[Feature Request] USB audio support - Era Speakers

S
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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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28 replies

ratty

I’m not asking for anything revolutionarily new here, I’m asking for the existing functionality of USB-C line in but without needing the 3.5mm adapter. This has literally all been coded and handled already.

Actually no. What’s been implemented is a USB master, with the adapter as a slave. Sonos would have to develop a driver for a USB slave to take a feed from, say, a computer.

ratty

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.

Speed is not the issue. Uncongested packet transit times are sub-millisecond either way, 2.4GHz or 5GHz. It’s the jitter -- due to packet queueing/congestion/interference/etc -- which mandates a playout buffer. Shared networks are inherently more susceptible to packet jitter than the dedicated connections used for HT satellites.

Ken_Griffiths

Speed is not the issue. Uncongested packet transit times are sub-millisecond either way, 2.4GHz or 5GHz. It’s the jitter -- due to packet queueing/congestion/interference/etc -- which mandates a playout buffer. Shared networks are inherently more susceptible to packet jitter than the dedicated connections used for HT satellites.

Thanks @ratty, makes sense, I was hoping (wrongly) that a 5Ghz link between the grouped players might mean a much smaller audio buffer and solve lip-sync issues with TV audio & grouped rooms.

Similar thoughts to what @buzz mentions … the USB-C port digital line-in perhaps could be made to work similar to a TV input into Sonos and cater for single/bonded speaker(s) use with a computer, mixing desk, karaoke or PA system, but that speaker ‘cluster’ would I guess be limited in size, but still a useful thing to have from a Sonos sales point of view.

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