Best way to deploy new speakers

So little information…

Do you want all the blue speakers as a single Room and playing the same stream? Then a Sonos Port and third-party multichannel amplifier may be the answer.

Tell us what you are looking for so we can give you a usable answer.

I assume the Red objects to represent Arc, sub and Era 300’s as surrounds. 

The Blue objects to be in-ceiling speakers. For that configuration here are my preferred options:

1a. Sonos Amp to power 6 speakers that are Sonos in-ceiling by Sonance. These should be purchased direct from Sonos.

1b. Sonos Amp to power the in-inceiling speakers shown/grouped as 4 as a Room. You can use any brand speaker as long as they are compatible with the Amp.

2b. Sonos Amp to power the 2 in-ceiling speakers shown (just above the home theater) as a room. You can use any brand speaker as long as they are compatible with the Amp.

For Outside…Sonos Amp using Sonos Outdoor speakers by Sonance or 3rd party weather-proof speakers. 

Advavtage to use Sonos In-ceiling speakers by Sonance is that Sonos TruePlay can be applied which is not possible with 3rd party speakers. TruePlay is not possible with Sonos outdoor speakers nor 3rd party speakers.

All rooms (which includes the Arc and outdoor) can be grouped in any combination for music. Grouping is not recommended with TV audio due 75ms delay that may create an echo effect. Although it may be a non-issue with the outdoor speakers as they are isolated from those indoors (thinking play x play audio for a sporting event).

Sorry for the so little information. Would like the Blue Speakers (Ceiling Speakers) Playing as one, but also allows to me connect to the TV Room. Would like to add outside speakers but this will only come on from time to time. 

Thank you AJTrek1

Correct the ones in Red represent Arc, Sub and Era 300.
I would like to be able to play background sound on any one of the Ceiling Speakers if i can, and also group them too. What would be the best option for that? Plus adding the outside speaker to play sound to the rest of the ceiling speakers. 

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense.
 

The positions of the ceiling speaker would you recommended this? What would the measurements be for the best positions. 

Would you be able to build a shopping list for me?

 

A Sonos Amp is designed to power speakers in the following manner:

• Two
• Four
• Six (if using Sonos In-Ceiling Speakers by Sonance)

I’ll let you do the math on the cost of multiple Sonos Amps to drive individual speakers 😋

The speaker arrangements I suggested are the most cost-effective which includes an Amp to drive the Outdoor speakers. Total Sonos Amps required are three (3) reference 1b, 2b and an Amp for the outdoor speakers in my original post.

In Sonos terms each set of speakers powered by a Sonos Amp would be called a “Room”. The term “Room” also applies to your Home Theater consisting of the Arc, Sub and Era 300’s as surrounds. Music can be started in any “Room” after which you can “Group-In” other rooms in any combination you choose. 

Shopping List click here.

I suggest you consult a professional installer for the final layout (i.e. positioning) and installation. You might also quiz the installer about installing “wall mounted” volume adjusters for each room of speakers driven by a Sonos Amp.

Note: Sonos In-ceiling Speakers by Sonance come in 6 inch and 8 inch diameters. The latter of course offering fuller sound.

I hope this helps.

Playing all the ceiling speakers together is easy if you use the Sonos/Sonance speakers sold from the Sonos store. Other speakers will likely not work with six and you'd need a second Sonos Amp.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/ceiling-speaker-pair-eight-inch (6" are also available) 

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/shop/amp

Joining to the soundbar, called Grouping for Sonos is a couple taps in the Controller. There will be a 75 ms delay in the sound when viewing TV but no delay when streaming music.

Getting the ceiling speakers to play individually (but all the same audio) requires adding impedance matching volume controls, might be best to consult a professional installer for that.

A few more points…

• You can only assign a sub to one Sonos Amp at a time. If using multiple Sonos Amps (as in your case) you cannot assign a single sub to multiple Sonos Amps.
• Also a Sub should not be used outdoors as it is not weather rated.
• When deploying four (4) or six (6) speakers powered by a single Sonos Amp it is generally recommended to set the Amp to output mono to each speaker rather than stereo. In that manner regardless of a persons position in the room they will hear all instruments. Simply put they won’t hear a horn that sounds like its out-of-place coming from a speaker distanced from their position. However, you can experiment to get the sound right for your space.

I would prefer stereo for the ceiling speakers. You can alternate left and right, rather than left on one side of the room and right on the other. With the alternating arrangement a person will hear stereo, regardless of their current location even though L/R will alternate as the listener moves around the area.

In-wall Volume controls for each pair of speakers allows adjusting the sound in each area and “Impedance Matching” controls allows additional pairs of speakers to be connected to an amplifier, however, use of these controls will defeat Trueplay for SONOS ceiling speakers.

A subwoofer is shown sitting behind the listener. Due to the physics of sound travel, bass will be best synchronized with sound arriving from the sound bar when the subwoofer is vaguely in the same plane as the sound bar.

You can defer the decision on mono, stereo and stereo channel placement to after the install if you run a speaker cable from each speaker (and possibly volume control) back to the Amp location.

That method has other benefits and can save a lot of digging in walls if you later have a speaker issue.