Skip to main content

Good morning to you all,
In a nutshell :
Is using from Play-5 local source input but without wifi / internet , possible or not ?

Let me explain:

For one day, I would like to take one or 2 SONOS Play 5 (2nd gen.) from my home to be able to play a ‘virtual organ’, which is an app on my iPad, during an orchestra rehearsal. The iPad is connected to a midi keyboard by a USB cable to avoid any latency. The organist plays on this midi keyboard.

I have a few questions about this project

  1. I'm connecting the stereo headphone output (3.5mm stereo minijack) on my iPad to the local source input on the Sonos play 5. Is this possible without using either Wi-Fi/internet or the Sonos App?
     
  2. If so, am I guaranteed not to add latency by using this local analogue input?
     
  3. Will I be able to adjust the volume using the usual buttons on the Sonos Play 5?
     
  4. Can I also use a cable that sends the left channel audio signal to one Sonos play 5 and the right channel audio signal to the second Sonos play 5?
     

Thank you in advance for any advice based on your experience.
Greetings from Switzerland
Jean-Louis Z

  1. Possibly - if the speaker was set to Line in before. Not sure what the restart caused by moving it to a new location does to this though.
  2. No, you’re not - all Sonos’ analogue connections ad at least 75ms delay (needed for buffering, even if the speaker is not part of a multiroom set up).
  3. Yes. They should not depend on WiFi.
  4. Probably - you might not be able to pair the Play 5’s as a stereo set without WiFi, though a  pre-set pair might survive the disconnection I mentioned under 1, so you could just feed a stereo signal to one speaker.

You could set up a wifi network from the phone that’s not being used for the Sonos app and use that. Problem nr. 2 will still be there, though - and be the reason this, in my opinion, won’t work.

 

Many thanks @106rallye!
For me, your precision of the 75 ms latency still present is reason enough to abandon this particular project.
In fact, I can't ask our organist to make up for this latency in his playing during the orchestra rehearsal.
In such a context, we are obliged to eliminate all the risks associated with a latency in the sound chain, even if 75 ms seems minimal.
The good news is that I know why, so I'm going to look for another solution ;-)
Jean-Louis Z.

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings