Contributor II

[Feature Request] USB audio support - Era Speakers

28 replies
732 views

Hi,

Feature Request:

Will it be possible to connect the new Era Speakers to Android, Windows etc. using USB audio instead of Line-In via adapter?

This could result in better audio quality as well as less latency :)

Regards

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jgatie

The latency has nothing to do with any ADC going on. ADC is instantaneous. The latency is to build up the buffer required for reliable multi-room play, and as such is not going away.

Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Siegfried_4

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Whether it is possible or not, I do not know. Keep the ideas coming!

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

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conor8

Trending Lyricist I

Please please please implement this! I'm interested in using a pair of the Era 100 as my full-time desk speakers for my Mac. A direct line in via USB-C would be a game changer. The 3 second delay via AirPlay is not viable for full time use.

106rallye

Airplay should not result in a three second delay.

ratty

AirPlay delay is two seconds.

106rallye

@ratty . Though essentially you agree with me, that’s more than I expected - I do not use Airplay very much.

@conor8 Why would the delay be a problem for you? What’s your use case?

ratty

@conor8 said the use case was desktop speakers with a Mac. I can see how that would be absolutely hopeless with a 2 second delay. Bluetooth might be rather better, at ~200ms, but the lowest delay would be with an analog Line-In via the 3.5mm-USB adapter.

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conor8

Trending Lyricist I

@conor8 Why would the delay be a problem for you? What’s your use case?

Full-time desktop use, including audio production, video editing, etc. Anything like that or playing games makes these very hard to use as desktop speakers. The line-in USB-C adapter could be used but then I’m unnecessarily going from digital to analog back to digital again, only for the Sonos speakers to then convert it back to analog on output. Would be better if a firmware update could be made to keep the audio digital through USB-C input.

106rallye

Using the USB-C also introduces the 75ms lag, that is part of Sonos design, used for syncing with other speakers.

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conor8

Trending Lyricist I

75ms is fine compared to 2-3s.