How to Add a Turntable to Your Sonos System

Turntables and Sonos Systems

With more people buying turntables today than they have in decades, many of our customers want to integrate them into their Sonos system. Luckily, connecting a turntable to Sonos is relatively simple, depending on which Sonos components you have.

Before we start, it’s important to mention that none of the Sonos speakers or components have a phono preamp. This means that you will need to either purchase a turntable that has a built-in phono preamp, or purchase a separate phono preamp to put in between your turntable and your Sonos.

To connect your Sonos to your turntable, you will first need a Sonos piece that accepts a line-level input from your phono preamp. These include the Sonos Amp, Port, Sonos CONNECT, CONNECT:AMP, and Sonos Five.

Using the Sonos Amp

On the back of the Amp you’ll see a pair of RCA connections labeled “In”.

Simply plug your audio cables from your phono preamp or turntable with a built-in phono preamp into those connections. It’s that simple.

Using the Sonos Port

On the back of the Port you’ll see a pair of RCA connections labeled “In”.

Simply plug your audio cables from your phono preamp or turntable with a built-in phono preamp into those connections. It’s that simple.

Using the Sonos CONNECT or CONNECT:AMP

On the back of the CONNECT and CONNECT:AMP there are left and right audio jacks labeled “analog audio”.  The CONNECT has two sets, one labeled “out” and one labeled “in.”

Simply plug your audio cables from your phono preamp or turntable with a built-in phono preamp into the ones labeled “in”.

Using the Sonos Five

If you have a Five, it has a mini plug input with a symbol underneath that looks like a circle with a horizontal line through it. There are only two mini-plug jacks on the back of a Five, and the other has the symbol of a headphone. Do not use the headphone jack; use the other.

For the Five’s mini-jack, you will need a 3.5mm mini plug to RCA adapter to change your two audio cables coming from your turntable or phono preamp into a single mini-jack.

Setting it Up in the Sonos App

Once you have the cable plugged into the back of your Sonos component, you will need to tell your Sonos system that you have set things up. Start by opening the Sonos app.

• On the bottom right, hit the “More” button that has three little dots above it.  This will bring up a menu where you will see a “Settings” button at the bottom.
• Follow that button and locate “Room Settings,”  where you will see all of your Sonos rooms.
• Click on the room with your connected turntable. There you will see “Line-In”. In clicking this, you will see three choices; the first is “Line-In Source Name”. Choose this and name your turntable.  You could use Vinyl, Records, Turntable, Phono, etc. Then click on “Line-In Source Level” and select “Level 2 (A/V Component)”.
• Finally, if you would like Sonos to autoplay when you start playing a record, choose the Autoplay Room option and pick the rooms you want to come on automatically.

The great part about integrating Sonos with your turntable, is that once you have it connected to your Sonos system, you will have the ability to hear it in any room in your home. Simply click on the “Browse” button at the bottom of the Sonos app, scroll down to the bottom, and click “Line-In”.  From there, click the name you chose for your turntable and you’ll have your vinyl playing on your Sonos system.

While this may read like a lot of steps, it should actually only take you a few minutes to get everything up and running to enjoy the great sounds of vinyl throughout your home.

Advanced Setup

You may have a separate audio system along with a Sonos system.   If this is the case, your turntable is already connected up to some sort of amplifier or receiver.    There is still a way to use your turntable with Sonos if your amp or receiver has the option for either Tape Out or Zone 2 Out.   For most people, is it easiest to put a Sonos Port at their main audio system. You’ll have the advantage of streaming music going into your audio system, plus you’ll be able to get your turntable out to the rest of the Sonos components in your home.

You’ll need to run an audio cable from the Tape Outputs or Zone 2 Outputs into the Analog In on the Port.   If you are using Zone 2, make sure and go into the receiver settings and make the audio level of Zone 2 “fixed”.   After that, select Zone 2 or Tape Out to be your phono input on your receiver or amp and you will be good to go!

We hope this helps you get the most out of your Sonos system.   If you have another brand of streaming music system and it has a line-level audio input, the same principles apply.