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Does a speaker wire to RJ45 adapter exist?

Posted on 8/5/24 at 9:46 pm
Posted by bluebarracuda
Member since Oct 2011
18826 posts
Posted on 8/5/24 at 9:46 pm
I'm looking to add some old Sonos ZP100's to my rack to have a cheap home audio solution in Home Assistant.

I've already got some speakers ran, but I was wondering if I can plug the speaker wire into a device that then will let me run it over layer 2.

Basically looking for something that can go speaker wire>Ethernet adapter receiver>access switch>core switch>Ethernet adapter transmitter>Sonos ZP100 (the ordering is pretty much backwards to its actual deployment). I just like having everything going into my access layer switches to avoid multiple cables going into my rack/core switch
Posted by Hopeful Doc
Member since Sep 2010
15388 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 12:32 am to
There does seem to be RJ45–>banana plug commercially available.
I would think that you could easily use this (and the quality may even be fine for general multi room-type listening. I mean, I wouldn’t do it. But if I were hell-bent on the idea of it, I could imagine it passed a usable signal that may not be terribly distorted or full of interference), to go speaker—>this adapter—> rj45 in the wall—> Ethernet—> other rj45 end—> this adapter again—-> Sonos zone player.

The added complexity of the switches makes the concept essentially impossible from what I understand. You can’t pass an analog audio signal through a switch and out the other end without something going wrong. At some point, as I am understanding your setup, you’ll have it sharing a wire with actual networking equipment. An analog audio signal can’t be managed by a VLAN, and I would imagine both sets of equipment (audio and networking) would perform poorly at best.
quote:

I just like having everything going into my access layer switches to avoid multiple cables going into my rack/core switch


Easy. Just because you have a zone player doesn’t mean it has to be in the rack. Move the ZP to the zone you actually want it in and connect the speakers to it there. It’ll happily act as an rj45 to speaker adapter/amplifier/DAC/source.
Posted by Lonnie Utah
Utah!
Member since Jul 2012
28855 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 7:05 am to
So from a pure physics point of view, it seems like a REALLY bad idea to run speaker signal over 26 AWG in a ethernet cable. You won't be able to get any decent power output over any distance with that gauge wire.

Maybe I'm missing something. Is this going to a separate amplifier?
Posted by Hopeful Doc
Member since Sep 2010
15388 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 7:33 am to
quote:

You won't be able to get any decent power output over any distance with that gauge wire.



802.3bt standard allows for 90-100w of DC power over 100m (48V, 2a, I believe it uses all 8 wires, so it’s very near the theoretical max).

It’s a poor choice for speaker wire for several dozen reasons.
Posted by bluebarracuda
Member since Oct 2011
18826 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 7:40 am to
quote:

It’s a poor choice for speaker wire for several dozen reasons


When I said whole home audio solution, it's to power some cheap Amazon in-ceiling speakers that are primarily used for alarm and door chimes, but they can also act as basic music speakers if needed.

Currently, I have the speaker wires run to two cheapo amps from Amazon that work fine, and I have all of my HA automations pushed to a Google Chromecast Audio connected to them. There are a few annoyances with the Chromecast Audio's that could be fixed by these Sonos Zone Players, I suspect
Posted by Korkstand
Member since Nov 2003
28991 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 8:04 am to
This won't help you, but you've reminded me about a project of mine that I did during covid summer. I tried to build a DIY Sonos type system, and it mostly worked! The problem I ran into was surround sound, Dolby has that shite locked down so you can't just DIY that part. So being limited to stereo I kind of gave up on it, but it worked like so:

I connected a Raspberry Pi via aux audio cable to my TV. I put a HiFiBerry amp HAT on the Pi, wired up a couple shelf speakers, and piped the audio to them. Easy enough, DIY amp and speakers.

But then...

At the same time I had the Pi running gstreamer to send the audio out onto the network. At that point, any device on my network with gstreamer installed could listen to the stream and do whatever it wanted with it. So another Pi with another amp HAT could pick it up and drive more speakers elsewhere around the house. It's pretty frickin' cool. But, again, limited to stereo I dropped the project.

I did a lot of searching, but I never did find a device that could decode dolby surround in a way that I could intercept it and manipulate the channels how I wanted. If anyone can help me out here I would be forever grateful.
Posted by Lonnie Utah
Utah!
Member since Jul 2012
28855 posts
Posted on 8/6/24 at 8:18 am to
quote:

I believe it uses all 8 wires, so it’s very near the theoretical max


Well that, at least, make sense.
Posted by Hopeful Doc
Member since Sep 2010
15388 posts
Posted on 8/7/24 at 10:16 am to
quote:

Currently, I have the speaker wires run to two cheapo amps from Amazon that work fine



Can you explain why you can’t just replace the cheapo amps with two ZP100s at the location the amps currently are other than the desire to keep all equipment central? Again, they are perfect RJ45–> speaker adapters if you think about them.
Posted by bluebarracuda
Member since Oct 2011
18826 posts
Posted on 8/7/24 at 11:24 am to
Those are mounted on the wall with my access switch. The ZP100s are way too big and don't have good mounting points

But I'm planning on just going the ugly route and running the cables directly to my rack
This post was edited on 8/7/24 at 11:25 am
Posted by notsince98
KC, MO
Member since Oct 2012
19956 posts
Posted on 8/7/24 at 12:31 pm to
Running analog, powered signal through a network switch? Never seen a troll like this before.
Posted by dakarx
Member since Sep 2018
7822 posts
Posted on 8/7/24 at 6:07 pm to
quote:

Running analog, powered signal through a network switch? Never seen a troll like this before.


Going to let all of the magic smoke out. Take video !

Posted by skrayper
21-0 Asterisk Drive
Member since Nov 2012
33083 posts
Posted on 8/9/24 at 1:55 pm to
Here's what you do:

Convert the RCA output to HDMI output
Convert HDMI output to ethernet and back again
Convert the HDMI to RCA
Convert RCA to speaker

AV to HDMI

HDMI to Ethernet and return

HDMI to RCA adapter

RCA to Speaker Wire


And the couplers:

RCA Couplers

Is this convoluted as frick?

YES!
Posted by bluebarracuda
Member since Oct 2011
18826 posts
Posted on 8/9/24 at 2:32 pm to
I'm going to ditch my OCD and run everything directly to my rack... Just bought a ZP100 and ZP80 (connected to the cheap amazon amp) to run my indoor and outdoor speakers
This post was edited on 8/9/24 at 2:52 pm
Posted by bluebarracuda
Member since Oct 2011
18826 posts
Posted on 8/14/24 at 7:54 am to
Did not realize how chonky this ZP100 was. Good thing I didn't get 2 because the ZP100 and ZP80 fit perfectly side by side in a rack
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