD/DTS before I put this new order.

Can you confirm with your team this info please?

Otherwise it won't work with 5.1and will send only stereo. I think the same applies to regular Windows PCs.

So again, in order for this to work properly Sonos adapter must be able to report 5.1, not 2.0 as in both Windows and MacOS screenshots above.

Can you confirm that info please?

Thanks!

This is not how optical works. There is no communication between the source and sink, the Sonos device cannot communicate with your Mac. This is a feature only used by HDMI. The Mac might detect it by checking if an optical cable is connected or there might be some advanced settings somewhere. 

Hi @Gutemberg Ribeiro 

Apologies for mixing up Apple TV and Mac Studio (typing “Apple TV” is just habit at this point), but it doesn’t really change my earlier answer.

What @Outburst said is spot on; SPDIF/TOSLink is one-way communication only. 

My suspicion is that, just like with Windows, your Mac Studio is only willing to output surround sound if the interface does not require compression, i.e. MultiChannel LPCM 5.1 or 7.1 via HDMI. When it comes to the optical connection you are using, any surround format must be pre-prepared (compressed), which effectively means that it is only available with recorded media playback and the Passthrough option on the playback software (not in system settings) must be activated. Creative Labs make a USB soundcard that will compress Dolby Digital in real-time using a hardware encoder (Dolby Digital Live, they call the feature), but it is not compatible with macOS, unfortunately. There may be alternate options available for your Mac Studio, however, including software-only ones.

Just in case you are now thinking of connecting your Beam to your Mac Studio directly with an HDMI cable, that will not work - the Beam must be connected to an HDMI-ARC socket, not an HDMI one. If you do connect via a TV, it will need to be one with eARC support to handle uncompressed MultiChannel LPCM. Whether or not your Mac Studio will be willing to then output surround sound at the system level, I’ll leave for someone who has actually tried it to answer.

I hope this helps.

Thank you both for the replies. Now I understand what is wrong.

In regards to the HDMI @Corry P I understand HDMI and (e)ARC are two different types of signals/protocols and computers (Mac or Windows) are not doing (e)ARC over their HDMI ports.

I could add a HDFury Arcana to get the eARC signal generated for the Sonos devices but that has a weird downside of even that I'm only sending Audio, MacOS (and Windows for that matter) will detect the HDFury Arcana as a display so you can easily "lose" the mouse cursor if you happen to move the mouse on that "non-existent" screen, which is quite annoying. 

Sound Blaster X4 apparently have 7.1/5.1 discrete channels using the SPIDF optical output but I guess this is uncompressed as you mentioned, and the Dolby Digital Live encoding is not available on MacOS:

 

So I guess the only option left is to use the HDFury Arcana and live with the phantom display 😢

If I pick that path, do we have any audio delays using the eARC (assuming ofc the HDFury Arcana doesn't introduce any delays)? Also, assuming the apps can play Atmos (like Apple TV+, Netflix, etc), will it work as expected, right?

Anyway, thank you very much for the replies!

Hi @Gutemberg Ribeiro 

There will be a delay (there is always some delay), but it shouldn’t be long enough to be an annoyance (or even noticeable), though as you rightly mention, it does rely on how long it takes the Arcana to do its part.

Other than the phantom screen you mention, I don’t see any obvious problems with doing this, assuming the Mac lets you output audio to one “display” while piping the video to a different display, that is. It’s possible it won’t, but I don’t know for sure one way or another. My assumption would be that you could just choose where the audio goes.

In short, no promises, I’m afraid.

I hope this helps.

Yeah, it is possible. For MacOS when you add an HDMI display it also add an audio device so you can just pick it from the list:

 

About the delay, yeah, there is always "some". But my options for this is to either use Sonos and keep it as the rest of my house, or get a thunderbolt audio interface and plug powered speakers to it as stereo/2.1. Any interface DSP will have "some" delay anyway to convert the signal should be negligible.

The goals are to be able to (1) watch movies/music in a reasonable way (this is not my main HT, just the home office), (2) play games and (3) eventually make skype/teams/slack calls where the delay isn't noticed.

So if this is doable with Sonos rather prefer use it.

Thanks!

Hi @Gutemberg Ribeiro 

I’m about 98% sure it will work for you, but I just can’t guarantee it.

You are most welcome!

I just received my Line In adapter for my Era100….

