If I purchase a pair of Sonos Era 100 speakers, can I cast Plexamp to it with the same features as playing it through the phone? Like volume levelling, sweet fades, gapless playback on albums etc.
I ask this because when I cast to my Nvidia Shield it plays without these features.
I intend to buy an iPad as a dedicated remote for Plexamp so I can just navigate to what I want to play in the Plexamp app and it come out of the Sonos speakers.
Thanks
No, Plexamp casting to Sonos via the native Sonos/Plex integration won’t have the features of Plexamp…
However because the Era has line-in, you can pick up a raspberry pi (or similar), and use headless Plexamp to the Sonos, and it works really well, including all of the Plexamp features you already know and love.
This is similar to what I do for my home audio (except I’ve got line-in via a Sonos Port).
I have a similar setup (Sonos Five with a headless Plexamp). Works great!
I’ve got an iPad set up that always controls that headless Plexamp in the app, it works quite seamless.
I’ve also set up a remote (like this IKEA one) via Home Assistant.
edit: set it up after writing this post, didn’t know it was already possible to control Plexamp via the HA Plex integration.
I’ve heard of Rasberry Pi but I don’t know much about it and I don’t have a Sonos speaker anymore so I’m unsure how it would work.
Would one Rasberry Pi work with two speakers set up as stereo?
I would like to add speakers to each room around the house eventually, I presume I would need a Pi for each room?
Do you operate from the Sonos App so you can control multiple rooms at the same time or do you select the Rasberry Pi with the cast button in the Plexamp app, which I guess would limit it to one Rasberry Pi playing at the same time?
I didn’t know you could get a remote like that I will look into that thanks
Sonos works like this: anything sent to line-in on one sonos-device can be forwarded to any other sonos device. Used to do this for Airplay back in the day with an Apple AirPort Express before when sonos did not support it. Now my daughter connected her Vinyl player to Sonos like this, and we can play on any sonos speaker throughout the house (or all).
Awesome thanks. That just leaves me wondering do you control the music using the Plexamp app or Sonos app?
I hoped I would be able to use Plexamp. I imagined it working like this where you can use any app to airplay to multiple sonos speakers
If you set it up with a raspberry pi running Plexamp, you’ll control playback in the Plexamp app, and speaker grouping in the Sonos app, if that makes sense.
It works nicely, you can set a default group of speakers to play to in the Sonos app, and modify the grouping on the fly if you wish.
In my house, the Pi is connected to a Sonos Port in the living room, and plays by default to my Arc/Sub/Fives grouped in a home-theatre setup. I’ve got speakers in my bedroom, office, and kitchen that can all be grouped together, too.
You can AirPlay from Plexamp/iOS or Plexamp/macOS to a Sonos speaker.
You can then use Sonos to group multiple speakers, or you could (not recommended) AirPlay simultaneously to multiple speakers.
But Plexamp only supports Airplay v1, which really demands a perfect network. For many of us, it works OK. For others it’s somewhat less reliable. If you have a wired Sonos device it can be helpful to Airplay to that one.
The decapitated Raspberry Pi solution is perfectly reliable and has really nice ergonomics with Plexamp. A disadvantage to headless Plexamp is that you don’t get “now playing” info in Sonos apps.
While researching I think I’m going to go for a pair of Sonos Fives to start. So then all I need is a Sonos line in adapter and a Rasberry Pi. Is there anything else?
How much is a Rasberry Pi if I’m just using it for Plexamp? When I search the prices vary.
Seems to be about $55-65 for an RPi4 at the moment. https://rpilocator.com/
Then you need an audio out device of some kind, the DAC2Pro costs about $45 bucks, or get one of the clones.
https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac2-pro/
Then I would recommend shielded RCA cables between the RPi and the Sonos.
Do you have an old phone or tablet lying around? That’s another popular way to run Plexamp, and it’s a good way to get a feel for the remote Plexamp experience.
Since learning about headless Plexamp I installed it on my Nvidia Shield and it works perfect for personal use, but I can only use my own account. I would like to use a guest account so no one can accidentally edit playlists etc.
I would like to have speakers around the house so I’ll invest in a Pi and Sonos speakers in the future. Thanks for all your help
FYI:
I wanted to share another way I’ve been experimenting with to play Plexamp on Sonos, without having to buy another line-in device. I’ve done this by forwarding the Plexamp output as a local radio station, and connecting Sonos to it via the TuneIn source.
There’s about 4 seconds latency when changing tracks (1sec in radio, 2-3 in Sonos). For my usecase, that’s perfectly fine.
I’ve set up a server (can be Raspberry Pi, or anything else). Here I did the following:
I understand this is quite niche and don’t recommend it as easiest or best solution, but I wanted to share it here in case it’s useful for anyone.
For my use case where I want a “background radio” playing with a large playlist that shuffles, while benefiting from volume normalization and sweet fades, it’s perfect and avoids me having to spend on a new Sonos Line-in device.
This is awesome. I looked into starting a radio station but it seems a bit too much of a commitment but this would be a great way to test with a few people. The way I currently have it set up the quality is perfect and I can control Plexamp instantly but I will definitely look into this. It would be nice to switch it on and just see what’s playing like a radio. Thanks
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
