Solved! OnQ Audio Interface Hub setup question

[jamiewal70]

The house we bought has an OnQ Interface Hub in teh general vicinity of my receiver that is wired to our wiring closet to drive 4 sets of speakers throughout the house (OnQ wall switches for each set of speakers). Today I have a Sonos Connect feeding the OnQ interface. What I would like to do is have 2 inputs feeding the OnQ, 1 being the Sonos Connect and another being the Marantz receiver I have where I could use 1 set of speakers for surround (I already have R/L/C and subwoofer via regular connections). The connection to the Marantz requires speaker wire. So I could buy a Speaker Wire to RCA male adapter. I could also get a couple of Y cable splitters to get my two inputs down to a single input handle that plugs into the OnQ Hub. Will this work? Do I need a speaker selector/switch to protect my amplifier? Any other issues/concerns I need to consider?

 

[americanaudiophile]

I suspect that if you connected the speaker outputs of the Marantz to the OnQ Hub where the Sono is connected directly the hub would be damaged. RCA connectors are used for line level connections except for cheap gear. Don't do it.
You could use a speaker to line level converter to step down the output of the Marantz surround speaker terminals and safely connect it that way but you can't use Y connectors to feed two sources into one input. You would be connecting the sources to each other too which they don't like. You would need a line level input selector or you could connect the speaker to line level converter into the analog audio input of the Sonos Connect.
I think it would be rather awkward to switch between sources and the levels would have to be set to get the surround speakers playing at the right volume. Not the best way to solve your problem.
What you really need is an amp selector that could be connected directly to the speakers themselves like this one
https/avprosupply.com/SPK-1-by-Niles-Speaker-Level-A-B-Switcher-12V-Triggered.html
Most Marantz AVRs have a 12v trigger that could be used to automate the way the speakers are used. There are switches that don't require a 12v trigger like this one
https/www.amazon.com/Russound-AB32-Automatic-A-Selector/dp/B000F239MY/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_23_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CPY130XJ57GQ2H63JW34
but if you use it on rear channels that don't have content for long periods the selector will switch to the Sonos while you are using the Marantz sometimes.

 

[jamiewal70]

Thanks for the reply. Will something like this work as the adapter going from speaker wire to RCA http/? Also, if I were willing to manually switch, would this work http/?