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Playing vinyl through an Arc Ultra


I am in the process of upgrading my 18-year-old home theater with an Arc Ultra. In the process I’d also like to be able to stream music from my even older B&O Beogram turntable, located in a different room, to the Arc. I know that I have to buy a phono preamp for the turntable and that I can then connect the preamp to any Sonos speaker with a line-in (e.g. the Era 100). But, even after scouring the web, I cannot determine if I will be able to “pair” that single speaker with the Arc such that the signal from the turntable would play on both the Sonos speaker and the Arc. Is that possible?

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11 replies

Airgetlam
  • 42505 replies
  • January 29, 2025

Sonos uses the term ‘group’ in this case, but you can certainly group a Sonos Era 100, as an input device, with a Sonos Arc. 


106rallye
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  • 6123 replies
  • January 29, 2025

You could also choose “line in” as a source for the Arc, and the Era would make no sound.


buzz
  • 23881 replies
  • January 29, 2025

Line-In is simply an audio resource on the network that can be played through any combination of Rooms. Line-In is not automatically played on the unit that physically hosts the input jack. Line-In must be explicitly selected, just like any other source. If you Group the Line-In it will be time aligned in all Rooms.


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 4 replies
  • January 29, 2025

OK, it sounds like my proposed solution would work. Alternatively, it just occurred to me that I might be able to avoid buying a preamp by just leaving my TT connected to the old Nakamichi receiver it’s currently connected to and feed the Era 100 from the line out on that receiver. The advantage of this is that it would also allow me to “Sonos-cast” radio stations from that receiver, if desired. Does anyone see a problem with that alternative?


Pools-3015
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  • Prodigy I
  • 1004 replies
  • January 29, 2025
kallen wrote:

OK, it sounds like my proposed solution would work. Alternatively, it just occurred to me that I might be able to avoid buying a preamp by just leaving my TT connected to the old Nakamichi receiver it’s currently connected to and feed the Era 100 from the line out on that receiver. The advantage of this is that it would also allow me to “Sonos-cast” radio stations from that receiver, if desired. Does anyone see a problem with that alternative?

If you want to go that route, then go with a Port  instead of the Era100. This way you can still have all of the functionality of the old system and route the audio through the Sonos speakers, plus anything you stream form Sonos can also be ported to the old system.


AjTrek1
  • 6557 replies
  • January 29, 2025

You would still need the Sonos proprietary Line-inn Adaptor shown in this link. You would also need an RCA to 3.5mm cable. 

The down side is that you’ll have a volume issue with the wired speakers competing with the Era 100.

BTW...what is the model of the B&O Beogram turntable?

Edit:@Pools-3015 suggestion is a better solution.


buzz
  • 23881 replies
  • January 29, 2025

While using the ERA 100, if you have any speakers connected to the Nakamichi, there will be a 75ms time offset between the passive speakers and any SONOS output when you are playing anything from the Nakamichi through the SONOS system.

If you use PORT, connected as a 3-head cassette deck to the Nakamichi, you can work around the time offset.


AjTrek1
  • 6557 replies
  • January 31, 2025

buzz wrote:

While using the ETA 100, if you have any speakers connected to the Nakamichi, there will be a 75ms time offset between the passive speakers and any SONOS output when you are playing anything from the Nakamichi through the SONOS system.

If you use PORT, connected as a 3-head cassette deck to the Nakamichi, you can work around the time offset.

@buzz 

What is the ETA 100? 😂😂


buzz
  • 23881 replies
  • January 31, 2025

Typo, fixed.


Airgetlam
  • 42505 replies
  • January 31, 2025

I suspect autocorrect, at its finest ;)


  • Author
  • Contributor I
  • 4 replies
  • February 16, 2025

Update: I’ve gone ahead with the TT-to-Nakamichi-to-Era solution and that’s working. Took me a while to figure out that I had to boost the “level” for the lineout on the Nakamichi to “high”, but all is well now.

Thanks to all for your responses!


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