Just bought a play 5 because it has the line in input but when I connect it it my TV the quality is very bad, particularly for speech, sounds like bubbles. I tried the settings as per the support page but no improvements, any ideas

Line In poor quality play 5 2nd Gen

Hi. Where are you taking the output from on the TV please? Headphone socket? Optical + DAC?

Bear in mind that Sonos only makes one product that's really intended for TV sound - the Playbar. Even so it should not be really bad.

Is the Play:5 OK with non-line-in sources? Or another line-in source like your phone (as a test)?

Hi, thanks for your reply. I am taking the output from the headphone socket as this worked wel with an older cheaper speaker but I am trying to build a Sonos network at home slowly. It not great with other sources I.e phone or iPad either but a little better than with the TV. It sounds great over the network/WiFi.

Try switching the Play 5 input to compressed

No improvement with compressed

Do you have another cable to try. If all line in sources are poor quality sound then a faulty cable or line in socket on the P:5 might be the problem. The sound really shouldn't be poor.

Try two things, different cable which is slightly thicker so should be better quality and no different. Also connected a creative lab speaker (D200) to same TV output and sound is perfect. Does this mean the Play 5 line in is not a true Aux input?

No but it may indicate a hardware fault on the Play:5 unit you have.

I don't usually use line in but just put my phone through a Play5 gen 2 and sounded great.

Ok thanks, I have a call in with Sonos support so may need to wait and see what they come back with. The shop said they would take it back if the problem couldn't be resolved.

Hi, this is the response I got from SONOS which I wasn't expecting "Use the RCA connection on the PLAY:5 Gen 2 let you transmit the audio of your TV on your Sonos system; however, when this happens there's an audio conversion from analogic to digital that causes high lags and audio interruptions (because the conversion requires a certain time). That's why this kind of configuration is not recommended."

Just a note to add on that quote, the only audio interruptions that you might experience would be if you were sending the audio from the speaker with the line-in to another Sonos speaker. If it's just going to that same PLAY:5, you shouldn't hear any audio interruptions. I'll take a look at the ticket for you, but make sure you let them know that it's interruptions on the same speaker with the input, not a different one.

Thanks, I never mentioned a second speaker just TV to Play5 in my original query.

Given that you judged the audio quality very poor with other input devices and a replacement cable, a faulty line in socket still looks quite likely to me.

Possibly, but wanted to give Sonos tech support an opertunity to comment if it should or shouldn't work as I have configured it then I know whether to ask for a new one or ask for money back. I have advise tech support again of setup as per Ryan S suggestion.

Hi Ryan. Something i have never been totally sure of and maybe you can clarify please? When a line in plays through the device with the line in does the analogue go straight through, or does it go analogue - digital - analogue.

My money, for vsrious reasons, is that there is an ADC followed by a DAC, but please let me know if right or wrong.

But if correct then it strikes me as odd that the support email said ADC inherently problematic.

Ok, where do I start, very bizarre. I went back to the shop and got a replacement Sonos Play 5. The first things I tested was the Line In after the setup and it worked fine with the TV input, it sounded great and I thought I had the problem fixed. I then went through the true play setup for maximum quality and tried playing songs through Spotify but it has a problem recognising the new speaker on Spotify directly but plays ok through Sonos app when I select the same speaker. I left that problem and went back to try out the TV Line In input again and I am back to the original problem of poor sound which was working at he start. I'm not sure what's happened or if the true play process/procedure has changed things?????

Maybe you should try another source besides your TV to rule out problems with the TV. Connect your phone or tablet for example. Also you can disable TruePlay to check, if the sound quality is anyhow related to it.

Tried alternative sources and cable etc. with Sonos support with the first speaker. I just powered down the speaker and plugged it back in and it seems to be working ok now. So not sure if the TruePlay affects the Line In when you run it. I am relucant to run TruePlay again to find out now that it's working. I had already tried disabling the TruePlay first before powering down and it didn't help. Powering off and on also resolve the Spotify issue I mentioned in my last post.

Hi Ryan. Something i have never been totally sure of and maybe you can clarify please? When a line in plays through the device with the line in does the analogue go straight through, or does it go analogue - digital - analogue.

My money, for vsrious reasons, is that there is an ADC followed by a DAC, but please let me know if right or wrong.

But if correct then it strikes me as odd that the support email said ADC inherently problematic.

The line-in goes through that ADC first so it's ready to be sent wherever it needs to go. If you're just playing on the one room, it still goes to digital and then converted for playback. There's a slight delay on playback also, mostly set aside for buffering to send to other devices. The line-in conversions are almost immediate.

That's an odd one Plops. If you want to look into this with the team at any point we'd love to investigate it with you. It'd be best to do it over the phone whenever you have a chance to work on it.

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