 

Anyone reading this thread: You do NOT want to use an Era as a PC speaker unless you:

  • Never watch youtube
  • Never watch Netflix
  • Only ever listen to music

The delay is a LOT more than 75 ms via both bluetooth and the Line In. Via Line In the delay is MUCH greater. So much that watching someone talk or a dialog is painful. Bluetooth is better, but there is a material out-of-sync issue.

 

 

I just received my Line In adapter for my Era100….

 

Anyone reading this thread: You do NOT want to use an Era as a PC speaker unless you:

  • Never watch youtube
  • Never watch Netflix
  • Only ever listen to music

The delay is a LOT more than 75 ms via both bluetooth and the Line In. Via Line In the delay is MUCH greater. So much that watching someone talk or a dialog is painful. Bluetooth is better, but there is a material out-of-sync issue.

 

 

 

The Line-In buffer is adjustable, 75ms is the minimum.  If it is set high, or compression is set to On, it will be longer.

 

 

The Line-In buffer is adjustable, 75ms is the minimum.  If it is set high, or compression is set to On, it will be longer.

 

Ahhhh, yes, now that you suggest it, I see that it defaulted (on my system, anyway) to 2000ms! That is TWO SECONDS!

75ms should be fine, I am going to test it now…  now this seems workable.
 

The default is quite the problem. I had started shopping for a powered speaker to replace what I intended for the Era100…. now it looks like the Era100 has me covered.

(This is a repost)

Hello all - 

I was hoping to use my new Era 100s as computer speakers, clearly I didn’t do enough research.

I now understand how the system works - one line-in supports both speakers, the line-in connects to the other speaker wirelessly. This is the source of the delay problem as I understand it.

What if, for the computer speaker use case, Sonos creates an option to use a line-in on each speaker - R/L from the computer. No wireless sync. Of course, I realize that wireless is the Sonos magic, but two use cases in one - computer and multi-room wireless audio, that would be true magic. Plus, Sonos, you get to sell one more line-in dongle. :)

(This is a repost)

Hello all - 

I was hoping to use my new Era 100s as computer speakers, clearly I didn’t do enough research.

I now understand how the system works - one line-in supports both speakers, the line-in connects to the other speaker wirelessly. This is the source of the delay problem as I understand it.

What if, for the computer speaker use case, Sonos creates an option to use a line-in on each speaker - R/L from the computer. No wireless sync. Of course, I realize that wireless is the Sonos magic, but two use cases in one - computer and multi-room wireless audio, that would be true magic. Plus, Sonos, you get to sell one more line-in dongle. :)

 

Bolded is incorrect.  The delay is to buffer the input for any multi-room use, in addition to a stereo pair, and it is unavoidable.  As to giving an option to not delay, it has been requested for going on 2 decades, to no avail.  I don’t see Sonos adding it now, especially when switching from one to the other in mid-stream would invariably lead to dropouts.  And if you don’t think the very first complaint would be an inability to switch from single use to multi-room without a dropout, you’ve not been around here long.  

Gotcha on the delay. To simplify, I'm proposing that Sonos enables using line in speakers as standard active speakers. So, right line-in plays right signal, left follows the same pattern. This way the speakers work as great, no compromise computer speakers. They also work as great Sonos speakers. Bonus for Sonos, they can sell an additional line-in dongle. I'm envisioning configuration as a toggle that allows the user to ignore stereo paring when using line-in. 

Gotcha on the delay. To simplify, I'm proposing that Sonos enables using line in speakers as standard active speakers. So, right line-in plays right signal, left follows the same pattern. This way the speakers work as great, no compromise computer speakers. They also work as great Sonos speakers. Bonus for Sonos, they can sell an additional line-in dongle. I'm envisioning configuration as a toggle that allows the user to ignore stereo paring when using line-in. 

 

Have you tried connecting the Era 100s to your PC via bluetooth?  You may find that solution works a little better.

 

I am doubtful that Sonos will ever removing the line in delay as you suggest, even as a option.  It’s designed for multiroom audio use and not to be in sync with any video screen.  Sonos has different products for that purpose. And there are unintended consequences from such a feature.

1 - Some users may not understand why there multiroom audio system isn’t playing in perfect sync as advertised.  It will appear as a flaw rather than a feature.  Yes, the issue already exists when playing TV audio, so you could argue this isn’t really a concern.  However, I think people do not group with TV audio that often  and it’s somewhat easier to understand.  People do connect their turntables, 3rd party systems, etc, and expect to use it for multiroom audio.

