Combined kitchen/living room plan

Thanks all.

Ajtrek and melvimbe, if you’re both saying that ceiling alone may be odd and TV sound needs to be rooted perhaps we should go with the plan for a playbar or beam with connect:amp/4 living room ceiling speakers and connect:amp/2 kitchen speakers.

If we go this route does anyone think there be any delay for the ceiling speakers used for surround for TV?

Thanks all.

Ajtrek and melvimbe, if you’re both saying that ceiling alone may be odd and TV sound needs to be rooted perhaps we should go with the plan for a playbar or beam with connect:amp/4 living room ceiling speakers and connect:amp/2 kitchen speakers.

If we go this route does anyone think there be any delay for the ceiling speakers used for surround for TV?

If your ceiling speakers are setup as surround sound, there will be no delay. Surround sound should be coming from behind you (or at least above) so I would not plan on using ceiling speakers towards the front of the living room as surround sound.. Also, you can't setup 2 connect:amps (or 2 new Sonos Amps) as surround sound. Only 1.

I still think having 6 overhead speakers plus a playbar is overkill, but if you really want to have 6 ceiling speakers, here's an idea. Use a Sonos amp (or connect:amp) to run front living room ceiling speakers and the kitchen speakers. This will be zone 1 and will only be used for music sources. Setup a playbar for the tv and sonos amp/connect:amp to power the back living room (middle of the joint room) for surround sound. This will be zone 2 and can be used for TV and music sources. You can play the two zones together for music if you wish, but for TV, you'll get an echo.

Again, I have a room similar in size to yours that I run with a playbar, 2 play:3s and a sub, and am quite happy with it.

Okay thanks. This sounds like a good solution. To be sure, can the connect:amp with surround 2 speakers be placed in the closer and receive signal wirelessly from the playbar or beam?

Okay thanks. This sounds like a good solution. To be sure, can the connect:amp with surround 2 speakers be placed in the closer and receive signal wirelessly from the playbar or beam?

No, it cannot. The Sonos Amp can be used as surround wirelessly like that, but not the connect:amp.

For more info about using the connect:amp, see this article

There is a tendency to assume that 5.1 is better than 4.1. (five must be better than four, right?)

With respect to using a center channel speaker or not: It depends on the situation. If the left-right speakers are very close to the TV, 4.1 is fine and a center channel speaker is redundant. (Here I'm assuming that the surround processor properly re-distributes the center channel information) If the left-right speakers are widely spaced and "image" poorly, there will be a "hole in the center" that a center channel can fill. It is very important that the speakers across the front have matching timbre -- otherwise an actor walking across the sound stage will suffer a voice change as they move from speaker to speaker. Matching timber can be difficult if you want to use an older, existing pair of speakers along with a newly purchased center speaker. It is unlikely that the new speaker will exactly match the timbre of the old speakers. In this case, in my opinion, 4.1 is a better choice.

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I'm not keen on using ceiling speakers for the left-right because they are not framing the TV. To me the situation seems disjointed. Plus, sound from the tweeters tends to be directed toward the floor, not the listeners. Ceiling speakers are OK for surround. A consideration for the surround speakers is that they not be too close to the listening position. Otherwise, small changes in the listener's position will be very significant. In really bad situations one surround speaker will dominate and the other will be insignificant. If you are watching a movie with a partner, one of you will hear the left surround while the other will hear only the right surround.

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In a kitchen, placing speakers near the noise source is a good plan. In any case they should bracket the area where most time is spent. A second pair of speakers near a seating area can be helpful. Always provide a mechanism to balance the levels between the speakers.

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Long HDMI cables can result in video problems, however, in this case all we need is the audio.

Thanks very much to all. We are going to go with a Beam or Soundbar for a center channel speaker with ceiling speakers for surround following the recs from buzz and others regarding position.

Prior to running the ceiling speaker wire to a closet that is at a fair distance from the TV, to be sure, does anyone know if the Sonos Amp will accept signal wirelessly from the Beam or Soundbar without any noticeable delays? Also, if we have a second Sonos Connect:Amp in the same closet powering the kitchen ceiling speakers will this be able to run off wifi as well? Thanks again.

Thanks very much to all. We are going to go with a Beam or Soundbar for a center channel speaker with ceiling speakers for surround following the recs from buzz and others regarding position.

Prior to running the ceiling speaker wire to a closet that is at a fair distance from the TV, to be sure, does anyone know if the Sonos Amp will accept signal wirelessly from the Beam or Soundbar without any noticeable delays?


If the Sonos Amp is used for surround sound, there will be no noticeable delays. If it setup as a different room, then it will be in sync for music sources, but not for TV audio.


Also, if we have a second Sonos Connect:Amp in the same closet powering the kitchen ceiling speakers will this be able to run off wifi as well? Thanks again.

Yes, it can run off wifi without issue. This would need to be setup as separate room, since you already have your Sonos Amp as surrounds, and therefore will be in synch for music sources, but not for TV sources.

maki,

If you are using a CONNECT:AMP for surround, it must be wired to the network.

Thanks all. If we get a 4K Samsung TV, does everyone think a Beam or Soundbar are needed? I've heard the sounds from these units are pretty good. If we used the TV audio as the anchor I'm assuming we could use the Sonos Amp with ceiling speakers as surround?

I'm not a fan of the beam by itself but if you add surrounds to it then it is the way to go. I'm a fan of the Beam HDMI connection over the sonically better playbar (that has optical input instead).