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We’ve got a Beam gen 1 and two Era 100s set up in surround right now. We’ve also got an Audio Technica turntable that could connect to one of the Eras through bluetooth or the line-in, but they are disabled in surround sound mode. The only option seems to be setting up the Eras as a stereo pair *every time* we want to play the turntable and then grouping them back with the beam *every time* we want to watch the TV. It’s such a lot of bother to do this every time, and if we want Trueplay calibration we have to set it up like new *every time*. It’s this or buy a massively expensive Port unit.

Is this really the reality? Am I missing something? Can Sonos not streamline the switch to some degree? At least remember the Trueplay calibrations for each setting? 

Yes, that is the reality, and no, it is not possible to streamline the process. Simply put, the one way ad-hoc direct 5 GHz connection needed for low the latency surrounds requires a reconfiguration of the radios, and since it is one-way from the soundbar to the surrounds, the Bluetooth and Line-In are disabled.  Note:  You do not need to purchase a Port.  Another Era 100 would do the trick, for less expense than the Port.

It maybe easier to just add another Sonos device with line-in instead to your system and use that with your TT.

Such as:

  • Port/Connect (gen2)
  • Amp/Connect:Amp (gen2)
  • Five/Play:5 (gen2)
  • Era-100 (requires additional dongle)
  • Era-300 (requires additional dongle)
  • Sonos Move 2 (requires additional dongle)

A turntable with built-in/external pre-amp can connect to the Line-In which becomes an audio source that you can play to your Beam HT then too. It will save you the bother of unbonding/bonding the surrounds.

Thanks very much, you two. Not the magic solution I was hoping for but another Era is certainly less than a Port. Thanks again!

If you were prepared to forgo the CEC control via the TV and revert to an optical connection you’d then just need:

  • an analog-digital converter to convert the TT signal to optical
  • an optical switch 

Neither need cost very much.

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