Introduction

All we know that the Sonos devices usually have very few audio output ports. In the case of the Sonos Playbase it's only 1 (Optical). 😅

In my free time I like DJing and I always wanted to utilize my Sonos speakers, but the Sono's ports were the bottleneck in my setup preventing me to connect my Pioneer DDJ-RR Controller to it.

Pioneer DDJ-RR

The Pioneer DDJ-RR has the following audio output ports:

• 2 x MASTER (XLR, RCA)
• 1 x BOOTH (1/4 inch TRS Jack)
• 2 x HEADPHONE MONITOR (1/4 inch Jack, mini-jack)

To keep things simple and the cost as low as possible, I decided to use the MASTER RCA Output to connect it to my Sonos Playbase.

Solution

To connect the Pioneer DDJ-RR to the Sonos Playbase we will need the following parts:

• 1 x Typical RCA cable like this one
• 1 x AMANKA Analogue to Digital Audio Converter from Amazon. An alternative from Thomann you can find here.

Connect the one end of the RCA cable to the MASTER RCA output of the DDJ-RR and the other end to the Input of the Analogue Digital Converter.

Set the MASTER RCA as Output in your Pioneer DDJ-RR software, in my case Pioneer DJ Rekordbox. Enjoy mixing having as output your Sonos speakers!

Hint: There is some slight delay (around 35ms) between the monitor output (headphones) and the master output (Sonos Playbase). This is intentionally there from Sonos to allow the surround speakers to sync. Even when there are no surround speakers connected! 😄

Result

You can now use your Sonos System as an output for your DJ Sets and pre-CUE using your headphones. To make the experience even better, group more speakers with the main speaker (Sonos Playbase in my case) in the Sonos App and this way everyone in the apartment can enjoy your mix!

Bonus

To avoid disconnecting / connecting the optical cable from the Sonos Playbase, you can buy an optical splitter.

I bought mine from Amazon. This way you can have both your TV and your DJ Controller permanently connected and switch the output via a remote control.