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Building a new house (layout below). and need to make some decisions.  75-85” TV will go in family room and I was planning on getting a Arc, sub and ceiling speakers will be placed behind sofa for surround sound.  I know I will need an Amp for this.  I also want to place kitchen ceiling speakers so when I am in the kitchen, I can play the tv sound without having it blast through the entire open floor plan.  These speakers will play music occasionally but won’t need to play audio from the tv most of the time.  

I will also have speakers in the patio for music.  That will be a third amp I will need. 

This seems like a very expensive setup and I’m not an audiophile but with building a new house, I do want flexibility and don’t want to have regrets. 

 

Here are my questions:

 

  1.  For Family Room, shall I consider the Arc or in wall front architectural  speakers?
  2. I assume I’ll need a separate Amp for the kitchen ceiling speakers since it’s will be a different zone?  
  3. How easy will it be to turn off and on those kitchen ceiling speakers when watching tv?  Will I need to go each time in the app and turn them on?
  4. Shall I consider Play 1’s on kitchen counter instead?  Would be a lot cheaper but not as clean looking obviously.

 

 

 

1. Go with the Arc so you have the option to enjoy Dolby Atmos audio. Just be sure to get a TV equipped with HDMI eARC.

Two in-wall speakers connected to an Amp will be limited to only Dolby Digital audio and you won’t have a dedicated center channel speaker. This option would also add the cost of a fourth Amp to your Sonos ecosystem.

2. Yes, you will need a separate Amp for the kitchen speakers.

3. It’s pretty simple to group and ungroup speakers in the Sonos app. You can even save groups to speed up the grouping process.

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3391?language=en_US

4. Sonos Ones could work in the kitchen too but in-ceiling speakers are clean and classy. You might also consider using a Sonos Move in the kitchen so you have the option of portability.

Thanks!  I forgot to ask if there is a way to integrate Siri with Sonos so I can have my voice assistant play through my speakers?

Wondering if there is a hardware button to enable and disable Sonos for my kitchen speakers easily without having to open the app each time?

Here is how to use Siri with Sonos:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4702?language=en_US

If you use an iPhone, you can download the Soro app which works with Apple’s Shortcuts to create automations, routines, and shortcuts with Sonos speakers. With Soro you could create an automation that quickly groups or ungroups your speakers with a simple tap on the phone or by using Siri.

Sonos also has an “Ungroup on Autoplay” feature that will automatically ungroup the kitchen zone from the family room zone anytime you start playing TV audio after playing music from grouped speakers.

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