2 - The feature would encourage a lot of users to forgo an actual Sonos home theatre setup in favor of just using the line-in to play a stereo signal from their TV.  You just want it for your PC, but there is no way to limit the feature to just PC use.

After writing that though, I suppose those consequences are not that severe. Maybe it does make sense from a business perspective.  Regardless, it doesn’t exist now.

As has been stated before, Sonos uses digital amplifiers in all their systems.  Volume control is also digital.  So the conversion to digital and subsequent buffering is unavoidable.  There is no way to get rid of it, it is part and parcel to how Sonos operates.

Hi,

I got a Beam Gen 1 as a speaker for my PC. At the first time it gave me the good experience for streaming from my PC. But recently it started having problems playing the sound. it gives me the sound of the flickering signal. I have checked all the ports on my PC and they are working fine. I don’t know what is the problem here. Does anyone have the same problem?

 

You don’t say if it is an HDMI or optical link to the Beam but in either case I’d suspect a PC or driver issue is the root problem.

You could get it to happen and submit a diagnostic to Sonos then call Support to see if they can identify the issue.

What about the original old speakers such as the Play 1 or Play 3?  Any hope for the original Sonos supporters who believed on your product when it all started? Or have we all been forgotten?  Thanks 

Huh? Those were never described as PC speakers, not intended for such use. Are you expecting a software update to magically add line-in, Bluetooth or digital inputs? You can use those today as you always have been able to, for music or as surrounds.

Trying to use Play 1’s and a Connect as an aggregate device in Mac OS as surrounds with an Apollo X as an interface, but cannot figure out how to set it up

You don’t say if it is an HDMI or optical link to the Beam but in either case I’d suspect a PC or driver issue is the root problem.

You could get it to happen and submit a diagnostic to Sonos then call Support to see if they can identify the issue.

I linked my PC to Beam with optical adapter from Sonos and a soundcard. DO you have any advices?

You don’t say if it is an HDMI or optical link to the Beam but in either case I’d suspect a PC or driver issue is the root problem.

You could get it to happen and submit a diagnostic to Sonos then call Support to see if they can identify the issue.

I linked my PC to Beam with optical adapter from Sonos and a soundcard. DO you have any advices?

Hope to not use HDMI

You don’t say if it is an HDMI or optical link to the Beam but in either case I’d suspect a PC or driver issue is the root problem.

You could get it to happen and submit a diagnostic to Sonos then call Support to see if they can identify the issue.

I linked my PC to Beam with optical adapter from Sonos and a soundcard. DO you have any advices?

Hope to not use HDMI

beam only have HDMI ARC. I use it with optical adapter from Sonos and soundcard.

You don’t say if it is an HDMI or optical link to the Beam but in either case I’d suspect a PC or driver issue is the root problem.

You could get it to happen and submit a diagnostic to Sonos then call Support to see if they can identify the issue.

I linked my PC to Beam with optical adapter from Sonos and a soundcard. DO you have any advices?

Try another audio source with an optical out, maybe a CD player? If it plays without issue the fault is likely in the PC setup.

Hi everyone,

 

I have read all the posts here. But im still confused. I recently got a Ray and want to use it as my PC speaker.

First I used the adapter that come along with my beam gen2, but it's failed (read the post about it and now realized that it won't work).

Right now I have these 2 questions:

1. If I'm going to use converter from 3.5mm AUX to Optical, is it going to be the DAC or the ADC?

2. Someone recommended to me to use digital way, by using USB-DAC. Is it really going to work? How this will work can someone please enlightened me?

 

Thank you guys

Hi @EP87 

If your PC is a desktop PC, it should have an optical port - if so, you just want to connect your Ray directly to this port. Limit the output formats to PCM, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS.

  1. If there is no optical port, however, you will need a 3.5mm to optical converter (and that device will need to be an ADC) assuming you want to use a headphone or line-out 3.5mm socket on the PC. Or...
  2. A USB device that has an optical output would also work, but in this case it would basically be an external soundcard, and you would need to choose the correct sound device in Windows(?) for it to work. This will be (at least in theory) a better option as there is no unnecessary analogue stage, but also potentially more expensive (but should still be very affordable). There would be no DAC or ADC, however - just an external sound “card” with a digital connection straight to your Ray via optical.

I hope this helps.

 

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