I just did the same thing. Now my crisp sounding studio monitors are wireless. Now all my speakers in my house can play at once in sync. Really awesome!
For anyone wanting to do this, look into Hi/Low converters. You basically just clamp/solder it into the +/- wires on the speaker, and it steals the signal from there. That way you can STILL use this speaker AND run another amplifier + speakers on the same signal.
Interesting idea, just a word of warning - the big capacitors on the main PCB can give you a nasty shock if you've recently unplugged the speaker from the mains, so just be careful if you want to attempt yourself
1М resistor will fix that for less than few cents if you're not careful enough. Like me when I built my first tube amp and I shocked myself several times building the power supply
Thanks for a helpful video, just did the same and the sound is awesome. I used a TRS 3.5mm female output and connected it to Logitech G560 gaming speaker. I also combined the high/low signals and fed that to the Tip and Ring pins on the TRS connector. The Sleeve is Ground as usual. In case anyone is planning to attempt this, make sure you secure the solder points and output connector with hot glue and use shrink tube anywhere cables are soldered together. Good luck.
Why buying a raspberry for 30€ with raspotify playing music at 320kbps HD audio when you can hack an ikea speaker to get a mono audio signal, post processed eq coloured and never-use-againg original speakers, for 100€?
The reason for doing so is that it is compatible with other sonos gear. So you might have a pair of sonos speakers or soundbar in your living room, but you want music in your whole house and sonos is fucking expensive, so instead you cam get cheaper ceiling speakers in all rooms connected with wires to a central amplifier, then use all of them together with the sonos speakers. Another scenario is that you might have sonos in a few rooms but a proper hifi somewhere else, then you can connect that hifi to sonos, sure the audio quality might be less than perfect and you would only get mono (unless you get two). But you can synchronize the sound across the whole house. Both options would let you save a lot of money when you have already bought in to an quite expensive ecosystem. But as you say, if you don’t have any sonos or no plans on getting more than one there is very few reasons to get one instead of a chromecast, raspberry pi, bluetooth speaker or a cheaper connected speaker.
Because I want my cheap legacy soundbar to show up both as a Sonos device and an AirPlay2 device, not sure if your solution does that. And who in their right mind will hack a brand new speaker instead of a used or even damaged one?
Isn't a single symfonisk speaker supposed to be mono in itself? Then the output rca would be a single channel right? I am a little confused on this setup..
Well, for something like my patio where I have 4 Focal outdoor speakers along my house spread out 10ft apart. Mono is ideal as I wouldn't want the listening experience to change based on where Im sitting on the patio or where I'm at in the yard. Set this up and run it to my 2000w crown amp that runs the focal speakers. Now I can simply use the sonos app or echo dot to control them. This also allows me to sync them up with my other sonos setups in the living room, bedroom and garage to have the same music playing seamlessly throughout the house and outside.
yeah i wondered that too, the only way you would be able to get stereo, is doing this to two symfonisk shelve speakers, which is 200 pounds, and at that point the time and effort you have to put in to it, you might as well just get the sonos amp
Great demo, I could not find the Internet article I was looking for that told me how to do this, but I think I’ll be good with your video. Also your reaction when it worked is genuine and amazing, keep it up
the amplifier stage in this application is fixed gain. line level is a can of worms, loudness merely a perception that varies as it pleases and some of the beautiful 'standards we have kicking about a result of a rather enthusiastic 1970's amplifier industry - it quickly gets out of hand compared to steady eddy DC. Sonos process their DSP before the DAC and pass a perfectly formed nugget of fingerlicking signal, so makes sense to sort out user volume request at the same time :) Assume it sits around the 0.3VRMS nominal typical of consumer spec line level. saying that mind, as they're dedicated channels for low / high frequency drivers rather than typical L/R I imagine the plot thickens.
Hi Alex do you have steps to connect fire tv/fire stick to stream on Sonos one speakers , i was thinking its possible with uNpnp config with stb emulator but not sure how to play with it
I don't have any sonos stuff but since you can make a stereo pair of Sonos speakers in the app (IIRC), wouldn't it make more sense to buy 2 Symfonisk speakers (still 200€/£ cheaper), rebuild them into 1 housing if there is enough space and have true stereo sound?
I want to do this to feed my active sub from Sonos Beam 2. If a Symfonisk is joined as a group and the material is say Dolby Digital with discretely encoded bass, does the Beam still output a full range to the grouped speaker?
You can pick up a Sonos Connect on eBay for £60-100, which essentially does the same thing albeit with stereo output and is an official product. Butchering a brand new £89 speaker for mono audio and it took a bunch of soldering work which could have easily damaged the device or caused injury from the high voltage side, seems a bit silly to me. I personally would rather go with the Sonos Connect, but if the diy is your thing, you have a spare speaker lying around or perhaps a broken one, go for it.
But just mono... so you’d have to buy two IKEA speakers. While half the price is still a bit hacky a prone to failure given the tiny workspace on the board.
Way off-topic, but I’m happy to hear (starting at 2:10) that others have also discovered the beauty of Khmer music. It’s weird and beautiful at the same time. S. F. T. - Birds away if you want to check it out. I could also recommend The Cambodia Space Project (that’s the band).
