New Renovation Setup plan

  • 24 March 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 1062 views

Hi,

I’m renovating my place and looking to install sonos in wall and in ceiling speakers throughout. This is the first time I’ve done this. I’ve attached a plan of what I’d like to do, looking for any tips, ideas or suggestions.

Each different color goes to a different Sonos Amp. The brown lines in the Office and Living room would be where TVs go, each connected to a Play Bar (or Beam). 

The idea is that someone in the office should be able to watch something on the office TV, using the speakers in the office, while at the same time that someone in the living room is watching TV using the living room speakers in 5.1 surround sound (there will be an extra set of back speakers in the bedroom).  

The red speakers would be used to play music throughout the unit.

All amps and play bars will be hardwired via Ethernet connection.

Does this setup make sense?

Any comments, suggestions, words of caution?

Is there a major different between the play bar and the beam?

 


This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

6 replies

Hello @kazvictor. Welcome to the Community. I understand that you need some guidance on setting up your Speakers. The one thing I am noticing is that you intend to have six speakers wired to your Sonos Amp. In order to this, you would need to have Sonance architectural speakers, as they are designed to work with our Amp. Any other speaker would cause the Amp to fault. You can purchase them here.

If you do not have Sonance architectural speakers, then you are limited to a maximum of 4 speakers rated at 8 ohms per Sonos Amp. You can find more information by reading our article on the topic here.  

@Richard F.  Thanks for your reply. I am planning on using the Sonance architectural speakers. There will be 4 in-wall speakers and 10 ceiling speakers.

Excellent. Other then that, I saw no problem with what you were trying to do. Do you already have a Playbar, or a Beam? I ask, because the Amp can connect to your TV via HDMI ARC, and act as a home theater speaker. So, you could have one Amp acting as front channels, and then bond a second Amp to act as surrounds. 

I was just about to mention the point Richard made, and some others.

 

Starting with the office, the in wall speakers and a beam/playbar are pretty redundant for that room.  If you want the in wall speakers, there isn’t really anything gained with a soundbar.  Or you could go with a soundbar only, which will be great for TV and still sound very good for music as well.

 

For the red speakers, I see that you intend to have a stereo pair in the dining, and another pair in the kitchen/bar area.  All that is fine.  However, you have a single speaker in each of the two bathrooms.  You can’t have some your speakers be a stereo pair and others be mono, running off the same amp.  You could set that amp to run in mono mode, but they you won’t be getting the best sound quality in the kitchen and dining areas, and should probably place them in different location.  Or you could split that zone into 2 zones… a separate zone for the bathrooms (either in mono or a single stereo ceiling speaker) .  You’d have the added benefit of better volume control, since you can only set one volume for each zone.

 

For the green speakers, starting in the living room, you don’t want to place ceiling speakers toward the front.  The surround channels should only becoming from behind the seating area.  As for putting two more surround speakers in the bedroom, I don’t think you’re going to happy with that.  It means that whenever the TV is on, you’ll be getting the surround audio in your bedroom.  When listening to music, you would need to set the zone to ‘full stereo’ so the surround channels play in stereo, and as mentioned above, you’ll have no volume control between the living room and bedroom.  In my opinion, a separate amp for the bedroom is wise.  And I would then place the speakers on the opposite wall or more centered in the room.

So yes, I’m suggesting going with 2 more amps in total.  If budget is an issue, you  can go with cheaper ceiling speakers since you wouldn’t need to run 6 speakers off a single amp.  Or you could use Sonos Ones or other speakers instead of ceiling speakers for some of the locations.

 

 

Thanks for the great feedback. I’ll remove the in-wall speakers in the guest bedroom and stick to just a sound bar. As for the rest see an updated plan:

The red speakers in the dining/kitchen/bar area would be 3 sets of stereo pairs. 

The green speakers in the living room would be a front left/right pair while the purple speaks would be a rear left/right pair for surround sound. 

There would be a separate stereo pair in the master bedroom.

Questions:

  • When watching TV/movies in the living room it would be great to have the play bar, play base, green and purple speakers act as 5.1 surround sound group. However, when I switch to music would the green and purple speaks still be in surround sound configuration rather than full stereo?
  • Are there instructions on how to configure 5.1 surround sound with 2 amps, a play bar and a sub? I’v tried looking but can’t find anything. 
  • Any suggestions on two bathroom speakers? I’d like to do built ins and be able to independently control the volume in each bathroom, but it seems silly to get a separate amp for each bathroom. I could wall mount a play 1 in each bathroom, but that doesn’t look as clean,

 

 

Questions:

  • When watching TV/movies in the living room it would be great to have the play bar, play base, green and purple speakers act as 5.1 surround sound group. However, when I switch to music would the green and purple speaks still be in surround sound configuration rather than full stereo?

 

A few thins wrong with this.  The playbar/playbase/beam will play all 3 front channels, left-center-right.  The Amp is also capable of playing left and right front speakers with a phantom center channel.  But you cannot have an amp for front channels (green) as well as a playbar/playbase/beam.   So if you use a playbar for example, that’s the 3 front channels, your purple speakers are the rear channels to complete all 5.  Add a sub for the “.1” .(You could lose the playbar/playbase beam and use your green speakers for the front channels, but you would want to do in wall speakers if you do that, and the amp needs to be connected to the TV).

When it comes to music playback, you have the option of the music coming from the front channels only, or from the front and rear channels, also known as ‘full stereo’.  Technically, you could setup your green speakers as a separate Sonos room than your 5.1 setup, group them, to have the playbar, green, and purple speakers playing together...but that’s really more than you need for that space.

 

  • Are there instructions on how to configure 5.1 surround sound with 2 amps, a play bar and a sub? I’v tried looking but can’t find anything. 

Right, because it can’t be configured that way.

  • Any suggestions on two bathroom speakers? I’d like to do built ins and be able to independently control the volume in each bathroom, but it seems silly to get a separate amp for each bathroom. I could wall mount a play 1 in each bathroom, but that doesn’t look as clean,

 

You can get a speaker switch with volume control to run off one amp, but that would be a manual control, not through the Sonos app.  And of course, you wouldn’t be able to play different audio streams.  I have a pair of Sonos Ones in my ensuite and one in my other bath.  It would look a little better if they were ceiling installed, but I also get voice control...and alot cheaper.