Contributor II

[Feature Request] USB audio support - Era Speakers

28 replies
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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

@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.

Sonos was not designed for use as computer speakers. It's best to use computer speakers as computer speakers.

C

conor8

Trending Lyricist I

Thank you for your input. I am still interested in USB-C audio input.

jgatie

Thank you for your input. I am still interested in USB-C audio input.

You aren't going to get it, and even if you did, it's not going to alleviate the need to buffer the input, so using the Eras for computer speakers is still going to be less than optimal.

ratty

FWIW it’s a mystery to me why Sonos didn’t enable digital USB input from the outset. WiiM has digital aux input into their multiroom system (not to mention AirPlay, Chromecast, and so forth).

Ken_Griffiths

FWIW it’s a mystery to me why Sonos didn’t enable digital USB input from the outset. WiiM has digital aux input into their multiroom system (not to mention AirPlay, Chromecast, and so forth).

Maybe Sonos are saving that digital input for the next gen ‘Port’, aswell as Bluetooth, that was my thinking? I also wonder if they might bring the ‘touch controls’ back to the Port too🤔?

Airgetlam

If they allow a shorter delayed input (USB C), then there would be hell to pay in support for people who use those speakers, and then want to group them with other Sonos speakers….like the current issue that we talk about with home theater ’rooms’ and other Sonos ‘rooms’. I think direct input speakers for computers/DJs just aren’t in Sonos’ plans.

Bruce

Ken_Griffiths

If they allow a shorter delayed input (USB C), then there would be hell to pay in support for people who use those speakers, and then want to group them with other Sonos speakers….like the current issue that we talk about with home theater ’rooms’ and other Sonos ‘rooms’. I think direct input speakers for computers/DJs just aren’t in Sonos’ plans.

Yes, good point, a user would have to ‘group’ rooms, I guess, over the faster 5Ghz connection similar to what we see now with ‘bonded’ HT surrounds, but WiFi mesh systems are certainly improving these things all the time, giving rise to such possibilities.

Airgetlam

Not similar at all. The connection to surrounds is vastly different than the connection between Sonos peer speakers, or that’s my understanding. Sonos would likely have to rewrite much of the codebase to do this kind of thing.

Bruce

Ken_Griffiths

Nearly all my Sonos products are now using a 5Ghz WiFi connection - the exceptions of course, are the main Home Theatre products, Arc, Beam etc. which use the 2.4Ghz band, but even that ‘perhaps’ may change in the future.

C

conor8

Trending Lyricist I

I'm not really sure why everyone is jumping in to debate whether or not this is worth it on Sonos’ behalf. I am a user that would like to see this feature, I think it would be great if others that would like to see this feature as well would add their vote here. If you aren't interested in this feature and aren't a Sonos employee then this thread is not for you.

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