I wouldn’t mind spending £400 on the Sonos amp if it allowed all the house speakers from different rooms to all be powered. Just if you want a full house you have to have multiple amps since they are all just for two sets. Sonos should just make a 2000w one for all the speakers
I saw a symfonisk hack to a „sonos move“ someone put a Batterie inside and the speaker works without powercable up to 8-10hours. Can you also do this and explain how it works in a video ?
So you twisted the wires from the capacitors together combining high/low but then ran essentially a Y cable from that twisted pair to your two RCA jacks? And use the same ground for both? Appreciate the video, helps to make the article make sense!
Ok, you’re clearly a legend, so you must be able to tell me how to do it the other way around…? I want to get the rca output from a turntable to play out of a symfonisk (and I don’t want to fork out for a Sonos Port!)
The PCB hardware inside the Play:1 and the Ikea Symfonisk are identical. The Symfonisk bookshelf speaker is literally one of the last Sonos Play 1 before it was replaced with the One in a different guise. So the same guide should apply without issues.
Well .. couple misconceptions: - what you showed is the Sonos Port, not the Sonos Connect, that is now discontinued. - The Sonos Port and Sonos Connect are stereo. Your ghetto hack is mono. So you'll need 2 of them. That's 198 GBP. - The discontinued Sonos Connect (look out for the Gen2, as it's S2 capable) can be got for around 140-180 GBP second hand, but it requires watching eBay a bit. For those that continue using S1 as they have old Play:5 Gen1 and the likes, that are not S2 capable, there's lots of bargain Sonos Connect to be found as many are upgrading to S2. So, the hack makes sense, if no 2nd hand Sonos Connect Gen 2 can be got, but otherwise not really.
So you wrecked a perfectly good speaker to then settle for mono audio signal with post processed eq. And if you'd like stereo you'll have to spend twice as much, so basically the same price 🤣. Oh good God lol
Wondering this too. But I think he said lo-pass signal which makes me think it's before volume adjustments. I think you need the hi-pass signal to adjust the sound together with the speaker / app.
I'm really confused about what's going on.... He's got something plugged into normal bose speakers - the same ones I own. And controlling the sound/music with a device.... Am I missing something?
@@Midnight_AR no think about it, he's using the ikea bookshelf speaker which contains proprietary Sonos software and making itwork with any speakers. Therefore saving $300 as the IKEA speaker is only $99.
How can I use the speaker only? What do I need to solder in order to use the speaker without wifi? I want to be able to use RCA to use the internal amp
well, your video is nice and you appear really authentic. But I think it's not efficient to buy 2 sonos speaker for 1 stereo system, it's cheaper to by one e.g. music cast (yamaha). BUT, another but with thumbs up: I find it inspiring to create an AUX input to use the speaker as TV - speaker, also usable with elder TVs, using the headphone jack.
I guess, if you didnt want to hardwire to a set of speakers, you could create a wireless group with another Sonos speaker(s) and connect a turntable/vinyl player...
Kinda besides the point to use passive speakers, as that's what you're disconnecting from the unit in the beginning. You could just re-route the cabling for those speakers to some others, but I doubt the amplifier would have enough power to make any decent sized speakers sound good.
I do not get the point, you can get an amplifier with a bluetooth module integrated for less than 50 bucks..... just you wanna use the ikea interface? sad!!
why would you use your own amplifier with the "low out Signal" and not using the Internal Sonos amp? Maybe its possible to get InWall/InCelling Speakers for BiAmping
So Sonos system can play without your phone. You can basically remote control a whole house system and leave and it still runs via WiFi off your Pandora, Spotify, etc. By using this hack you could basically plug in a regular system into that workflow. In my head I'm thinking making a whole wired backyard outdoor speaker system work in conjunction with the rest of a group of wireless Sonos speakers in the house. You can also play diff things on diff speakers.
Alot of the reasons that Alex used are wrong for example using hot glue to secure your solder joints because of vibrations is not right. If you do solder something make sure that the iron is on med/high heat and let the solder flow through the wires before taking the iron off. 👌👍
@@techflow LOL Alex you are either very witty or I think I need to have Newark Fire and rescue sat outside your office or home just in case you set fire to yourself or blow yourself up. I think at 19 it would have been cheaper going down the Sonos in ceiling speaker route, they are apparently rather good. My small cinema room has just been upgraded during lock down with a 2nd hand Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Surround Sound Speaker system, I think that I have got it set up as when watching Top Gun the cat ducks when the planes come towards you.
Dude, I was finding you, but I forgot your youtube channel vlog name. Recently, you keep bumping into my mind. Do u know how I found you this time???? I search "RU-vidr buy Mini Cooper" bammm your on the 1st search video, I didnt know you had another channel than MarzBar, Im gonna watch all your video now.
Lots of good comments and regardless how you look at it, at least he is doing something creative and useful with his time which can lead to other creative and useful ideas. Rather than binging or steaming all day (I'm guilty of that). Aside from the stereo aspect I could see this useful in Alex's situation where you have ceiling mount speakers in areas where stereo separation may be more problematic. Loved the successful effort.