Question

New to Sonos

  • 12 June 2017
  • 9 replies
  • 7944 views

I'm looking to buy a pair of Play 5s and a connect. I need the connect because I want to use headphones. I own an Arcam Alpha CD player and Arcam A85 amp and a pair of Sennheisser HD 540 wired headphones.My wired speakers are old and no longer working. I really need to use headphones and my wife is desperate to keep the CD player( and yes I know I can stream the music and don't need it but my Wife wants to be able to play CDs as she hates apps of any sort). So my questions/options are:
1. Can i buy Sennheisser RS 185 Wireless headphones and use these with the connect and play 5s and plug my Arcam Cd player into the connect so my wife can use autoplay to play Cds through the Play 5s?
2. Can I use the Arcam A85 and Arcam CD player with the connect and Play 5s and use the headphone socket on the Arcam A85 with my old Sennheisser HD540 wired headphones as an alternative. Please remember that in each case no conventional wired speakers will be attached to the Arcam amp.

Sorry to be long winded but I want to get this right. Which solution is likely to be best?

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9 replies


2. Can I use the Arcam A85 and Arcam CD player with the connect and Play 5s and use the headphone socket on the Arcam A85 with my old Sennheisser HD540 wired headphones as an alternative. Please remember that in each case no conventional wired speakers will be attached to the Arcam amp.


The above because I don't see any other way to use headphones. The CDP would be wired to the Connect which would be wired to the amp to drive just the headphones. The CDP would play through the 5 via Connect, wirelessly.
Thanks Kumar that's really helpful. So either option above will enable my wife to listen to Cds through either the Connect or via the line in on the Play5s but the Wireless headphones with Connect and Play 5s is not an option and would not work. In option 1 could I use the Wireless headphones to listen to my ripped Cds. Sorry for the confusion but this is all new to me?
The CDP can work with either of the two line in jacks, but no other make of wireless headphones will work with Sonos; they won't be able to "talk" to Sonos.
One thing to check out would be if the wireless headphones come with a base station to which they talk; the station would then get output signals by wire from Connect.
PS: found this: Use line out from Connect and some Sennheiser RS series wireless headphones.
I think it's worth nothing though that your wife will have to use the Sonos app to switch sources (ripped/streaming and line in/CDP), unless you set it up in an unconventional way. There are no external buttons you can press to do this like you could with an conventional receiver or amp.

If that's a deal breaker, then I think you'd have to keep the amp in the mix just as a sort of manual source switcher. So you'd have both the CDP and CONNECT as INPUTS to your amp. Then have the amp output to the line in on one of your PLAY:5s. So the PLAY:5s are always set to line in as the source. Your CONNECT wouldn't do anything other be the source for steaming. Since you aren't using your amp to power speakers anymore, you probably can find a switch to replace it.

Again though, you don't need any of that since Sonos does the 'source switching' find through the app. It's also possible/probably that source switching can be done through voice control with Amazon Alexa/Sonos integration in the near future. So perhaps you can go with a work around until that time.
I think it's worth nothing though that your wife will have to use the Sonos app to switch sources (ripped/streaming and line in/CDP)
Why, if the line in that the CDP is wired to is set to auto play?
I think it's worth nothing though that your wife will have to use the Sonos app to switch sources (ripped/streaming and line in/CDP)
Why, if the line in that the CDP is wired to is set to auto play?


Then I stand corrected, ignore my comments. I was not aware that was feature for line in. I've used autoplay with the tv in on the playbar, but that's it.
Kumar "PS: found this: Use line out from Connect and some Sennheiser RS series wireless headphones."
Kumar your ps suggests that option 1 will work too providing I buy the Rs series wireless headphones. Is that right?
That is correct. Except that the base station for the headphones needs an input that only the Connect can provide from its outputs. The CDP can be wired to any line in jack that is physically convenient, including that of the Connect.