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Examining a choice for Sonos upgrade and wondering about the following set-up in the main living room:-

Arc and Sub-mini for TV AV or possibly Sub if Sub Mini is not a good match for the Arc.

Amp to deliver music to conventional speakers. My question is can a single Sonos sub be made to work (seamlessly) with the Arc when watching TV (80% of use) and then work with music from the Amp when listening to Sonos music (TV switched off).

I see that neither Sonos sub has a wired subwoofer audio input, so I wonder if this is not possible.

I do have a hi-fi style subwoofer which could easily be used with the AMPbut I then end up with two subs in the living room. That is unless the ARC is good enough to be used on it’s own without any additional sub (which seems like a compromise to me).

Thanks as always for the great advice and experience shared here.

A Sonos subwoofer (Sub or Sub Mini) can only be bonded to one Sonos room at a time. So if the Arc and Amp are in two different “rooms”, you can only bond the Sonos subwoofer to either the Arc or the Amp, but not both together. If the Amp is being used as surrounds with the Arc, then the Arc and Amp will be in one room. In this case, the Sonos subwoofer can be used with both the Arc and Amp at the same time.

A Sonos subwoofer (Sub or Sub Mini) can only be bonded to one Sonos room at a time. So if the Arc and Amp are in two different “rooms”, you can only bond the Sonos subwoofer to either the Arc or the Amp, but not both together. If the Amp is being used as surrounds with the Arc, then the Arc and Amp will be in one room. In this case, the Sonos subwoofer can be used with both the Arc and Amp at the same time.

GuitarSuperstar, I have three further questions. 

If both Arc Amp and sub are in the Sonos same room, with the Amp driving conventional front speakers, can the volume of the the Arc and the Sub be controlled separately. Reason being that listening to music through the Amp, I would want to turn down/mute the Arc.

Will the Sonos Sub work with the music being played in this way.

Would the Amp work with a third-party sub?

Thanks in advance, as always.

If both Arc Amp and sub are in the Sonos same room, with the Amp driving conventional front speakers, can the volume of the the Arc and the Sub be controlled separately. Reason being that listening to music through the Amp, I would want to turn down/mute the Arc.


If the Arc, Amp, and Sub are in the same Sonos room, this means the Amp has been bonded to the Arc as surrounds. Therefore the Amp cannot be used to drive “conventional front speakers”. The speakers driven by the Amp need to be used as surround speakers. And in this setup, the volume of the Arc/Sub cannot be controlled separately from the Amp. The Amp is basically a slave to the Arc.
 

Would the Amp work with a third-party sub?


The Amp can work with a third-party subwoofer as long as the Amp isn’t being used as surrounds in a Sonos home theater setup.

 

And that third party subwoofer is self powered. The Sonos Amp has a line level output for an Amp (when it is available, i.e. not in use as driving surround speakers). 

Thank you very much. Veey clear.

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