N272 & Sonos and the secret of great comedy - Timing!

Posted by: Steve GTX on 13 October 2015

I use a Sonos Connect to pump music into the kitchen and my workshop, where it's impractical to use much else. The Sonos box has an output and an input.If I use the Sonos as the source, the synchronisation with the other speakers is spot on however........ working on the theory that source is king, if I take the source from the 272 into the input side of the connect, the timing is just out. This creates a small but very annoying echo.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Steve GTX

Have I offended by using the "S" word?

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by NickSeattle
Some tolerate the echo.  I cannot.

Nick
Posted on: 13 October 2015 by David Hendon

Steve I don't think you will have offended! But you need people who know about using Sonos and Naim together to answer and my guess is that most of those are at work and not reading the forum.  Sorry I can't help you but I expect someone will.

 

Apart from the echo, do you hear any improvement feeding from the 272? If not a real improvement then I would suggest to use the Sonos as the source unless you are going to be listening to whatever the 272 is connected to......

 

best

David

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Steve GTX
Originally Posted by NickSeattle:
Some tolerate the echo.  I cannot.

Nick

Can you change the timing?

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by GraemeH
Originally Posted by Steve GTX:
Originally Posted by NickSeattle:
Some tolerate the echo.  I cannot.

Nick

Can you change the timing?

 

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by Steve GTX
Originally Posted by David Hendon:

Steve I don't think you will have offended! But you need people who know about using Sonos and Naim together to answer and my guess is that most of those are at work and not reading the forum.  Sorry I can't help you but I expect someone will.

 

Apart from the echo, do you hear any improvement feeding from the 272? If not a real improvement then I would suggest to use the Sonos as the source unless you are going to be listening to whatever the 272 is connected to......

 

best

David

That's a really good question David but I've not done the comparison.

 

I want to be able to wander from room to room, totally immersed in the music whilst a scantily clad hand maiden feeds me grapes from a golden challis, whilst simultaneously mopping my brow and massaging my shoulders..............Oh sorry, I'm getting carried away.

 

The real answer is that I've got the Naim app on my ipad and it gives me full control of the system and the Sonos app has limitations.

 

Introducing a millisecond or twos delay would cure the problem

 

Steve 

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by NickSeattle
I think the delay is the time it takes Sonos to convert incoming Naim signal to digital.  That is why using Sonos as Source has no delay.  DA and AD conversions can take time; and different systems are difficult to sync to each other.

Nick
Posted on: 13 October 2015 by David Hendon
Originally Posted by NickSeattle:
I think the delay is the time it takes Sonos to convert incoming Naim signal to digital.  That is why using Sonos as Source has no delay. 

Nick

That makes me wonder whether taking a digital feed from the 272 rather than an analogue feed might fix the problem.  But I don't know whether you can input a digital signal into the Sonos unit.

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by trickydickie

You can minimize this by setting the line input to uncompressed.  This appears in the advanced section of settings.

 

I think Sonos by default converts the line in to a compressed (probably MP3 or similar) format and then broadcasts this round the house.  Choosing uncompressed stops this happening and the overhead is less.  

 

It does leave a very small echo, but is quite minimal.

 

Richard

Posted on: 13 October 2015 by ChrisSU

This all sounds a bit 'hit and miss' to me. Maybe a Unitiqute, a Muso and a couple of long Cat5e cables would sort it.