How to connect your turntable to your Sonos

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 16 June 2020

I love vinyl. There's a certain magic in watching a needle turn tiny grooves into sound. The ritual of listening to an album in full. Flipping the album halfway through. Swapping to the second LP. It's a considered listening experience, almost the polar opposite to just hitting shuffle on Spotify. Yep, I'm a wanker.

But as much as I enjoy an old school approach to music, I'm not willing to forgo the latest tech. I'm a little in love with Sonos' wireless speakers, because having sound in every room of my apartment means I don't have to deal with my own thoughts.

Fortunately, there's a way to have the best of both worlds. While Sonos speakers are ostensibly designed for a modern era with access to almost every streaming service under the sun, it's also possible to have the best of both worlds. With the right hardware setup, you can bring your trusty old turntable into the Sonos ecosystem and listening to that record spin in every single room of your house, at once.

Any turntable should work with the Sonos ecosystem, but only select Sonos devices have the capacity to take input from a turntable. Without turning to the second hand market, your choices are the Sonos Five or the Sonos Port.

Sonos Five

The simplest way to get your turntable connected your Sonos ecosystem is with a Sonos Five. The Sonos Five, as well as the first generation and second generation Play:5s have a line-in port, which you can connect your turntable via. In most cases, you'll be using an RCA-to-3.5mm cable to make the connection (also known as a Y cable). If your turntable has a built in RCA cable, you can use a RCA-to-3.5mm adapter.

If your turntable doesn't have an integrated preamp, you'll need to connect your phono preamp's output to your Five instead.

Once your turntable is connected to your Port, follow these steps after you have a record spinning:

Open the Sonos app
Go to Browse (or select a Music Source if you're on a PC or Mac)
Choose Line-In
Select your Sonos Five or Sonos Play:5

The Five and Play:5 are the only Sonos speaker with a line-in port, but it's also one of the priciest devices in the family. A new Sonos Five will set you back $749. It is, however, an excellent speaker.

The Sonos is probably the best option for those wanting to bring a turntable into the Sonos ecosystem. It's pricey, $150 more expensive than the Sonos Port - which we'll go over shortly - but the Five is also a speaker, while the Port is essentially just a connection box.

The second-generation Play:5 was recently replaced by the Sonos Five, and may still be in stores. In some cases, you might be able to save around $100 by opting for the Play:5 instead of the Five.

The first generation Play:5 also has line-in, but it's no longer available. However, if you want to save a bit of cash, you could always suss out a second-hand model on eBay. It is however worth noting that Sonos has essentially ended support for the original Play:5. It will continue to receive security updates, but it can't be upgraded to the latest version of the Sonos operating system.

This makes the original Play:5 incompatible with newer Sonos devices such as the Arc and the Five, as well as any older speaker you've already upgraded the software on.

Sonos Port

The Port is the other simple option for connecting your turntable to your Sonos ecosystem. It's more flexible than a Play:5, but at the same time, it's not a speaker. In short, the Port is essentially a black box than can connect everything and anything to your Sonos system. You can bring in audio from a source like a turntable, or if you can send audio out to speakers that you already own.

To get your turntable wired into your Port, you'll need to connect your RCA cable to the jacks marked "input" on the back. If your turntable doesn't have an integrated preamp, you'll need to connect your phono preamp's output to your Port instead.

Once your turntable is connected to your Port, follow these steps after you have a record spinning:

Open the Sonos app
Go to Browse (or select a Music Source if you're on a PC or Mac)
Choose Line-In
Select your Sonos Port

At the same time, the Port is quite an expensive purchase, coming it at $599. In short, it's best if you've already got a set of high-end speakers that you love (and want to make a little smarter via Sonos integration). Otherwise, for just a little bit more, the Sonos Five gives you turntable connectivity AND a high-end speaker in the same package.

Other tips and tricks

Depending on your setup, there are a few settings you can tweak for a better Sonos vinyl experience.

If you're getting audio interference because you've got patchy WiFi, too many Sonos speakers on your network, or another factor affecting playback quality, you may need to adjust the compression settings in the Sonos app.

To do so, open the Sonos app on iOS or Android and follow these steps:

Tap Settings
Tap System
Scroll down and tap Audio Compression
Select Compressed

You can also use enable settings such as autoplay, which will make a selected Sonos automatically crank whatever record you've got playing as soon as you start playing. If you don't enable autoplay, you'll need to manually go through the process of sending your line-in audio to your speaker of choice.

To enable autoplay, follow these steps on the Sonos app on iOS or Android:

Tap Settings
Tap System
Tap on your Play:5, Five, or Port - whichever has your turntable connected to it
Tap Autoplay
Tap Autoplay Room and select what device you want to autoplay to

This menu pane also lets you decide whether you want to include grouped rooms, and set an autoplay volume level if your turntable is a little quiet.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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