AV Receiver into Sonos Connect

[kinobestew123]

I have a Sonos connect and a Yamaha AV receiver in my living room. The Sonos connect outputs into the AV receiver as you would expect so that I can listen to music through the Sonos software. No problems here.

Now then, the connect also has analog inputs so that if you attach something like a CD player, it will make that source available to all the other Sonos speakers in the house...great!

What I would like is to be able to attach an output from the AV receiver to the Sonos connect so that in situations where we're using a different source such as the TV, PS3, CD player or anything else attached to the AV receiver, we can have the sound coming out of the rest of the Sonos speakers in the house.

From reading the AV receiver manual, it seems that because my TV, PS3 and CD player are all connected to the AV receiver using a digital cable (Optical or Coax), the AV receiver won't output the signal from the "out" analog ports.

My only option seems to be to connect my TV, PS3 and CD player using analog cables to the AV receiver so that their signal is output from the "out" analog ports on the AV receiver?

Anyone got any clever ways around this?

 

[lucid]

The analogue connections is the easiest way, though it has to be said that you'll struggle to get analogue out from your TV unless it has a headphone jack or fully wired SCART socket. Just be aware too that SCART only supports the TV tuner audio and not sound from other sources connected direct to the TV.

The problem with trying to use a receivers digital output (if it even has one) is that you can't pick and choose what format the digital signal will be. It will mirror the incoming source signal. That's fine if it's basic PCM digital stereo, but no good if the signal is Dolby Digital or DTS. If that was the case you'd then need a DAC to act as a converter from DD/DTS to analogue stereo. It all starts to get very messy.

The other issue is that a digital out would only be active when the receiver is on. That might not be the most practical solution.

The secondary analogue audio out for Zone 2 is a far more user friendly connection. Presuming that your amp has the Zone 2 facility, then Z2 can be used independently of the main receiver. This even extends to Z2 being on when the main amp zone is switched off. You can also source select independently.

Go with the Zone 2 solution and analogue connections if you have the option. A few leads will be miles cheaper and a lot less hassle.