I have a project with apx 20 Sonos Amps. At some point the "we dont need switching its a budget project" got changed to "of course we want to use the ceiling speakers for TV". Anyhow...we ended up using A-B switches in some rooms. They have dials and often need to be adjusted and they click randomly making the clients think they will blow up....

So...

I thought the Works With Sonos AVR's would be a good solution for this problem. I can put ports with new AVRs in the problem rooms and remove the Sonos Connect Amps from the rack.

What i don't know is how reliable this will be. Sonos Port being "played" should turn the AVR ON and Switch the input. I assume "Pause" turns the AVR off?

Please guide me before i tell them to install an additional pair of speakers in the ceiling for Sonos :D.

Have you considered Autoplay for the TV’s connected to an AMP?

use the new sonos amps. hdmi extender from tv ARC port to rack of amps to its respective amp. no control changes or anything. CEC for volume switching, etc.

I have 7 surround zones with AVR's. Front L&R are AB switched with a Sonos Connect Amp.

I wish i could (but cant) use the new Sonos Amps/ARC so i could ditch the AVRs and A-B switchers. This project has Harmony remotes so reprogramming would take a few minutes in each room.

There are 20 Sonos Connect Amps in the control room. 13 rooms are stereo/audio only. 7 have surround receivers and TV's. Sources are all local connected to AVR. The AB switch switches between the front L&R speakers only.

When you say use autoplay for the TVs connected to an AMP i am not sure what you mean.

If the AVRs all have 12v output triggers, just get simple DPDT relays, but sonos on default side and receivers on trigger and be done. No more sensitivity dials to mess with.

[Link: amazon.com]

This is plan B but also requires an AVR upgrade. The existing AVR's don't have triggers...why we went with the sensing A-B switch.

Currently about 3/4's of the Connects will only work with S1 app while the other 1/4 will work with S2. This causes the clients app to constantly warn him and guests about the upgrade. So we have two issues at this project. The A-B switches and the app nag.

We have a site with three of these using Integra. When you hit play on the linked Sonos player it turns on the receiver and sets the specified input. But stopping or pausing music does NOT turn the receiver off. I get it you wouldnt want it to turn off every time you pause, but they should have something that eventually turns it off. We did have one receiver that would consistently lose connection with the paired Sonos player. Integra could not figure it out.

Where would you get new receivers if you wanted to?

“Works With Sonos” Normally means Onkyo, Integra, and Pioneer. There are none anywhere.

Niles SAS-1 autosense. Hard to find, but they work.

When audio presents to the Sonos Line-In or ARC input, the CONNECT:AMP or AMP will switch to that source. This is known as the “Autoplay” option. If the AVR’s are providing surround sound, this cannot work because you’d need to switch the surround speakers. Note that there is about 75ms latency between Line-In and output from a player. It’s about half that for an ARC input.

Which Harmony are you using? I haven’t played with it, but there is some Sonos compatibility.

With Pioneer / Onkyo / Integra all but shut down until before mid-2021, I'm guessing Sony AVR's would be your main option?

Currently, with CONNECT:AMP’s there is no particular advantage to using S2. I recommend forcing all of the CONNECT:AMP’s to S1, otherwise you’ll have two independent systems in the same house and the user will need to switch Sonos Controllers, depending on the Room.

Another scheme with Harmony would be to control switched outlets that power the speaker relay triggers. This will work around issues associated with signal sensing speaker relays. Note that with this scheme the native receiver remotes would be useless.

Do the AVR’s have USB ports? You could use the USB’s 5V to trigger a relay. Been there done that. I’ve never tried, but you might be able to trigger on an HDMI port’s 5V line.

I had the exact same experience (right down to the random connection loss) with the Sony ZA/ES series AVRs that have the "works with Sonos" feature. Another "feature" I experienced was that on occasion once Sonos was selected, even after being paused, the AVR would not allow navigation away from that source, occasionally totally locking the AVR up until it was hard power cycled.

The Sony's at least have a setting that will shut them off after X amount of time with no input signal but after a client damn near cooked an AVR by unknowingly leaving it on for a few weeks, I stopped trusting it.

How in the world would someone 'damn near cook' an AVR by leaving it on? It wouldn't matter if it was left on 365 days a year, other than the cost of the electricity is used.

Unless you are saying the customer left the AVR on for a few weeks and it was left at full volume playing content. Even then, I would be more worried for the poor speakers.

My disty said they havent seen a sony in months. I think they are all hard to find right now.

This is a seasonal home so its not an emergency situation. Probably wont get to it until next spring.